Love 105 Minneapolis - More Adventurous Soft AC?

I'm listening to Love 105, one of the dozen or so Soft AC stations now in large North American markets. It's the only one owned by Cumulus, debuting a few days after Christmas. And I think it has a more adventurous play list. Here's what was played on Love 105 between 8pm and 9:30 this evening, Central Time, while using the syndicated John Tesh Intelligence for Your Life Show...

Chuck Mangione--Feels So Good
Edward Bear--The Last Song
The Pointer Singers--He's So Shy
10cc--The Things We Do for Love
Jim Croce--I'll Have to Say I Love You in A Song
Howard Jones--No One Is to Blame
The Beatles--Let It Be
Chicago--Hard to Say I'm Sorry
The BeeGees--More Than A Woman
Marc Cohn--Walking in Memphis
Crystal Gayle--Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue?
Olivia Newton-John--Suddenly
Eric Carmen--All By Myself
Whitney Houston--I Want to Dance with Somebody
Art Garfunkle--All I Know
Michael Johnson--Almost Like Being in Love

I think this sounds good. But it is a bit older and softer than the Cox, iHeart and Entercom Soft AC stations. I'm not sure they play the Beatles or BeeGees much due to their age. And I guess you wouldn't find the Chuck Mangione, Art Garfunkle, Michael Johnson, Crystal Gayle and Edward Bear songs, even though I like them. They might be deemed too soft and a bit unfamiliar.

Love 105 is actually three FM signals at 105.1, 105.3 and 105.7, each powered at between 1,000 and 25,000 watts, competing with mostly 100,000 watt stations in the Twin Cities market. So if this station can gain at least middle-of-the-pack ratings, it will be a success.

I took a look at their online playlist a few days ago, Definitely some interesting titles there. Will their library be a benchmark for future Cumulus 'Breeze' stations?

Who is programming the station?
I know the last Love 105 PD left several years back.

Gregg. said:

I'm listening to Love 105, one of the dozen or so Soft AC stations now in large North American markets. It's the only one owned by Cumulus, debuting a few days after Christmas. And I think it has a more adventurous play list. Here's what was played on Love 105 between 8pm and 9:30 this evening, Central Time, while using the syndicated John Tesh Intelligence for Your Life Show...

Chuck Mangione--Feels So Good
Edward Bear--The Last Song
The Pointer Singers--He's So Shy
10cc--The Things We Do for Love
Jim Croce--I'll Have to Say I Love You in A Song
Howard Jones--No One Is to Blame
The Beatles--Let It Be
Chicago--Hard to Say I'm Sorry
The BeeGees--More Than A Woman
Marc Cohn--Walking in Memphis
Crystal Gayle--Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue?
Olivia Newton-John--Suddenly
Eric Carmen--All By Myself
Whitney Houston--I Want to Dance with Somebody
Art Garfunkle--All I Know
Michael Johnson--Almost Like Being in Love

I think this sounds good. But it is a bit older and softer than the Cox, iHeart and Entercom Soft AC stations. I'm not sure they play the Beatles or BeeGees much due to their age. And I guess you wouldn't find the Chuck Mangione, Art Garfunkle, Michael Johnson, Crystal Gayle and Edward Bear songs, even though I like them.

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I don't think I've heard "Suddenly" on any station for at least 20 years, "All I Know" for at least 30. I would imagine those songs will be the first to fall by the wayside if the idea is to throw stuff at the wall and sweep up what doesn't stick as a way to tighten up the playlist on the fly.

CTListener said:

I don't think I've heard "Suddenly" on any station for at least 20 years, "All I Know" for at least 30. I would imagine those songs will be the first to fall by the wayside if the idea is to throw stuff at the wall and sweep up what doesn't stick as a way to tighten up the playlist on the fly.

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I agree...when I saw "Suddenly," I thought Billy Ocean. I'd play THAT song in this format. Not ONJ. That song by her was not really a hit. Not compared to Magic.

TheBigA said:

I agree...when I saw "Suddenly," I thought Billy Ocean. I'd play THAT song in this format. Not ONJ. That song by her was not really a hit. Not compared to Magic.

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It came out between two much bigger singles of hers -- "Xanadu" and "Physical." Hit No. 4 AC, but not big at CHR in 1980, a year in which AC crossovers were still doing well. It's one of those big AC hits that I find myself humming along with at the supermarket but never hear on the radio. Vanessa Williams' "Colors of the Wind" is another. So far, I have yet to hear it on The Breeze here (WWYZ HD2).

CTListener said:

No. 4 AC, but not big at CHR in 1980,

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Still, the Billy Ocean song was a 2 week #1 on the AC chart. MUCH bigger hit. Billy doesn't get much respect today.

It wouldn't surprise me if it's a scheduling mistake.

TheBigA said:

Still, the Billy Ocean song was a 2 week #1 on the AC chart. MUCH bigger hit. Billy doesn't get much respect today.

It wouldn't surprise me if it's a scheduling mistake.

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Not with all those other oddities on the playlist. If you toss out the '80s and '90s titles, this station would sound just like the original CBS soft-rock stations of the '70s (WEEI-FM, WMGK, etc.) Those stations played Garfunkel, Michael Johnson, etc. a lot. Either Cumulus thinks these songs stand up today or a local programmer is going out on a limb.

CTListener said:

Either Cumulus thinks these songs stand up today or a local programmer is going out on a limb.

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I would wonder how old some of those programmers are. How familiar are they with the music they're scheduling?

I wouldn't assume they're actually in the demo of this format.

TheBigA said:

I would wonder how old some of those programmers are. How familiar are they with the music they're scheduling?

I wouldn't assume they're actually in the demo of this format.

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Betcha By Golly Wow -- The Stylistics
She's Not There -- The Zombies
Sweet Surrender -- Bread
Rich Girl -- Hall and Oates
Love Is Blue -- Paul Mauriat
I Love You -- Climax Blues Band
Throwing It All Away -- Genesis
The One You Love -- Glenn Frey
Guilty -- Barbra Streisand and Barry Gibb
Sunshine on My Shoulders -- John Denver

All played within the past two hours! No "You Light Up My Life" or "Muskrat Love" yet, but neither would surprise me. These guys have obviously decided to swim against the prevailing Soft AC current. Could any research be behind a playlist like this? I mean, if you're going to play Bread and Glenn Frey, why on earth would you choose THOSE songs?

Love 105 is a Cumulus station. Is this going to be a standard soft a/c playlist for them company wide? It's like a modern day Music Of Your Life.

I've heard Jay Philpott is doing the programming.
If that is correct it will be interesting how well will it do and how long will they let him continue with this blend...

DavidEduardo said:

Love is Blue... really?

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Probably about 10 years ago, Love Is Blue came back in the music test at the Oldies station I was at as playable.

I introed it once saying "Right this moment, an elevator is opening its doors right now."

I probably played all of these songs (except for Mauriat) at AC at some point in my career. I can imagine them testing, but only if you're testing 55+.

Everybody keeps saying that we shouldn't ignore the spending power of Baby Boomers. I guess we're about to find out if they're right.

Jay Philpott is certainly no rookie PD so they must be doing continuous testing. Have any odd songs dropped from the playlist yet?

Weren't some of these older, easy titles played on the Dove in Tampa 10 years ago? (Bread, Michael Johnson etc.)?

eriedj said:

Jay Philpott is certainly no rookie PD so they must be doing continuous testing. Have any odd songs dropped from the playlist yet?

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Nope. Latest "last songs played" include "One Less Bell to Answer," "The Love You Save," "Knock Three Times," "How Much I Feel," "You Are So Beautiful" and another oh-wow deep hit from Bread, "Diary." Other left-field hits from more recent artists include Taylor Dayne's "Love Will Lead You Back" and Roxette's "It Must Have Been Love."

CTListener said:

Other left-field hits from more recent artists include Taylor Dayne's "Love Will Lead You Back" and Roxette's "It Must Have Been Love."

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I wouldn't consider either of those songs left-field hits. Both songs are 1990-ish, so you could probably get them to test for any AC if you weren't ruling it out for tempo.

Now if you told me they played Joyride or Fading Like A Flower, I'd ask WTF. But It Must Have Been Love is right up there with The Look among Roxette songs that people would still remember and like.

johndavis said:

I wouldn't consider either of those songs left-field hits. Both songs are 1990-ish, so you could probably get them to test for any AC if you weren't ruling it out for tempo.

Now if you told me they played Joyride or Fading Like A Flower, I'd ask WTF. But It Must Have Been Love is right up there with The Look among Roxette songs that people would still remember and like.

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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.