The Breakfast of Champions is marking a big milestone and it's kind of a big deal here at WCCO Radio.
You see, WCCO stands for Washburn Crosby Company, the forerunner of General Mills, which has been making Wheaties for 100 years.
Prior to becoming the "City of Lakes", Minneapolis was the Mill City, and became famous around the world for their flour milling industry. One of the biggest names was Washburn Crosby who was a big believer of radio in it's infancy.
When WCCO went on the air October 2nd, 1924, one of the first voices heard on the station was Betty Crocker, who was really Blanche Ingersoll and worked for Washburn Crosby.
Later to fill out an unsponsored time period, Washburn Crosby put together a singing quartet of a bailiff in municipal court, a grain company employee, a printer and an undertaker. They performed for 15 minutes a week and were paid $6 each on one of WCCO’s earliest homegrown shows.
It was on Christmas Eve in 1926 that history was made, when WCCO broadcast the world's first "singing" commercial, the famous “Wheaties Jingle”.
Since then, the brand has been synonymous with sports heroes who use their platform for the greater good. Taylor Gessell is General Mills' Brand Experience Manager.
“We at Wheaties have also redefined what it means to be a champion by only reserving our cover for trailblazing athletes who use their platform and their sports platform for something greater,” Gessell says. “So it's not just about being the best in your sport on the field, but it's just as important that you're doing more off of the field as well. And so that's kind of our criteria for how to be, you know, the Breakfast of Champions.”
Wheaties 100th anniversary boxes featuring Muhammed Ali are on store shelves now. The iconic brand will rotate more famous faces on the box throughout 2021.