KNXR (97.5

MHz The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose expression in terms of SI base units is s−1, meaning that one h ...

) is a

commercial Commercial may refer to: * a dose of advertising conveyed through media (such as - for example - radio or television) ** Radio advertisement ** Television advertisement * (adjective for:) commerce, a system of voluntary exchange of products and s ...

radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radi ...

Rochester, Minnesota Rochester is a city in the U.S. state of Minnesota and the county seat of Olmsted County. Located on rolling bluffs on the Zumbro River's south fork in Southeast Minnesota, the city is the home and birthplace of the renowned Mayo Clinic. Ac ...

. It broadcasts a

classic hits Classic hits is a radio format which generally includes songs from the top 40 music charts from the late 1960s to the early 2000s, with music from the 1980s serving as the core of the format. Music that was popularized by MTV in the early 198 ...

radio format A radio format or programming format (not to be confused with broadcast programming) describes the overall content broadcast on a radio station. The radio format emerged mainly in the United States in the 1950s, at a time when radio was compelle ...

and is owned by John Linder and Lynn Ketelsen, through Blooming Prairie Farm Radio, Inc. The

radio studio A recording studio is a specialized facility for sound recording, mixing, and audio production of instrumental or vocal musical performances, spoken words, and other sounds. They range in size from a small in-home project studio large en ...

s and offices are on 16th Avenue NW in Rochester. The

transmitter In electronics and telecommunications, a radio transmitter or just transmitter is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna. The transmitter itself generates a radio frequency alternating current, which is applied to ...

site and

tower A tower is a tall structure, taller than it is wide, often by a significant factor. Towers are distinguished from masts by their lack of guy-wires and are therefore, along with tall buildings, self-supporting structures. Towers are specifi ...

are on 70th Avenue NE (County Highway 119) at Silver Creek Road in Rochester. With its

effective radiated power Effective radiated power (ERP), synonymous with equivalent radiated power, is an IEEE standardized definition of directional radio frequency (RF) power, such as that emitted by a radio transmitter. It is the total power in watts that would ...

(ERP) of 100,000

watt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named after James Wa ...

s and in

height above average terrain Height above average terrain (HAAT), or (less popularly) effective height above average terrain (EHAAT), is the vertical position of an antenna site is above the surrounding landscape. HAAT is used extensively in FM radio and television, as it ...

(HAAT), KNXR can be heard through much of southern

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the List of U.S. states and territories by population, 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minne ...

, western

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

and northern

Iowa Iowa () is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wiscon ...

History

Beautiful Music

KNXR

signed on Signing may refer to: * Using sign language * Signature, placing one's name on a document * Signature (disambiguation) * Manual communication, signing as a form of communication using the hands in place of the voice * Digital signature A dig ...

the air on

Christmas Eve Christmas Eve is the evening or entire day before Christmas Day, the festival commemorating the birth of Jesus. Christmas Day is observed around the world, and Christmas Eve is widely observed as a full or partial holiday in anticipati ...

, . The station had a

beautiful music Beautiful music (sometimes abbreviated as BM, B/EZ or BM/EZ for "beautiful music/easy listening") is a mostly instrumental music format that was prominent in North American radio from the late 1950s through the 1980s. Easy listening, elevator m ...

format and had its studios in the Rochester

Holiday Inn Holiday Inn is an American chain of hotels based in Atlanta, Georgia. and a brand of IHG Hotels & Resorts. The chain was founded in 1952 by Kemmons Wilson, who opened the first location in Memphis, Tennessee that year. The chain was a divisio ...

. KNXR played quarter hour sweeps of mostly instrumental

cover version In popular music, a cover version, cover song, remake, revival, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording by a musician other than the original performer or composer of the song. Originally, it referred to a version of a song relea ...

s of popular songs, as well as

Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street **Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...

and

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywoo ...

show tunes. It also featured

John Doremus John Doremus (August 3, 1931 in Sapulpa, Oklahoma – July 6, 1995 in Naperville, Illinois) was an American radio personality, best known for his radio syndication of '' The Passing Parade'', a series of short stories of remarkable but relativel ...

' program ''Patterns in Music'', weeknights from 7 to 10 pm. Over time, more soft vocals were added to the

playlist A playlist is a list of video or audio files that can be played back on a media player either sequentially or in a shuffled order. In its most general form, an audio playlist is simply a list of songs, but sometimes a loop. The term has sev ...

although the station remained largely instrumental until January 31, 2015. The station's first hour was rebroadcast on Christmas Eve 2015 to mark the 50th anniversary of the station's first radio broadcast. While operating as an

easy listening Easy listening (including mood music) is a popular music genre and radio format that was most popular during the 1950s to 1970s. It is related to middle-of-the-road (MOR) music and encompasses instrumental recordings of standards, hit songs, ...

station, KNXR had a devoted following, on the strongest FM signal in Rochester. It often made the

Arbitron ratings Nielsen Audio (formerly Arbitron) is a consumer research company in the United States that collects listener data on radio broadcasting audiences. It was founded as the American Research Bureau by Jim Seiler in 1949 and became national by merging ...

for the Minneapolis-St. Paul

radio market A media market, broadcast market, media region, designated market area (DMA), television market area, or simply market is a region where the population can receive the same (or similar) television and radio station offerings, and may also incl ...

, 85 miles away.

Ownership Change

In October 2014, longtime owner Thomas H. Jones announced he would sell KNXR for $1.1 million to Hometown Broadcasting, which owned

KQAQ KQAQ (970 AM) is a radio station broadcasting a religious format. Licensed to Austin, Minnesota, United States, the station serves the Austin-Albert Lea and Rochester, MN areas. The station is currently owned by Real Presence Radio of Grand Forks ...

and KQPR in

Albert Lea Albert Lea may refer to: *Albert Lea, Minnesota, U.S. * Albert Lea Township, Freeborn County, Minnesota, U.S. *Albert Miller Lea Albert Miller Lea (July 23, 1808 – January 16, 1891) was an American engineer, soldier, and topographer with th ...

(the former has since been sold to

Real Presence Radio Real Presence Radio is a lay apostolate Catholic talk radio network in the United States, with stations and translators (low power re-broadcasters) in North Dakota, Minnesota, South Dakota, Wisconsin, and Wyoming covering five states an ...

, while the latter has been sold to D&Z Media). The sale closed on January 30, 2015, and KNXR went silent at 1 a.m. the following day. On February 24, 2015, after a couple of hours of stunting with the local audio feed from

NOAA Weather Radio NOAA Weather Radio NWR; also known as NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards is an automated 24-hour network of VHF FM weather radio stations in the United States (U.S.) that broadcast weather information directly from a nearby National Weather Serv ...

, KNXR flipped to a

Hot Adult Contemporary Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quiet ...

format, branded as "97.5 Pulse FM". Jones retained the station's vast Easy Listening music library, and some of the personality programming, in an online streaming station a
97five.com
Despite the station's ratings improving, the "Pulse FM" format was short lived. In December 2015, Hometown Broadcasting announced it would sell KNXR for $3.2 million to Lynn Ketelsen and John Linder's Blooming Prairie Farm Radio (owners of KOWZ (now

KFOW KFOW (1170 AM broadcasting, AM) is a commercial radio, commercial radio station City of license, licensed to Waseca, Minnesota and serving South Central Minnesota. The station is owned by the Linder Radio Group and broadcasts a talk radio radio ...

) and KOWZ-FM in Blooming Prairie). The sale was completed on February 29, 2016.

Classic Hits

On March 4, 97.5 began stunting with a loop of "

Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport "Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport" is a song written by Australian singer Rolf Harris in 1957 which became a hit around the world in the 1960s in two recordings (1960 in Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom for the original, and 1963 in the ...

" by

Rolf Harris Rolf Harris (born 30 March 1930) is an Australian entertainer whose career has encompassed work as a musician, singer-songwriter, composer, comedian, actor, painter and television personality. He often used unusual instruments in his performan ...

, along with recorded announcements that a "new radio station is coming to Rochester." The station promoted its new format, ready to launch on March 7. At noon, March 7, 2016, KNXR became "Minnesota 97.5" with a

format. The first song to air as "Minnesota 97.5" was "

Hotel California "Hotel California" is the title track from the Eagles' album of the same name and was released as a single in February 1977. Writing credits for the song are shared by Don Felder (music), Don Henley, and Glenn Frey (lyrics). Joe Walsh came up ...

" by

The Eagles The Eagles are an American rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1971. With five number-one singles and six number-one albums, six Grammy Awards and five American Music Awards, the Eagles were one of the most successful musical acts of the 1970s ...

.KNXR Becomes Minnesota 97.5
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References

External links