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Love 105 Minneapolis - More Adventurous Soft AC?

CTListener said:
But most ACs are only playing "The Look" as if it were Roxette's only hit, aren't they? It's the only track of hers that classic hits stations seem to be adding as they dip into the '90s.
Click to expand...

I would also consider "Dangerous" as an oh wow but nobody is playing that. "Listen To Your Heart" and "It Must Have Been Love" I believe are getting spins.
 
CTListener said:
But most ACs are only playing "The Look" as if it were Roxette's only hit, aren't they? It's the only track of hers that classic hits stations seem to be adding as they dip into the '90s.

Anyway, I listened for a couple of hours this morning and checked the playlist for the previous six hours. Looks like the mid-'60s titles like "Love Is Blue" and "She's Not There" have been dropped, nothing earlier than 1969 noted, and only one song from that year, still far more early '70s than today's classic hits stations will play.
Click to expand...

Roxette's a male/female duo, not a woman singer.
 
I'm pretty sure I know who's doing the music and I can guarantee you, if it's who I think it is... He's not going to play something that shouldn't be there.
 
Since my original post about the Love 105 playlist in February, the station is sticking with its unusually soft playlist. Here's what was played 5 - 7:15 pm on 4/20/2019...

Barbra Streisand--The Way We Were
Anne Murray--Danny's Song
James Taylor--You've Got A Friend
The Doobie Brothers--What A Fool Believes
Richard Marx--Right Here Waiting
The Spinners--I'll Be Around
George Michael--Father Figure
Paul Davis--Sweet Life
Louis Armstrong--What A Wonderful World
Howard Jones--No One Is to Blame
Chicago--Searching So Long
Crystal Gayle & Eddie Rabbit--You & I
Walter Egan--Magnet & Steel
Whitney Houston--Where Do Broken Hearts Go?
The Little River Band--Happy Anniversary
Bonnie Raitt--I Can't Make You Love Me
Neil Diamond--September Morn
Stevie Wonder--My Cherie Amour
Sheena Easton--Morning Train
Sting--Fields of Gold
Barry Manilow--Mandy
Chris DeBurgh--The Lady in Red
Cher--Believe
Diana Ross--Love Hangover
Gordon Lightfoot--If You Could Read My Mind
Seals & Crofts--Diamond Girl
Atlantic Star--Always
Gladys Knight & The Pips--Neither One of Us

It really is an interesting playlist. The programmer is not afraid of Barbra Streisand, Anne Murray, Neil Diamond, Barry Manilow or Crystal Gayle. Even Louis Armstrong gets a spin.

I wonder if there are any categories in this playlist, so some songs rotate faster than others. I can't decipher any. I see Anne Murray and Barbra Streisand back to back. I see three 1970s songs out of four at the end, Gordon Lightfoot, Seals & Crofrts and Gladys Knight. Except for Believe by Cher, there are no songs from the 1990s. Which means almost everything is at least 30-40 years old.

I'm not complaining. It sounds good to me. But I also don't want Cumulus to decide a year from now "Soft AC doesn't work. Let's try something else."

As I'm listening, the station is automated. I see Love 105 uses the Cumulus syndicated Bob & Sheri in mornings. I assume the Soft AC songs continue to play, with only Bob & Sheri's chatter as part of the morning show. In the evening, it runs the syndicated John Tesh Intelligence for Your Life. Is there a weekday DJ in middays or PM drive?
 
Last edited:
Gregg. said:
Since my original post about the Love 105 playlist in February, the station is sticking with its unusually soft playlist. Here's what was played 5 - 7:15 pm on 4/20/2019...

Barbra Streisand--The Way We Were
Anne Murray--Danny's Song
James Taylor--You've Got A Friend
The Doobie Brothers--What A Fool Believes
Richard Marx--Right Here Waiting
The Spinners--I'll Be Around
George Michael--Father Figure
Paul Davis--Sweet Life
Louis Armstrong--What A Wonderful World
Howard Jones--No One Is to Blame
Chicago--Searching So Long
Crystal Gayle & Eddie Rabbit--You & I
Walter Egan--Magnet & Steel
Whitney Houston--Where Do Broken Hearts Go?
The Little River Band--Happy Anniversary
Bonnie Raitt--I Can't Make You Love Me
Neil Diamond--September Morn
Stevie Wonder--My Cherie Amour
Sheena Easton--Morning Train
Sting--Fields of Gold
Barry Manilow--Mandy
Chris DeBurgh--The Lady in Red
Cher--Believe
Diana Ross--Love Hangover
Gordon Lightfoot--If You Could Read My Mind
Seals & Crofts--Diamond Girl
Atlantic Star--Always
Gladys Knight & The Pips--Neither One of Us

It really is an interesting playlist. The programmer is not afraid of Barbra Streisand, Anne Murray, Neil Diamond, Barry Manilow or Crystal Gayle. Even Louis Armstrong gets a spin.

I wonder if there are any categories in this playlist, so some songs rotate faster than others. I can't decipher any. I see Anne Murray and Barbra Streisand back to back. I see three 1970s songs out of four at the end, Gordon Lightfoot, Seals & Crofrts and Gladys Knight. Except for Believe by Cher, there are no songs from the 1990s. Which means almost everything is at least 30-40 years old.

I'm not complaining. It sounds good to me. But I also don't want Cumulus to decide a year from now "Soft AC doesn't work. Let's try something else."

As I'm listening, the station is automated. I see Love 105 uses the Cumulus syndicated Bob & Sheri in mornings. I assume the Soft AC songs continue to play, with only Bob & Sheri's chatter as part of the morning show. In the evening, it runs the syndicated John Tesh Intelligence for Your Life. Is there a weekday DJ in middays or PM drive?
Click to expand...

There is a local DJ middays, and Jay does PM Drive I believe.

This is the second attempt at "Love" and the last iteration had moderate success, given the limited reach of the signals (105.1 covers the southern suburbs, 105.7 covers dowtown and the inner-ring suburbs (very weak signal) and 105.3 covers the far northern suburbs, leaving gaps and weak signals in between). This is really a story of "Cumulus didn't know what it was doing" as the station had it's MOST successful run as a straight up AC after the heritage WLTE flipped to Country, I think at one point pulling in higher ratings than most full power stations (during an "All-Christmas" run that year). Then, few months later, while still being the highest ratings the simulcast has ever seen as a mainstream AC format, Cumulus flipped the trio to "The Ticket" in a market with a very strong local FM sports station (KFXN), and an AM already proving that a mostly syndicated sports format just doesn't do well here (KSTP-AM).

To this day, the frequencies have failed to relive the "glory days" of the end of the original "Love" run, although a 1.8 for 3 weak signals really isn't that bad (and probably the best the station could hope for under normal circumstances, as anything higher would likely prompt a flip by another "full power" station to kill it off). Hopefully leadership at Cumulus finally understands the limits of the frequencies, and that the original intent was to kill off a competitor of their "rock" formats here.
 
I thought it was a mistake on Cumulus' part to not restore the Mainstream AC format that once brought the 105's very respectable ratings. However, the programming currently airing on those frequencies is the next best thing!
 
Just looked at their playlist over the last 36 hours. Mostly 70s/80s/90s/2000s titles now and no 1960s.
 
The July numbers are at a 2.0, climbing a bit from the 1.2 in February.
It will be interesting if they can keep moving up a bit.

If my memory is good, I think they hit close to a 4 share before the 'Less-Cume' wisdom took hold and flip it to the 'Ticket".

Enjoy some songs and sometimes it just a little too slow for me.
 
Lester_the_NightFly said:
The July numbers are at a 2.0, climbing a bit from the 1.2 in February.
It will be interesting if they can keep moving up a bit.

If my memory is good, I think they hit close to a 4 share before the 'Less-Cume' wisdom took hold and flip it to the 'Ticket".

Enjoy some songs and sometimes it just a little too slow for me.
Click to expand...

A 2.0 is probably the best the station can hope for, honestly. If they went straight AC and pulled in much higher, I'm still convinced that someone at IHM or CBS would see that and flip something to kill them off. The 4 share they had was during an all-Christmas month after WLTE had flipped, and KQQL had relegated Christmas music to the weekends, IIRC.

Either way, a 2.0 should be considered a success for the stations, for any owner that understands the limitations of the signals (especially now that 105.7 operates at translator level powers, it barely covers the City of License anymore!)
 
Soft AC?

I've heard Cher's "Believe" on this station. I wouldn't call that Soft AC.
 
 
Here's what Love has played between 8 and 9:30pm - 05/04/2021:

  • Time After Time
    Cyndi Lauper

    9:32 PM

  • Rock With You
  • Michael Jackson
    9:27 PM
  • If This Is It
    Huey Lewis & The News
    9:24 PM
  • I'll Stand By You
    Pretenders
    9:18 PM
  • Tragedy
    Bee Gees
    9:05 PM
  • No One Is to Blame
    Howard Jones
    9:01 PM
  • You Can't Change That
    Raydio
    8:56 PM
  • Hold Me Now
    Thompson Twins
    8:51 PM
  • Ride Like the Wind
    Christopher Cross
    8:47 PM
  • Diamond Girl
    Seals & Crofts
    8:36 PM
  • Crazy Love
    Poco
    8:33 PM
  • I Can See Clearly Now
    Jimmy Cliff
    8:28 PM
  • Rosanna
    Toto
    8:24 PM
  • Manic Monday
    The Bangles
    8:20 PM
  • Bette Davis Eyes
    Kim Carnes
    8:08 PM
  • I Just Called To Say I Love You
    Stevie Wonder
 
"Tragedy" sticks out as the least "soft" song in this lineup of familiar, bland hits of the '70 and '80s, but it seems just about everything the Bee Gees recorded after "Jive Talkin'" is OK with soft AC listeners today, regardless of tempo and vocal pyrotechnics. Several of these songs are examples of soft AC making a strong effort not to sound too sleepy and be too attractive to elderly listeners. I assume Crystal Gayle, Barbra Streisand, Anne Murray and friends have been jettisoned into the "Do Not Play Ever Again" bin.
 
CTListener said:
"Tragedy" sticks out as the least "soft" song in this lineup of familiar, bland hits of the '70 and '80s, but it seems just about everything the Bee Gees recorded after "Jive Talkin'" is OK with soft AC listeners today, regardless of tempo and vocal pyrotechnics. Several of these songs are examples of soft AC making a strong effort not to sound too sleepy and be too attractive to elderly listeners. I assume Crystal Gayle, Barbra Streisand, Anne Murray and friends have been jettisoned into the "Do Not Play Ever Again" bin.
Click to expand...

I really can't fault any song in this list, even Tragedy.
 
RadioGuyMN said:
Here's what Love has played between 8 and 9:30pm - 05/04/2021:

  • Time After Time
    Cyndi Lauper

    9:32 PM

  • Rock With You
  • Michael Jackson
    9:27 PM
  • If This Is It
    Huey Lewis & The News
    9:24 PM
  • I'll Stand By You
    Pretenders
    9:18 PM
  • Tragedy
    Bee Gees
    9:05 PM
  • No One Is to Blame
    Howard Jones
    9:01 PM
  • You Can't Change That
    Raydio
    8:56 PM
  • Hold Me Now
    Thompson Twins
    8:51 PM
  • Ride Like the Wind
    Christopher Cross
    8:47 PM
  • Diamond Girl
    Seals & Crofts
    8:36 PM
  • Crazy Love
    Poco
    8:33 PM
  • I Can See Clearly Now
    Jimmy Cliff
    8:28 PM
  • Rosanna
    Toto
    8:24 PM
  • Manic Monday
    The Bangles
    8:20 PM
  • Bette Davis Eyes
    Kim Carnes
    8:08 PM
  • I Just Called To Say I Love You
    Stevie Wonder
Click to expand...
Here's nonprofit WJMJ Hartford, CT, with its broader-based take on soft rock, mixing in some oldies as well:


LiveBeatles - Get Back
16:07Culture Club - Do You Really Want To Hurt Me
15:55Michael Jackson - Billie Jean
15:44Billy Joel - She's Always A Woman
15:40Stevie Nicks - Talk to Me
15:37Dee Clark - Raindrops
15:34Barbra Streisand - Stoney End
15:31Phil Collins - Against All Odds
15:26Crosby, Stills & Nash - Suite: Judy Blue Eyes
15:20Paul Simon - Mother and Child Reunion
15:16Gregory Abbott - Shake You Down
15:12John Legend - All Of Me
15:10Dusty Springfield - Son Of A Preacher Man
15:07Carole King - I Feel The Earth Move
 
 
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