The ramp-up to a major station concert isn’t always a guaranteed ratings winner. Sometimes the boost comes afterwards when the programming goes back to normal. But Adult Top 40 KXMB (Mix 94.1) Las Vegas just posted its best PPM-era numbers, up 7.0–7.7 6-plus in September, and leading the market 6-plus. And PD Charese Fruge, who also programs sister KSCF (Sophie 103.7) San Diego, credits the station’s upcoming expo/station show, “Bite Of Las Vegas,” to be held Oct. 15.

"A lot of our success in September was largely due to the launch of promotion on the fifteenth anniversary of Mix 94.1’s Bite of Las Vegas featuring O.A.R., Colbie Caillat, Mat Kearney, Michelle Branch, 100 Monkeys and two big Las Vegas bands: the Cab and Imagine Dragons. This is a signature event for us and features food from over forty of Las Vegas’ best restaurants.

“In addition to this we sent winners to Cape Town, South Africa to see Coldplay and put winners up close and personal with signature artists like Train, Maroon 5, Matt Nathanson and the Smashing Pumpkins. Our strategy has always [meant being] ‘larger than life.’ That combined with our amazing on air staff and marketing department [marketing director Stacie Schmidt and promotions coordinator Kyle Helmick, who was just upped to cluster NTR director] helped us to achieve No. 1 in all demos this month. We are extremely grateful and proud of our team!”

Like “Bite Of Las Vegas,” Mix 94.1 goes back fifteen years to the early days of the Modern AC boom. Its longtime morning show, Mark & Mercedes, goes back more than a decade and was one of the format’s most-watched shows. (Stream the station now and very funny Mark & Mercedes bits represent almost all of the stopset filler.) For many years, the makeup of the CBS cluster gave Mix 94.1 a wide berth between Rhythmic Top 40 KLUC and Active/Alternative Rock hybrid KXTE (then X-Treme 107.5). Mix 94.1 was the pop Top 40 station for a market that had gone happily for many years without a true Top 40.

Since then, however, the market has gotten two new Top 40 outlets, KFRH (Now 102.7) and KPLV (All The Hits 93.1), which pull eight shares between them. KLUC has followed Rhythmic’s more pop lean, while KXTE has long moved to a more mainstream Alternative format, one of two in the market. None of which seems to deprive the station of a franchise. 25+’s “Fresh Listen” to the station finds it very carefully balanced between Modern AC, harder Alternative crossovers (long a part of the station), and pop under Fruge and MD Brandon Bell.

Here’s KMXB at 12:35 on Thursday, Oct. 6:

Muse, “Uprising”
Third Eye Blind, “How’s It Going To Be?”
Katy Perry, “E.T.”
30 Seconds To Mars, “Closer (To The Edge)”
O.A.R., “Heaven”
Adele, “Someone Like You”
David Cook, “Come Back To Me”
Black Eyed Peas, “Just Can’t Get Enough”
Linkin Park, “In The End”
The Script, “Nothing”
Kelly Clarkson, “Walk Away”
Red Hot Chili Peppers, “The Adventures Of Rain Dance Maggie”
Onerepublic, “Good Life”
Green Day, “Boulevard Of Broken Dreams”
Pink, “Raise Your Glass”