A more local B96?

Twin Cities R&B/hip-hop station B96 (KTTB 96.3 FM) has been under new, local ownership since September 1, having passed from Washington, D.C.'s Radio One to a new company called Northern Lights Broadcasting, LLC. The business is run by veteran local broadcaster Steve Woodbury, and owned by the Pohlad family (who also own the Twins). "It's just an investment to them," says Woodbury. "They don't look at it in terms of whether they like the format or not."

It's been well publicized already that the format won't change at B96, but we were wondering if the station might not be more open to local music under local ownership. "You gotta be kind of careful, because if you play a lot of unfamiliar music, people aren't going to listen to you," says Woodbury. "But there's things that I can do locally that I probably couldn't do with a national group, because I don't have to go to corporate and have them analyze it. I can't go into specifics, but there's things we're going to be doing that I know Radio One would not have been inclined to let us do."