Cumulus' Three 105 Stations in Twin Cities Switch to Xmas Music

The trimulcast of 105.7 WWWM, 105.3 WRXP and 105.1 WGVX have given up Classic Hip Hop for Christmas music, with a new format anticipated for December 26th. These stations have underperformed for quite some time. Minneapolis is a market where most FM stations run 100,000 watts. Yet Cumulus is trying to cobble together three stations broadcasting from several different sites that are powered at levels between 3,000 watts and 25,000 watts.

So what will the new format be? Cumulus hasn't said. The big format hole in Minneapolis is Adult Contemporary. It is the largest market where AC is missing, a format that's usually #1 in markets like NYC, Philadelphia and Houston. But the trimulcast tried AC a few years ago and it didn't work. In 2011, CBS gave up AC on 102.9 to become the market's #2 country station, which Cumulus thought it could fill at 105 FM. You might say Cumulus' recent attempt at Classic Hip Hop in one of the whitest large markets probably wasn't a wise idea either.

Will it try Soft AC? The format is tops in Miami and Tampa,. It's the top music station in San Francisco, #4 in Seattle and #7 in Jacksonville. iHeart just announced it is giving up Country in Sacramento to go Soft AC, modeled after The Breeze in San Francisco. So will Cumulus try Soft AC in Minneapolis-St. Paul?

They're going back to their Love 105 format. If you go to 105 the vibe's website it takes you to Love 105
http://www.love105fm.com/

LOVE 105 will move to an Oldies AC format after the holidays.

from northpine
Cumulus Media as dropped the Classic Hip-Hop "105 The Vibe" format in the Twin Cities and reverted to "Love 105" with Christmas music. The mix of Christmas favorites from the Nostalgia and Adult Contemporary genres began Thursday morning. It will presumably compete with the Christmas format on iHeartMedia's "Kool 108" that has launched on the Friday before Thanksgiving for the past several years.

The simulcast of WGVX/105.1 (Lakeville), WLUP/105.3 (Cambridge), and WWWM-FM/105.7 (Eden Prairie-Minneapolis) has had eight identities and 16 callsigns over the past few decades, with the longest-running slogan being "Love" from 2007 to 2013. The "Love" format originally launched as a broad Soft Oldies format that evolved towards mainstream Oldies after Kool 108's segue to Classic Hits, and then to Adult Contemporary after the end of "102.9 Lite FM."

The Twin Cities have been without a mainstream AC station since "Love" switched to Sports as "The Ticket" five years ago. That format was replaced with "The Vibe" two years later. The launch of Classic Hip-Hop came as the format swept the nation, and the format competed at that time with iHeartMedia's "Hot 102.5" on K273BH/102.5 and KTCZ-HD3; "Hot" has since changed to a contemporary Hip-Hop/R&B format.

Yet Cumulus is trying to cobble together three stations broadcasting from several different sites that are powered at levels between 3,000 watts and 25,000 watts.

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actually 105.7 runs only 900 watts because its on top of the IDS building (833 feet)

105.1 is 2700 watts
105.3 is 25000 watts but is way far north of the cities so folks mainly rely on 105.1/105.7

You might say Cumulus' recent attempt at Classic Hip Hop in one of the whitest large markets probably wasn't a wise idea either.

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yet at one point we had THREE hip hop rap stations
105's
Hot 102.5 (translator of a HD3 feed) which as noted above switched to a contemporary hip hop/R&B format
Go 95.3 which is known as "the modern hip hop channel"

The 105s have always been cursed with low ratings going back to Rev105's days back in the mid 90s, possibly even earlier. The programming hasn't always been the problem. The need for a quality signal out of these three pea shooters has always resulted in less than stellar ratings.

The 105s had a respectable ~3 share in ages 6+ right around the time Love 105 was viciously dumped in favor of the pathetically programmed Sports format. We can all thank John Dickey & Jan Jeffries for that boneheaded move. Love 105 was the perfect format for these stations, and frankly, it should've been brought back years ago.

Actually they touched a 4 when they took the WLTE format.
Then the f4cks at Less-Cume, (they know more than anyone), killed it with sports.
We'll see if anyone in the TCies will listen to them or not.
Haven't seen any TV adds and don't expect to.