KMOJ 89.9 streams soul, R&B, hip-hop, gospel, reggae, jazz and talk radio from north Minneapolis, Minnesota, under the on-air name The People's Station. You can stream it live and free right now on Radio Shuffle, wherever you are in the world.
A Name Taken From the Swahili Word for Unity
KMOJ's call letters come from "umoja," the Swahili word for unity, according to the station's own About page. It went on the air in 1976 and started life as WMOJ, a very low-power AM signal on 1200 kHz that reached only a few blocks around the Sumner-Olson and Glenwood-Lyndale public housing developments, as Wikipedia's entry on KMOJ describes. It moved to FM in 1978 and became the K-call station listeners know today.
Where Prince and The Time Got Airplay
From the days of vinyl and 8-track tapes, KMOJ has played soul, R&B, blues, gospel, hip-hop, reggae and jazz, and it gave airtime to local musicians before they were famous. Prince, The Time, Alexander O'Neal and Mint Condition all appear on the list of artists tied to the station's history, according to this profile in the Austin Daily Herald. For anyone curious about the Minneapolis sound beyond its most famous purple export, that makes KMOJ a useful listening post.
Owned by the Community It Serves
The station is run by the non-profit Center for Communications and Development on Minneapolis's north side. Over the years its programming has widened from a focus on the African American community to include all communities of color, and its lineup mixes music shows with talk and community news. Minnesota state senator Bobby Joe Champion described it as "the pulse of the Black community" in North News reporting on the station's next chapter.
Moving Around, Then Putting Down Roots
KMOJ has not had a stable address. Its old Girard Terrace studios were condemned in 2007 after structural damage was found, and a later home in the Five Points Building was displaced by the Blue Line light rail extension. Now the station is planning a permanent building on Lowry Avenue in north Minneapolis, with a community listening room and podcasting equipment to train new broadcast talent. A ground blessing took place in October 2025, and the station is aiming to move in by 2028.
Tune In
Nearly fifty years after a tiny housing-project signal called itself WMOJ, KMOJ is still the voice of north Minneapolis. Stream it free on Radio Shuffle to hear it live.