The Minnesota Twins are returning to the airwaves where the likes of Herb Carneal and Halsey Hall once brought the team’s games to life.

The Twins and WCCO-AM 830 made official Friday morning what began leaking in the Star Tribune and then other sites Thursday afternoon: Twins baseball will be heard on WCCO again starting in 2018.

“We couldn’t be more thrilled to be back where Twins baseball was for 46 years,” says Dave St. Peter, Twins president. “We think we have a team that is going to create new history in 2018 and beyond. We couldn’t be more pleased as an organization.”

The Twins were on WCCO from when the team arrived in 1961 until 2006. WCCO is now owned by Entercom Communications Corp., through the latter’s merger with CBS Radio. The company also owns 104.1 JACK FM and BUZ’N 102.9. WCCO will air all Twins regular season and postseason games and cover Spring Training. Each of those stations will feature year-round baseball coverage that features Twins players, coaches and broadcasters.

Several luminaries, including Gov. Mark Dayton, celebrated the move. Former Manager Tom Kelly and Player Kent Hrbek recounted stories from their days listening to and participating in coverage of the team.

Current Manager Paul Molitor recalled listening to games on WCCO while doing homework growing up.

Mike Dee, president of sports for Entercom, talked about the excitement of being able to help re-establish that historic relationship.

He joined Entercom in May and says he and St. Peter started talking about a potential return shortly thereafter.

“There are few broadcast relationships around the country that have historic roots and the foundation that the Twins and WCCO relationship have,” Dee says. “It’s the deeply rooted institutional foundation that really drove the franchise, I suspect, in its early years. And the reciprocity – it really had a big impact on the development of WCCO.”