Milford C. Jensen

Milford C. Jensen was so eager to begin his career in radio that when he entered Saint Olaf College as a freshman in 1926, the first thing he did after dropping his bags in his dormitory room was to run to the college’s radio station and ask for a job. The station was WCAL Northfield. He got the job, and after graduating from Saint Olaf and completing further studies at the University of Minnesota and Columbia University, he returned to WCAL, becoming manager in 1934, a post he held for thirty years. During his tenure he expanded the station’s reach by overseeing the establishment of WCAL-FM in 1968. Under his leadership WCAL became a founding member of National Public Radio and helped make Minnesota a leader in high-quality listener-supported radio broadcasting. He retired in 1974. A well respected engineer as well as manager, he was a member of the Institute of Radio Engineers, the American Academy for the Advancement of Science, and Sigma Pi Sigma, the National Physics Honor Society.

Milford Jensen passed away in 1991.