Cumulus Media has relaunched the “Love 105” brand on its 105.1 WGVX Lakeville, 105.3 WLUP Cambridge, and 105.7 WWWM-FM Eden Prairie/Minneapolis trimulcast.
Dropping Classic Hip-Hop “105 The Vibe“, the trimulcast has gone into all-Christmas mode as “The Twin Cities Christmas Station” with a shift to a Gold based AC to follow after the holidays. Longtime Twin Cities vet and current 92.5 KQRS evening host Jay Philpott will serve as APD/afternoon host for Love 105.
The “Love 105” brand originally debuted in May 2007 with a Soft Oldies format under ABC’s ownership that eventually evolved to AC following the demise of 102.9 WLTE in December 2011. The station hit a peak 3.1 share in the February 2012 Nielsen Audio ratings, but by April 2013 had flipped to Sports “105 The Ticket“. The flip to Classic Hip-Hop followed in August 2015. The stations held a 0.8 share in the October 2018 ratings.
The new incarnation of the brand will go after the current 1-2 punch in the market of Hubbard Hot AC “KS 95” 94.5 KSTP-FM and iHeartMedia Classic Hits “Kool 108” 107.9 KQQL in filling the missing AC hole in the market. KSTP-FM currently leads the market with a 7.5 share and KQQL in second with a 6.7.
CUMULUS MEDIA announces that it will deliver the best of the holiday season to Christmas music lovers in the Twin Cities with the launch of its all-Christmas music station, WGVX/LOVE 105. LOVE 105 turned on the holiday cheer in a big way with the warm sounds of the season, launching Wednesday, November 7th at 12:00am Midnight with the Christmas favorite, “Let it Snow” by Dean Martin. LOVE 105 will play all Christmas music, all the time, and will offer a nostalgic and fun-filled soundtrack of holiday classics to help listeners make the holiday memories of a lifetime doing the things they love with the people and the music they love most. LOVE 105 will move to an Oldies AC format after the holidays.
Shelly Wilkes, Vice President/Market Manager, CUMULUS MEDIA-Minneapolis/St. Paul, said: ?“LOVE 105 was a very successful format for us and we are excited to return to it.”
Scott Jameson, Vice President, Classic Rock, CUMULUS MEDIA, and Operations Manager, CUMULUS MEDIA-Minneapolis/St. Paul, said: “The snow is already falling in Minnesota, creating a perfect backdrop for the greatest holiday songs ever made. LOVE 105 is back!”
Mark W.
This move is so ridiculously overdue that it ain’t even funny!!! ABOUT TIME!!!
Love 105 had about a 3 share in ages 6+ when the original incarnation of the AC format was viciously dumped in favor of Sports/Talk. Love 105 by far was the biggest ratings success on these signals in at least 20 years. One would’ve thought the death of Lite 102.9 would’ve meant long-term stability for Love 105. Thanks to the gruesome twosome of John Dickey and Jan Jeffries – it wasn’t so.
I believe the Sports/Talk format – which largely relied on garbage programming from CBS Sports Radio – never fared better than a 0.5 share.
The people calling the shots at Go 96.3 are absolute fools for not going Adult Contemporary after ditching the Twins.