WCCO anchor A.J. Hilton gets up at 2:15 a.m., hosts a morning newscast for hundreds of thousands of Minnesotans — and does it all without caffeine. In a new Lakeville Magazine interview, the CBS News Minnesota anchor reveals the water-only routine, three turntables, and vinyl obsession that power his mornings.
"On the Beat With A.J. Hilton," published in Lakeville Magazine this fall, catches up with the broadcaster about his career and his off-camera passion: music. Hilton, who joined WCCO-TV in June 2022 as a weekday morning co-anchor after stints in Alexandria, Michigan, Florida, and Tennessee, settled back home in Lakeville, Minnesota.
The 2:15 a.m. routine — no coffee required
Asked whether he's a coffee or tea drinker — "I'm assuming caffeine's involved" — Hilton's answer is blunt: "I drink water. I don't need caffeine. It's weird."
His mornings run like clockwork: two alarms at 2:15 and 2:30 a.m., stretching, a light meal while reading or meditating, a shower by 3 a.m., out the door by 3:30, at the station by about 4 a.m. — and on air at 5 a.m., fueled by nothing but water and discipline.
Three turntables and a vinyl obsession
Music, Hilton says, is the through-line of his life — and his DJ hobby has a serious hardware collection: "I love music. I've got three turntables. I DJ on the side, sometimes, too, for fun." He's spun records at Minneapolis institution The Electric Fetus on Record Store Day and at the Midtown Global Market.
"Music is so important to me because it reminds me of family," Hilton says. He still remembers his dad playing Al Jarreau's Look to the Rainbow and Stevie Wonder's In Square Circle on drives, his mom wearing out a Toni Braxton cassette on road trips, and Marvin Gaye always in the rotation.
A lifelong advocate for physical media, Hilton doesn't use Spotify — he listens on his iPod, buys vinyl, and relishes the ritual: "Long after the streaming subscription ends or a platform disappears, that record is still there. I can hold it in my hands." His first record, picked up sometime in the 2010s, was Michael Jackson's Bad.
Bringing music to work
Hilton's passion has crossed into his journalism: he interviewed legendary producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis for WCCO at The Electric Fetus, taking viewers inside their creative process.
And he believes music still does something nothing else can: "In a world where so much divides us, music remains one of the few things that can bring people together."
Watch: WCCO's teaser for A.J. Hilton's music story with producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis.
Music: Kevin MacLeod - Life of Riley (incompetech.com), licensed under CC BY 3.0