At least people under 80 listen to KSTP and KFAN, and it is very clear that WCCO has made some serious mistakes under the current CBS corporate ownership.
Considering the massive power that the once independent WCCO had in the 50s, 60, 70's and even 1980's it is sad that management let the whole thing slide away slowly. They have a clear channel signal and that is important.
WCCO made a number of mortal errors and letting Twins Baseball and Gopher Football and Basketball go away was big. Keeping those audiences would have been a hook to get people to hear the on air talent, had there been any.
Part II\
The legendary WCCO talent started to get very old in the late 1970's and 80s. After that the on air talent started to retire an die. The main problem was that the WCCO listener market was dying at a higher rate than the talent, and station was viewed as toxic by most other demographics.
Baseball and Gopher Sports would have helped in masking these problems, but CBS Radio management did not see it the same way.
Regardless of whether AM was dead or not, CBS needed to make a big move 5-10 years ago by hiring up Tom Barnard, Dan Bareiro, and may be Soucheray/Russse at any cost and keeping all the sports teams. Today the WCCO Radio brand is crap and no one cares who John Williams or who John Thompson is, it really does not matter. KQRS is not about the music, the music is total crap, it is about Tom Barnard talking for three hours every day. For real music, people listen to the Current, not KQRS to hear REO Speedwagon, Rush, or some other crap they play on the Barnard show. Despite all these trends, KQRS still has good ratings due to the impact of Tom Barnard, and the music had nothing to do with it. WCCO did not pay for talent and that is why they are and forever will be the "old neighbor" in Barnard terminology.