[5][6] The easy listening format proved to be popular as more people acquired FM receivers and offices played WLOL-FM for their employees and visitors.

[8] On August 20, Liggett, with a staff of nine disc jockeys, debuted a new soft adult contemporary station as Easy Rockin' FM 100 WLOL.

In 1982, an Indianapolis-based consortium headed by Jeff Smulyan acquired WLOL-FM for $6 million, a record price at the time for a Minnesota radio station.

[14] The station peaked in the ratings in 1984 with a 9.9 share, closely behind second-place KSTP-FM and well ahead of direct format competitor KDWB.

Local artists such as Prince & The Revolution, Morris Day & The Time, Information Society, Alexander O'Neal and The Jets all received support from WLOL.

KDWB and its morning show host, Steve Cochran, jumped ahead of a slumping WLOL and would, from that point on, be the dominant CHR station in the market.

[15] Playing catch-up, WLOL started tweaking the programming and air staff, including shaking up its longtime morning show.

[17][18] Labeling itself as "Today's Best Music", 99.5 WLOL hired a new airstaff and rejuvenated itself in the minds of listeners, managing a ratings improvement.

To solve this problem, the university signed on KSJN at 91.1 MHz, originally licensed to the northern Twin Cities suburb of New Brighton.

MPR purchased WLOL's 1330 kHz facility in 1980 and relaunched it as a dedicated news and talk service centered around NPR programming.

[19][21] Emmis took some steps toward enabling another commercial radio owner to pick up WLOL, going as far as to provide such a blueprint to other FM stations in the Twin Cities market.

WLOL's final broadcast culminated with a day-long farewell, playing music and jingles from the station's nearly 10 year-long Top 40/CHR era.

Current and former airstaff offered farewell messages, and advertisements from KQRS-FM, KEEY-FM (where morning host John Hines later landed) and even KDWB redirected listeners to their stations.

At 6:30 p.m., WLOL left the air with a half-hour montage of clips from songs played by the station during the Top 40/CHR era, followed by a sign-off announcement from Hines and "Miss You Much" by Janet Jackson.

In addition, liners were played in between songs with KDWB wishing WLOL "happy trails" and redirecting listeners to their station.

The historic WLOL call letters were soon claimed by KXLV, a station located north of the Twin Cities in Cambridge at 105.3 FM.