List of Group W Minnesota Cable channels (Anoka, October 1985)

Parent Page: List of Retro Cable lineups in the United States

Group W Cable customers in Andover, Anoka, Champlin and Ramsay, Minnesota had to 38 channels in October of 1985. At the time, its then-parent company, Westinghouse Broadcasting (now part of Paramount Global) was in the process of selling its cable television systems to various companies. Today, Comcast through Xfinity handles all cable television installations and services in all of these areas as well as most (if NOT all) of the Twin Cities area.

Legend

• CALL — The call letters of an over-the-air television station in bold text.
• CABLE — Cable channels in regular text.
•  ##  — Over-the-air channel number for stations within the Twin Cities television market, according to current laws by the FCC and mapping of markets by Nielsen Media Research. Also, some stations may service areas outside of the television market as well.
•  ##  — Over-the-air channel number for distant out-of-market stations, including regional and national "superstations", according to current laws by the FCC and mapping of markets by Nielsen Media Research.
• Network affiliated stations will have the network's logo (of the corresponding era) next to them and independent stations are unmarked.

Market

The Twin Cities (Minneapolis-St. Paul) television market includes 58 counties in Minnesota and Wisconsin with market hubs in bold text:

• Minnesota:
  • Counties: Aitkin, Anoka, Beltrami, Benton, Big Stone, Carver, Cass, Chippewa, Chisago, Cottonwood, Crow Wing, Dakota, Douglas, Faribault, Goodhue, Grant, Hennepin, Hubbard, Isanti, Jackson, Kanabec, Kandiyohi, Lac Qui Parle, Le Sueur, Lyon, McLeod, Meeker, Mille Lacs, Morrison, Nicollet, Pine, Pope, Ramsay, Redwood, Renville, Rice, Scott, Sherburne, Sibley, Stearns, Steele, Stevens, Swift, Todd, Traverse, Wabasha, Wadena, Waseca, Washington, Wright and Yellow Medicine
  • Cities: Ah-gwah-ching, Aitkin, Akeley, Aldrich, Alexandria, Andover, Annandale, Anoka, Apple Valley, Artichoke, Backus, Barrows, Baxter, Beardsley, Bellingham, Bemidji, Bertha, Blackduck, Bloomington, Blue Earth, Brainerd, Brandon, Brooklyn Park, Browerville, Buffalo, Burtrum, Cable, Cambridge, Canby, Cannon Falls, Cass Lake, Cerro Gordo, Champlin, Chanhassen, Chickamaw Beach, Clarissa, Clarkfield, Clontarf, Coates, Cokato, Coon Rapids, Cottonwood, Crow Wing, Dawson, Duelm, Eagle Bend, Eden Prairie, Elbow Lake, Faribault, Farmington, Finlayson, Fish Lake, Fort Ripley, Fridley, Frontenac, Ghent, Golden Valley, Granite Falls, Hackensack, Heron Lake, Hewitt, Hillman, Hinckley, Hoffman, Inver Grove Heights, Jackson, Kandiyohi, Kelliher, Kellogg, Kerkhoven, Klossner, Lac Qui Parle, Lakefield, Lamberton, Le Sueur, Litchfield, Little Falls, Little Sauk, Long Prairie, Maple Grove, Marietta, Marshall, McGrath, McGregor, Medford, Melrose, Menahga, Milaca, Minneapolis, Minneota, Minnesota City, Minnesota Lake, Minnetonka, Montevideo, Monticello, Mora, New Prague, New Sweden, Nicollet, Nisswa, Norcross, Northville, Oak Grove, Ogilvie, Okabena, Onamia, Ortonville, Osakis, Owatonna, Pallisade, Park Rapids, Pennington, Pennock, Pequot Lakes, Pine City, Pine River, Plainview, Pleasant Lake, Ponemah, Ramsay, Reads Landing, Redwood Falls, Rosemount, Round Prairie, Sandstone, Sartell, Sauk Centre, Sauk Rapids, Sebeka, Solway, Stanchfield, Staples, Sturgeon Lake, St. Cloud, St. Joseph, St. Louis Park, St. Paul, Tamarack, Taunton, Tenstrike, Vineland, Wabasha, Wabasso, Wabedo, Waconia, Wadena, Wahkon, Waite Park, Walker, Walnut Grove, Waseca, Waukenabo, Wells, Wendell, Wheaton, Willmar, Willow River, Windom, Winnebago, Winona and Zimmerman
• Wisconsin:
  • Counties: Barron, Burnett, Dunn, Pierce, Polk, St. Croix and Washburn
  • Cities: Amery, Balsam Lake, Boyceville, Cameron, Cedar Falls, Chetek, Clear Lake, Cumberland, Danbury, Elk Mound, Ellsworth, Grantsburg, Hammond, Hudson, Menomonie, Minong, New Richmond, Northline, Plum City, Rice Lake, River Falls, Sarona, Shell Lake, Spooner, Spring Valley, Star Prairie, St. Croix Falls, Tainter Lake, Turtle Lake, Webster, Woodville and Yellow Lake

Lineup

Source: Newspapers.com 1 2 3 4 (Paid subscription to "Publisher Extra" may be required for some sections)

CH#	Name	Notes
2	2  KTCA-TV St. Paul	Then and now, still a PBS member station (Operates today as Twin Cities PBS, co-owned alongside sister and co-flagship station  2-3  KTCI-TV (also out of St. Paul, was on  17  in 1985) by Twin Cities Public Television, Inc.)
4	4  WCCO-TV Minneapolis	Then and now, still a CBS affiliate (Acquired by CBS in 1992 and has been a network owned-and-operated station ever since, owned by Paramount Global)
5	5  KSTP-TV St. Paul	Then and now, still an ABC affiliate (Owned by Hubbard Broadcasting as one of only three television stations ever built and signed onto the air from the ground up by Hubbard, the other two being KSTP's satellite stations:  42  KSAX out of Alexandria and  43  KRWF out of Redwood Falls, also sister to independent station  5-2  KSTC-TV, which was NOT yet on the air)
9	9  KMSP-TV Minneapolis	Now a Fox network owned-and-operated station, owned by Fox Television Stations (First joined Fox upon its launch in 1986 before losing it to then-independent  29  KITN-TV (now sister station and MyNetworkTV O&O WFTC on  9-2 ) in 1988, only to assume the network's affiliation once again, only now as a network owned-and-operated station in 2002)
11	11  WUSA Minneapolis	Then and now, still an NBC affiliate (now as KARE), owned by Tegna Inc. (The WUSA call letters transferred to Washington, D.C. for its CBS affiliate in 1986, the current call letters KARE installed around that same time)
13	CBN	CBN Cable Network was spun off by the Christian Broadcasting Network and operates today as Freeform, owned by The Walt Disney Company
17	17  KTCI-TV St. Paul	Then and now, still a PBS member station (now on  2-3 ) (Operates today as Twin Cities PBS, co-owned alongside sister and co-flagship station  2  KTCA-TV (also out of St. Paul) by Twin Cities Public Television, Inc.)
18	The Weather Channel	Weather forecasting and science and in recent years, weather related shows and documentaries as well (Also with local weather alerts and local forecasts every ten minutes on the 8s of every hour, owned by Entertainment Studios)
19	AP News	Likely defunct, likely a teletext newswire service from the Associated Press
21	41  KXLI St. Cloud	Now an Ion network owned-and-operated station (Now operating as KPXM-TV, owned by The E. W. Scripps Company)
23	23  KTMA-TV Minneapolis	Now a CW network affiliate (as WUCW), owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group (Also, sister to cable sports network Bally Sports North)
24	29  KITN-TV Minneapolis	Now a MyNetworkTV owned-and-operated station (Now as WFTC on  9-2 , co-owned alongside Fox network O&O by  9  KMSP-TV by Fox Television Stations, also operates a satellite station:  26  KFTC out of Bemidji)
25	Lifetime	Programming geared towards women and women in lead roles of movies and shows (Owned by A&E Networks as a 50-50 joint venture between the Hearst Corporation and The Walt Disney Company)
26	Home Theater Network	Defunct, commonly known as HTN (A premium pay subscription service owned by Westinghouse Broadcasting, known for carrying only family friendly films rated G or PG by the Motion Picture Association of America, HTN ceased operations on January 31, 1987)
27	The Learning Channel	Initially focused on educational and learning content, by the late 1990s the network began to primarily focus towards reality series involving lifestyles, family life, and personal stories as TLC, owned by Warner Bros. Discovery
28	USA Network	Then and now, a general entertainment and sports channel, now owned by NBCUniversal
29	C-SPAN	A channel entirely focused on federal government and public affairs pertaining to the United States House of Representatives, including live coverage of proceedings
30	Music Television	Now known only as MTV, owned by Paramount Global, it has shifted from strictly music and music videos in its early years to a mix of music, reality shows and dramas in recent years
31	Nickelodeon	Today owned by Paramount Global, schedule then and now, still consists of programming towards children and teenagers up to 18 years of age
	Nick at Nite	Programming initially consisted of 1950s and 1960s shows but shows from later decades added in the years and decades since, owned by Paramount Global
32	The Nashville Network (TNN)	A channel once focused on country music and lifestyle, it now operates as a general entertainment channel as Paramount Network, owned by Paramount Global
33	SPN	Short for Satellite Program Network, later rebranded as Tempo Television and then sold to NBC and relaunched as CNBC in 1989
34	ESPN	A 24-hour channel devoted to local, regional, national and international sports (Owned as a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company at 80% and Hearst Communications at 20%)
35	Cable News Network	CNN in Atlanta, an American multinational news channel, owned by Warner Bros. Discovery
36	9  WGN-TV Chicago, IL	The direct OTA feed at the time, then and now, an independent, now owned by Nexstar Media Group (Its later cable counterpart, WGN America, has since been rebranded and relaunched as NewsNation)
37	17  WTBS Atlanta, GA	The direct OTA feed at the time, now as WPCH-TV, owned by Gray Television (Both the station and the TBS network (short for Turner Broadcasting System), were separated from each other in 2007, TBS today, is owned by Warner Bros. Discovery)
38	Arts & Entertainment	Once a channel focused on arts and history, the channel has shifted significantly towards reality shows, dramas and documentaries, now known only as A&E (The flagship network of A&E Networks, a 50-50 joint venture between Hearst Communications and Disney General Entertainment Content, a division of The Walt Disney Company, split channel, carried nightly from 6:00 PM to 6:00 AM Central Time)
	Financial News Network	Financial, consumer and business news and stocks, sold to NBC and integrated into CNBC in 1991 (Split channel, carried daily from 6:00 AM to 6:00 PM Central Time)
39	MSN	Likely defunct, a news and information channel (NO relation to MSN (short for MicroSoft Network) owned by Microsoft Corporation or Midwest Sports Network, launched in 1989, operating today, now as Bally Sports North, Owned by Diamond Sports Group, a joint venture between Entertainment Studios and Sinclair Broadcast Group, the latter also owns and operates CW affiliate  23  WUCW, then known as independent KTMA-TV in 1985, split channel, carried 24 hours a day Mondays through Saturdays and Sundays from Midnight to Noon and from 3:00 PM to Midnight Central Time)
	National Jewish Television	A three-hour block of religious programming catering to Jewish audiences (Listed by the Star Tribune newspaper as being its own channel, split channel, on the air Sundays from Noon to 3:00 PM Central Time)
40	Bravo	Originally focused on film and performing arts (as a premium pay subscription channel), the channel has shifted towards lifestyle and reality shows as well as programming themed around the LGBTQ+ community (as a general cable channel), owned by NBCUniversal
41	Black Entertainment Television	Then and now, still carries programming heavily targeting African-American audiences, though it nowadays goes only by the acronym BET, owned by Paramount Global (Split channel, carried nightly from 7:00 PM to 1:00 AM Central Time)
	Home Box Office	A premium pay subscription network, owned by Warner Bros. Discovery (Home Box Office is still used as the network's legal corporate name, though it operates on-air and online exclusively by the acronym HBO, split channel, carried daily from 1:00 AM to 7:00 PM Central Time)
42	Showtime	A premium subscription channel with movies, shows, documentaries and sporting events, owned by Paramount Global
43	The Movie Channel	Sister network to Showtime, owned by Paramount Global
44	Cinemax	Sister network to HBO, owned by Warner Bros. Discovery
45	The Disney Channel	Originally a premium pay subscription channel, Disney is now a general cable channel, owned by The Walt Disney Company
50	Reuters News	Status unknown, likely a teletext newswire service from Reuters