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Police in St. Louis Park are actively investigating a reported threat that was made at 1600 Utica Ave. S. on Wednesday morning, leading to a sweep of the multi-business office building known as the Towers at West End.
According to police, officers were dispatched to an unidentified business at 1600 Utica Ave. S. at 8:13 a.m., with responding officers and firefighters conducting a walkthrough of the building. Nothing suspicious was found and the investigation is ongoing.
The 1600 building is home to numerous businesses, including iHeartMedia radio stations KFAN, K102, Cities 97.1, KTLK, KOOL 108 and KDWB.
Approximately two hours after the threat was reported, KFAN’s Paul Allen, who hosts a show weekdays from 9 a.m. to noon, was instructed to go to commercial break earlier than normal.
“What’s going on, everything OK over there?” said Allen, talking from the main studio to the producer’s studio where Eric Nordquist was receiving information from upper management.
Nordquist replied: “Let’s finish this segment then we do have some work to do during the break.”
Allen, who is also the radio play-by-play voice of the Minnesota Vikings and the track announcer at Canterbury Park, continued on momentarily only to be interrupted by Nordquist saying “we’re actually going to pause now.”
The show went to commercial break with Nordquist hinting that they might need to go to special programming (pre-recorded audio), though they wound up coming back from the break live and Allen provided a brief explanation of what happened.
“Building emergency. Everything good. Happy to back on the radio. Love your well wishes. Nobody got bit,” Allen said.
Being “bit” is Allen’s way of referencing COVID-19 infection. Earlier this year, KFAN’s “Power Trip Morning Show” was ordered to evacuate the building after producer Zach Halverson learned of his positive test. Halverson wound up in the hospital for a few days before being released, and he is now back to work. .
Neither St. Louis Park police nor KFAN management would confirm whether the building emergency Allen mentioned was the reason for the sudden commercial break, although Allen later tweeted that someone “entered the building, & we had to depart.”
The show was able to complete as usual despite the momentary pause. No further information about the threat has been provided.
