Cities 97 Sampler

Our local radio station, 97.1 (aka Cities 97) has a good rapport with many of the musicians who come to town. Quite often, they will stop by the Cities 97 studio to record a few live tracks in the spirit of the MTV unplugged series. Once per year, the best songs are released on a CD, with proceeds going to charity. The CD's are available only at the metro Target stores. Also, only a limited number are produced due to agreements with the artists.

Over the years, this event has gotten to be quite popular. When I first moved to the Twin Cities 6 years ago, you had to look for the CD within about a week of the release date. Three years ago you needed to get to a Target store by noon. Two years ago, they started measuring in minutes. It's worth pointing out that the maximum number of CDs per person has also been reduced. I know it was four (4) a few years ago. This year the maximum was two (2). This is to prevent scalpers from taking advantage of the high demand / low availability. (Highest bid as of 10:38 pm is $38 for a $20 CD).

I stood in line last year, and arrived at about 7:15 (the store opens at 8:00). This year, I arrived at around 7:30, and got my ticket. Yes, a ticket. Some stores were not doing that, prompting a huge mass of humanity charging down the aisles to the CD section. Store managers realized this was bad, and started handing out tickets to people. One ticket per CD. If you have a ticket, you know you'll get a CD.

Above is a picture of the folks in line at the Arden Hills Target store (7:30, temperature was around 25 F).