By Maury Glover
Published September 26, 2025 10:14pm CDT
MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) – KMOJ Radio in Minneapolis is moving to find its “forever home” due to plans for a new light rail in the area.
On the move
What we know:
For more than 40 years, Walter Junior Banks, otherwise known as Q Bear, has been on the air at KMOJ, promoting unity in the community.
But now “The People’s Station”, which has served as the voice of the black community, will have to find a new place to call home.
“The move is good. Progress is good. I don’t have a problem with it, as long as we’re here to serve the community,” said Banks.
‘It is a wonderful, wonderful opportunity’
The backstory:
The radio station has been renting space at the Five Points Building at the corner of West Broadway and Penn Avenue in North Minneapolis since 2010.
But KMOJ is planning to move because the Metropolitan Council is expected to use eminent domain to demolish the building to make way for the Blue Line light rail extension between Downtown Minneapolis and Brooklyn Park.
“Nobody wakes up in my position and say, you know what? We should move the radio station. That just doesn’t happen. That really upsets an operation. However, given the cards we’ve been dealt, it’s actually a blessing for us,” said Freddie Bell, KMOJ’s CEO and General Manager.
KMOJ has picked a vacant lot a few blocks away at Lowry and Oliver as the location for a new hub for media serving communities of color.
The station is also kicking off a capital campaign to raise 17 million dollars to build its “forever home” that will be more than just a radio station, but also a meeting place.
“It’s time for us to do a better job at taking care of the public trust that we’ve been given. And if we don’t do it now, I don’t know when it’s going to happen,” said Bell.
‘The cavalry isn’t coming, the cavalry is here’
What they’re saying:
Banks hopes building its own home will set KMOJ up to broadcast from the heart of north Minneapolis for another 50 years.
“I hope that it goes all the way until, right now, I’m 66, and I’d like to be 106 and still pushing a button that makes it work,” said Banks.
KMOJ will host a reveal celebration at the vacant lot where it plans to build its new home next month.
It hopes its forever home will be up and running by 2028.