[2] The station is owned and operated by iHeartMedia and has studios and offices on Utica Avenue South in St. Louis Park.

KTCZ has an auxiliary transmitter with an effective radiated power (ERP) of 40,000 watts located at the IDS Center in Downtown Minneapolis.

In 1949, WTCN-TV was launched on channel 4 with studios at Radio City Theater at 9th Street and LaSalle Avenue in downtown Minneapolis.

Midwest changed the call letters to match its newly acquired WCCO, while WTCN-TV was sold to the Minnesota Television Service Corporation headed by St. Paul businessman Robert Butler, a former ambassador to Cuba and Australia.

[6] Tedesco and his two brothers were inducted into the Pavek Museum of Radio Hall of Fame Archived June 21, 2009, at the Wayback Machine in 2005.

In the early 1980s, KTCR-FM was a struggling country music station, and was up against aggressive competition during this time, most notably from KEEY-FM.

On February 8, 1984, after Tedesco decided to sell his stations to John and Kathleen Parker, KTCR-FM dropped the country format and became KTCZ, "Cities 97" with a mix of progressive rock, alternative rock, jazz and new-age music, an approach similar to stations such as WXRT in Chicago and KBCO in Denver.

KTCZ's other influences reach back even further, to progressive FM rock stations from the 1960s and 1970s, particularly the freeform days of KQRS-FM.

Later, KTCZ's transmitter was moved to the KMSP-TV tower in Shoreview, from where most of the other Twin Cities FM stations transmit.

On August 20, 2018, at 12 p.m., after promoting a "major announcement" through the prior weekend, the station rebranded slightly to "Cities 97.1", re-adjusting its format to play more songs from its longtime adult album alternative format, adding music from artists like Leon Bridges and Amy Shark, and reducing the number of hot AC recurrents.

[11] On April 25, 2006, Clear Channel Communications announced that KTCZ's HD2 subchannel would broadcast "Studio HD," featuring original acoustic rock and chill music.

[14][15] Studio C is a room located at the radio station, with equipment used to record bands and singers, as well as chairs to accommodate a small audience.