I caught the KXXR HD-2 ID this afternoon on Love 105.7. Nobody has bothered to update it. Sad. Those signals went from a well-maintained, and good sounding operation to a dumpster fire within a week of Jay Philpot’s exit. Way to go, Cumulus!
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Should Love 105 be blown up?
- Thread starter Lester_the_NightFly
- Start date
Yup, it's the signal(s). Their "main" signal (105.7) broadcasts from Minneapolis now at under 1000 watts, which gets good car coverage but when you deal with cheaper radios or trying to listen in office buildings, you are out of luck. 105.1 is located in Lakeville, about 30 minutes south of the city (covering the south metro pretty well) and 105.3 is in Cambridge, about a half hour north of Minneapolis (and the strongest of the 3 signals). The 105's were always intended to be "suburban" signals for Minneapolis, but as 3 different stations competing with the larger stations (all which had good coverage in the 3 different suburbs that the 105's were in) proved impossible.
Outside of a fluke book, a 2-2.5 share is probably the best they can hope for. Any higher and they are likely to get competition from a full market signal (which happened a few times in the history of the Trimulcast, first with Alternative (93.7 The Edge vs Rev 105) and later with Hard Rock (Rock 100.3 vs X105). From what I have heard, Rev was never profitable, and X105 was short lived once 100.3 entered the market, causing ABC to feel threatened enough to move X105 to the stronger 93.7 signal as 93X.
I feel like I’ve seen this thread for 3 years. Has this station not been blown up yet?!
I would've said to swap frequencies but based on KQRS and 93X, they look pretty solid. Not unless Cumulus can try to work something out like an LMA with Audacy or Hubbard.
Swapping frequencies is how 93X was born. It started as X105 before it and then 93.7 "The Edge" did a frequency swap (of sorts, they wouldn't pay for the Edge name after the swap and instead changed it to Zone 105, and they dropped a lot of the harder alternative songs which lead to a gap at the time, IE neither station would play Nine Inch Nails.
I always liked X105 more than 93X, because it leaned a bit harder than 93X. The Edge was great. Like you, I was surprised they killed it, but it was a reminder of how 93.7 (and later the 105's) were flankers to KQRS to protect the "cash cow" at the time. Zone/Drive never did quite live up to what The Edge was, it seemed like leadership was afraid of having ANY crossover between them and 93X.
With regards to Rock 100.3, I have to agree, it was always a mess. The fact that the station failed despite having Howard Stern at the absolute height of his career is really a reflection of how poorly Rock 100.3 was programmed. That said, ABC did think they were such a threat that they blew up 2 stations to protect KQ.
I always considered The Zone to be a boring Modern AC station. I never regarded it as a legitimate alternative rock station. I think you are 100 percent correct that management for whatever reason wanted zero music crossover with 93X.
Here's a great montage of 93.7 The Edge. That Edgefest II lineup (mentioned around the 2:40 mark) was outstanding! I would've loved to have seen that show.
I always had a grudge against Cap Cities / ABC for always putting great programming on 93.7 in Minneapolis while placing the most boring Modern AC format on earth on its 96.3 in Detroit.
Here's a great montage of 93.7 The Edge. That Edgefest II lineup (mentioned around the 2:40 mark) was outstanding! I would've loved to have seen that show.
I always had a grudge against Cap Cities / ABC for always putting great programming on 93.7 in Minneapolis while placing the most boring Modern AC format on earth on its 96.3 in Detroit.
There was a very brief period where late at night Zone 105 was playing some harder stuff but for most of their run they avoided anything that was hard alternative.
Here’s a trip down memory lane with a music log from that time, more than a quarter of a century ago:
Zone 105/Minneapolis
6/2/99 2:15AM
White Zombie “More Human than Human”
Lit “My Own Worst Enemy”
Counting Crows “Round Here”
Luscious Jackson “Ladyfingers”
Green Day “Welcome to Paradise”
Goo Goo Dolls “Black Balloon”
The Cardigans “Erase & Rewind”
Nine Inch Nails “Head Like a Hole”
Len “Steal My Sunshine”
Talking Heads “Stay Up Late”
Sugar Ray “Falls Apart”
The Cure “Friday I’m In Love”
Dishwalla “Counting Blue Cars”
Ben Folds Five “Army”
With regard to X105, it was a really great hard rock station. Poison, Alice in Chains, Styx, Megadeth, New Rock. With extreme attitude in the imaging as they were positioning themselves against the new Rock 100, later to be named Rock 100.3. Some of the imaging referenced old shows at Met Center featuring Billy Squier, Lita Ford etc. Their primary positioning statement was “The Loudest F*****g Station in Minnesota,” with the ‘f#*(%’ bleeped out of course. 100.3 countered with “if it doesn’t come in clear, it can’t be loud.”
I was a huge fan of the music on REV 105 but their on air pretentiousness was a bit much and while it seems weird to say now when there are an endless amount of commercial FMs playing the Scorpions and none playing Superchunk, there was something very cathartic about an all out rock station replacing it.
When 93X came into the picture, they watered things down and played it more safe at first with the Collective Souls of the world.
As the rock battle vs. 100.3 continued, there was a time when both stations were playing a good amount of classic rock. Hearing Boston and Hendrix on 93X could made one wonder if they accidentally had it on classic rock 92.5 KQRS.
Once 100.3 left the rock arena, 93X became a standard active rocker.
In recent years they are more of an alternative rock/active rock hybrid, with great ratings.
For a while some lamented the loss of an alt rock station in that market. But ultimately 93X is a far superior station when compared to the soft alts that are dropping like flies due to lack of mainstream interest.
Here’s a trip down memory lane with a music log from that time, more than a quarter of a century ago:
Zone 105/Minneapolis
6/2/99 2:15AM
White Zombie “More Human than Human”
Lit “My Own Worst Enemy”
Counting Crows “Round Here”
Luscious Jackson “Ladyfingers”
Green Day “Welcome to Paradise”
Goo Goo Dolls “Black Balloon”
The Cardigans “Erase & Rewind”
Nine Inch Nails “Head Like a Hole”
Len “Steal My Sunshine”
Talking Heads “Stay Up Late”
Sugar Ray “Falls Apart”
The Cure “Friday I’m In Love”
Dishwalla “Counting Blue Cars”
Ben Folds Five “Army”
With regard to X105, it was a really great hard rock station. Poison, Alice in Chains, Styx, Megadeth, New Rock. With extreme attitude in the imaging as they were positioning themselves against the new Rock 100, later to be named Rock 100.3. Some of the imaging referenced old shows at Met Center featuring Billy Squier, Lita Ford etc. Their primary positioning statement was “The Loudest F*****g Station in Minnesota,” with the ‘f#*(%’ bleeped out of course. 100.3 countered with “if it doesn’t come in clear, it can’t be loud.”
I was a huge fan of the music on REV 105 but their on air pretentiousness was a bit much and while it seems weird to say now when there are an endless amount of commercial FMs playing the Scorpions and none playing Superchunk, there was something very cathartic about an all out rock station replacing it.
When 93X came into the picture, they watered things down and played it more safe at first with the Collective Souls of the world.
As the rock battle vs. 100.3 continued, there was a time when both stations were playing a good amount of classic rock. Hearing Boston and Hendrix on 93X could made one wonder if they accidentally had it on classic rock 92.5 KQRS.
Once 100.3 left the rock arena, 93X became a standard active rocker.
In recent years they are more of an alternative rock/active rock hybrid, with great ratings.
For a while some lamented the loss of an alt rock station in that market. But ultimately 93X is a far superior station when compared to the soft alts that are dropping like flies due to lack of mainstream interest.
The Edge was never a fully "light" alt rock station. Yes, they had some lighter fair, but it was played right next to the NIN, Korn, White Zombie, etc tracks.
I did like the "battle" but because of Howard Stern, they'd never really "win" because the people who listened in the morning didn't like the music in the afternoon. But the battle was fun (In the north! "100.3" in the south "100.3" In the east and in the west. Its the rock and roll station that you don't need a f***ing compass to find "The New Rock 100.3").
In a lot of ways, I wish X105 and The Edge stayed as is. The Edge wasn't afraid to be "Edgy" and X105 wanted to be LOUD (it was so overcompressed that the meter would be pegged even when the station was silent!). As you said, 93X played it safe, probably because they wanted to retain the audience that The Edge had built (they were the highest rated alt rock station in the country for a long time). But there were DEFINITELY songs that neither would play, as I would try to request Nine Inch Nails on 93x, get redirected to Zone, only to be redirected back to 93X. Very frustrating that some of the songs were "lost" in the shuffle, especially when you had markets of similar size that could support both (98.9 The Rock and 96.5 The Buzz KC come to mind).
Also very interesting to me that Minneapolis went from one of the highest rated Alt Rock stations in the country with The Edge to one of the lowest in Go 96.3.
I did like the "battle" but because of Howard Stern, they'd never really "win" because the people who listened in the morning didn't like the music in the afternoon. But the battle was fun (In the north! "100.3" in the south "100.3" In the east and in the west. Its the rock and roll station that you don't need a f***ing compass to find "The New Rock 100.3").
In a lot of ways, I wish X105 and The Edge stayed as is. The Edge wasn't afraid to be "Edgy" and X105 wanted to be LOUD (it was so overcompressed that the meter would be pegged even when the station was silent!). As you said, 93X played it safe, probably because they wanted to retain the audience that The Edge had built (they were the highest rated alt rock station in the country for a long time). But there were DEFINITELY songs that neither would play, as I would try to request Nine Inch Nails on 93x, get redirected to Zone, only to be redirected back to 93X. Very frustrating that some of the songs were "lost" in the shuffle, especially when you had markets of similar size that could support both (98.9 The Rock and 96.5 The Buzz KC come to mind).
Also very interesting to me that Minneapolis went from one of the highest rated Alt Rock stations in the country with The Edge to one of the lowest in Go 96.3.