Update 12/25: CBS moved up the debut of “Buz’n 102.9” to this evening at 6pm.
The first hour consisted of:
Jason Aldean – My Kinda Party
Taylor Swift – You Belong With Me
Rascal Flatts – Life Is A Highway
Jake Owen – Barefoot Blue Jean Night
Carrie Underwood – Cowboy Casanova
Blake Shelton – God Gave Me You
Zac Brown Band – Chicken Fried
Chris Young – You
George Strait – Wrapped
The Band Perry – You Lie
Dierks Bentley – Home
Brooks & Dunn – Boot Scootin’ Boogie
Keith Urban – Sweet Thing
David Nail – Let It Rain
Little Big Town – Little White Church
Rodney Atkins – Take A Back Road
Billy Currington – People Are Crazy
Update 12/19: CBS has announced that WLTE will flip to Country as “Buz’n Country 102.9” on Monday, December 26 at 8:00am. Branded as “New Buz’n Country” the station will focus on a hit driven current based presentation.
The station, which will be heard on-air, online at http://www.buzn1029.com and through the Radio.com app on mobile devices will feature popular country music and artists including the newest releases and hits from Taylor Swift, Kenny Chesney, Jason Aldean, Brad Paisley, The Band Perry, and Lady Antebellum. In addition, the station will offer wall to wall country news and information online and through social networks, as well as coverage of all major country music events and happenings, and local concerts from the biggest names in the country community.
The move pits WLTE against Clear Channel’s market leading “K102” KEEY while leaving the market without any Mainstream AC. Hubbard Hot AC “KS95” KSTP-FM, Cumulus Soft Oldies “Love 105” WGVX, Clear Channel AAA “Cities 97” KTCZ, and CBS Variety Hits “104.1 Jack-FM” KZJK all skirt around the periphery of the AC format but none serve it completely.
Update 12/16: Fresh1029.com and 1029FreshFM.com, both registered way back in June 2010, are now redirecting to WLTE’s website. Real deal or another decoy? The station is teasing “Something Fresh Coming To The Twin Cities” on-air.
Twitter accounts for @1029FreshFM, @1029AmpRadio and @buzn1029 have popped up as well.
A move to Fresh would duplicate the move made at KEZK St. Louis last year, where a similar shift was made to make the former Soft AC more current and younger skewing.
Update 12/12: With the cat out of the bag, a few more domains popped up for 102.9 on Friday. Add 1029Jamz.com, 1029TheTicket.com, AmpRadio1029.com, and Jamz1029.com to the possibilities for WLTE.
Original Report 12/8: Part of what we do with our Domain Insight is monitor trends in how each ownership group handles domain registrations. When it comes to CBS, their usual mode of operation is to register a number of domains at once with lots of decoys.
We whiffed on Monday’s flip of WPBZ West Palm Beach to Adult CHR “Now 103.1” as were were watching a few domains we thought were for KVFG Victorville, CA. Anonymous registrations were made on October 3 for Now1031.com along with decoys Now103.com, Oldies1031.com, Smooth1031.com, TexasCountry103.com, and TexasCountry1031.com.
A similar group of domains were registered for 102.9 on November 3. With AC “Lite 102.9” WLTE being CBS’ only property on that frequency its clear to see the future destination is in the Twin Cities. The domains are: 1029AmpRadio.com, 1029MyFM.com, 1029TheFan.com, 1029TheMix.com, Buzn1029.com, Buzzin1029.com, MyMix1029.com, Now1029.com, OldiesRadio1029.com, and TexasCountry1029.com.
WLTE, which is currently in its seasonal All-Christmas mode, is ranked 16th overall in the market.
MinnPost’s David Brauer reports on the rumors of a change at WLTE in his rundown of the local ratings over the past three years. With a possible change coming to 96.3 KHTC as well, it’s going to be an interesting month in the Twin Cities.
Joseph 
Brian 
John 
FightingIrish 
Ron 
Dan
Could these URL’s be decoys and that CBS Radio may flip WLTE to a simulcast of WCCO-830??
Well…there’s already 100.3 The Fan in the market, so that’s out. Texas Country is a no-brainer. They’ve tried and failed using the Mix name in MSP before (on what is now KZJK).
They have been running teasers this week stating “Something Fresh is coming to Minneapolis, stay to tuned to 102.9”
Add another domain to the silliness. This one actually redirects to the WLTE site:
http://www.fresh1029.com/
This one seems more credible. I highly doubt they’d give up completely on soft AC. It does need serious retooling, though.
@ fightingirish: After being in the industry for 20 years, nothing surprises me anymore
Well if 96.3 is gonna change, I suggest them to fill the void for a mainstream AC station for the Twin Cities, however, they need to find a way to boost their ratings, as WLTE has never preformed well on the Arbitron ratings…
I wonder if KSTP will do anything regarding this change? Or just keep their mainstream Hot AC content? But if they did, it may affect their current ratings, which is doing extremely well and beating out long time competitor KDWB 🙂
I don’t think country is the best choice to switch the station to. Our Soft AC/Lite Rock station in the San Francisco area KOIT is one of the top stations in the Bay Area martket, while out recent country station, which failed in ratings was changed to an FM All Sprots Channel.