KNXR

KNXR (97.5 FM) is an FM radio station in Rochester, Minnesota. The station's transmitter site and 1,040 foot tower are located directly east of Rochester, off County Highway 119. With the station broadcasting at 100,000 watts and with the prime location and height of the tower, KNXR broadcasts can often be heard throughout much of southern Minnesota, western Wisconsin and northern Iowa.
History.
The station began broadcasting on Christmas Eve 1965. Until January 31, 2015, the station played easy listening music, and featured John Doremus' program "Patterns in Music", weeknights from 7 to 10 pm. The station's first hour was rebroadcast on Christmas Eve 2015 to mark the 50th anniversary of their first terrestrial radio broadcast. While operating as a beautiful music station, KNXR had a very devoted following, on the strongest FM signal in Rochester.
Hometown Broadcasting of Rochester had launched a Hot Adult Contemporary format in February 2015 after buying KNXR, from longtime owner Tom Jones. Jones has retained the station's vast Easy Listening music library, and some of the personality programming, in an online streaming station at 97five.com.
2016 purchase.
On February 29, 2016, Lynn Ketelsen and John Linder's Blooming Prairie Farm Radio completed its purchase of KNXR, and on March 6, 97.5 began stunting with a loop of "Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport" by Rolf Harris (along with various announcements that a "new radio station is coming to Rochester") promoting a new format to launch the following day at noon. On its last play, the song was immediately interrupted at the middle in which at that time, KNXR became "Minnesota 97.5" with a classic hits format. The first song to air as "Minnesota 97.5" is "Hotel California" by The Eagles.