Chuck Knapp

Inducted 2008

Chuck Knapp, the talented Twin Cities morning show icon and Program Director, started out in radio in his hometown of Fergus Falls in 1964, and went on to broadcasting success around the country at such legendary stations as WLS Chicago, WFIL Philadelphia, WRKO Boston, and KS95 Minneapolis/St. Paul.

The Knapper’s radio career spans five decades and includes six different radio formats, including rock, A/C, MOR, news/talk, country, and Christian. In Minnesota he anchored Knapp & Bush on KSTP AM in the 1970s; Knapp & Donuts on KS95 FM, America’s highest-rated major market FM station, in the 1980s and ‘90s; and Knapper & The Pastor on KTIS FM from 1998 to 2006. As program director at KS95 he guided its transition from automation to live, forever changing the face of Twin Cities radio. During his 15-year run, he managed, consulted, emceed the launch of DARE, broadcast live from a T-38 jet flying at 700 mph, helped raise $91,000 for the Minnesota Food Bank Network, and was executive producer for the Vikings Radio Network. In 2005 he helped take noncommercial KTIS FM all the way to No. 2 in the morning drive ratings, and raised a national record $5 million in just three days in the station’s listener-supported Share-a-thon.