105.9 "The Brew"
A new classic rock radio station has emerged in the Portland, Oregon market named “The Brew.” Not really having much to do with craft beer, or beer in general, the station at 105.9 on the FM dial, evokes beer imagery to evoke a laid back metaphorical connection to the slacker beer drinking masses. Featuring a range of 1970s to 1990s rock, “The Brew” aka KQOL, is defined by a range of cheesy yet enjoyable hair bands, power ballads, and sure shot all American rock n’ roll favorites.
With sound effects of beer being opened and glugging into a glass, the gimmicky station occasionally interludes with “Drunk dials” where local dudes and dudettes give testimonials of how great the station is. Other promo items include a “Micro Brew sampler” where snippets of featured tracks on the station are unveiled. At the end of the hook laden ditties, a typical FM deejay encourages you to “Drink ’em all.”
The website is all that you’d expect from a local formulaic rock channel, with weird
news clips and scantily clad females (“Babe of the Day”). There is a link to a sign up for “The Brew Crew”, which is sadly just an email list to get you in line with the station’s national affiliates.
In total, “The Brew is nothing new or innovative, and is basically the same as every other mainstream classic rock station anywhere nationwide, with the exception of it being commercial free and promising 10,000 in a row, nonstop.
All and all, the station is enjoyable, but a far cry from how cool a station with its name could be in a market like Portland’s. Beer geeks might find themselves a little offended by the lack of craft beer culture exhibited by “The Brew” but the Barney Gumbles drinkers and Otto Man stoners should surely dig it. If you want real craft beer radio, check out Beer O’Clock with Lisa Morrison, Craft Brew Cast with Christine Jump, or Drinking with Daren on the Cort and Fatboy Show.
To check out “The Brew”‘s website, visit http://www.kqol.com/
About The Author
Angelo
Angelo grew up in Maine and is proud to call New England his original home. Cascadia is now his home. He fell in love with great beer in Oregon, Washington, and Northern California. He has been a correspondent for the Portland Tribune's Guest on Tap column, LivePDX.com, and has been featured in publications such as Beer Northwest and PDX Magazine. Angelo also has a great interest in independent music, and has been a booker and organizer for shows around the Portland under the name Pop Tomorrow! Angelo garnered much knowledge regarding beer from his experiences homebrewing, working at Belmont Station, Pyramid Brewing, Upright Brewing, By the Bottle, Beer Revolution, Olde Depot Public House, Falling Sky Brewing, Cascade Brewing, and from many many knowledgeable, passionate, and loving people along the way. It is Angelo's mission to bring "infotainment" and "edumation" to the readers of this website. If you have any questions or comments, or would like to contribute, please contact me at angelo@brewpublic.com
My 2 favs! Brew and old classic rock! Especially KISS! Welcome to Portland! Your station rocks!
yo yo yo hey play some more of that love medicine joint play the shit outta it till i leave another msg saying stop lol or not do w/e u do station rocks boyeeeee
i mean bon jovi bad medicine sry
Clear Channel owns it. I need to figure out how they can do it commercial free. Dead or Alive and Nothin’ But a Good Time dropped on the Brew today! Woo hoo!
They may play some popular classic rock songs – most of which I like – but please, for the love of god, beware listening to this station throughout your work day.
The automated playlist is painfully repetitive, even within a 9-hour time span. “Bad Medicine” and “Dead or Alive” have definitely lost their touch in the span of a week. :/
They are now implementing commercials.
Went on VK and when I got back heard this new station! Love it. Did I hear that there is a app for the iPhone?
like most of what is played but….how about def leppards older stuff… switch 625 after bringin on the heartbreak, let it go, high n dry, rock brigade…more ozzy… i dont know, flying high again , shot in the dark..billy squier in the dark, scorpions, black sabbath,
steve miller, deep purple, you guys are doing great other than that
For the love of god…John Cougar Mellencamp is POP, not rock. Please, please, quit playing him every 15 minutes. You are making my ears bleed. Love your station, but not your love for John Cougar.
105.9 the Brew needs to make some MAJOR changes with the music! The playlist is STALE!!! And they repeat the songs so often it is ridiculous!
Very poor job with the music! Unless they get some variety in the music that station will be a quick flash in the pants!
The Problem with 105.9 is that it is way too repetitive. We listened to the Brew one day at work, and while we did enjoy some of the songs, we were driven away by the repetition and the fact that they just play the huge hits. They need to dig deeper into the playlist and find some “deeper tracks”.
Another problem with the Brew is that the station sounds “DEAD”.
They need some live dj’s and actually get some contests and listener interaction involved!
How many format has 1059 been through in the last 5 years???
Quite a few! Clear Channel is notorious for putting very little effort into the product that they put on “Over the air”.
Hopefully the Brew will get some Live air talent, and a bigger playlist because A lot of people are checking the station out, but they end of leaving because of the repetition.
MORE VARIETY 1059!
You’re killing us off by playing the same songs everyday!
Thank you!
Mike in Beaverton
Like the music. This my era but I know that there are many more song that can be played of this type. As of now I can’t listen more than a couple of hours a day and the repetition starts to piss me off.
This can be great!
Love the music, but like someone else said, there was WAY more music back then tha what you are playing. Love the station, don’t want to see you gone, so keep playin a bigger variety of songs from that whole decade of songs. Peter Frampton is drivin me nuts.
Chilliwack, The Cars, Judas Priest, White Snake, Loverboy, I think you get the idea.
Keep us listening to the good stuff that we know you got!
oh, and did anyone mention, they speed the songs up just a little. Radio salespeople like that! Listeners hate that, so, this being Clear Channel Corporation, the salespeople win.
Love the station! Here are a few requests that I would love to hear on the Brew
“Perry mason” by Ozzy osbourne
“Run to the Hilla” By Iron Maiden
Agreed….too much repitition….totally down with the format, just play more than the same shizzy all day!
This station rocks. We listen all day at work,and one request we have is that you play some deeper tracks “B sides” not just the big hits. Dig deeper because hearing “living on a prayer” gets really old after a while! We wanna hear Judus Priest, Ozzy, Zeppelin,
Please NO MORE john melloncamp and Bryan Adams! That stuff is overplayed and OVERKILL!
Please get some personality into the station. Let the dj’s have some fun and PLEASE get a killer morning show! Id love some entertainment with my rock!
Thank you!
This station rocks it has the best of the 80’s rock! This station isnt about a stupid a** morning show…they have enough of that!!!!! This station is ALL about the music!!!! Come on people!!??? this station rocks!!!!!!
They have been getting better with the repetive stuff…so many rock songs out there!!! Please play them!!
I was excited when I first listened to this station but today I have decided to turn it off for good. I want to cringe every time I hear Bad Medicine or Every Rose has it’s thorn 3 times within a work day. I have left messages on your recorder from the beginning stating that your station will not last if you don’t start adding some variety. The honeymoon for me is over now, I’m sorry to say, but it is much to annoying to listen to anymore.
That station needs some PERSONALITY big Time! Along with a morning show!
I can’t take hearing the same Crappy John Melloncamp songs every morning!
Get a local morning show and increase the variety of rock!
And If I have to hear “every Rose has its thorn” one more time, Im going to turn my radio off FOR GOOD!
I FREAKIN HATE JOHN MELLONCAMP!!!! The music on the Brew is AWFUL!!! The brew plays the most overplayed, stale songs that nobody wants to hear. REO SPEEDWAGON every 10 minutes and Cheesy Power ballads from Journey! NO THANKS!!!!
The dj’s sound bored and Voice tracked!!! This station has NO PULSE, NO ENERGY, NO NOTHING!! They are giving away Motley Crue Tickets but you can’t even win them on the air, you have to go online and win them!! How ridiculous!
A buddy of mine at work flipped this station on at work and we’ve been listening to this station now for about 2-3 days. I can’t believe how many artists that they repeat. You guys at the Brew are retarded! I’ve freakin heard four different Bon Jovi songs in a span of about an hour and a half!!!! I’m flippin’ back the station to KGON 92.3 THEY KNOW HOW TO PLAY SOME DAMN MUSIC!!!
Hey everybody. This is Angelo of Brewpublic. I am just clarifying, because it seems unclear to many people that WE ARE NOT 105.9 THE BREW! WE ARE A BEER BLOG! If you read what I wrote about the station from its early days, you will see this to be rather evident. People have been emailing us about “our” station. Look, we are Brewpublic, not Comcast. However, if the Brew is reading here, we will gladly accept your advertising dollars since it seems we get more hits than your website. Prost!
I thought I heard a couple of smooth jazz songs on “The Brew” and thought maybe we got our Smooth Jazz Station Back in Portland. Can someone please tell the powers that be that living in a metro area with no Smooth Jazz is not right. I looked up the “Wave” in LA/OC and guess what? the music is alive and well and there are concerts and life everywhere. I thought Peter White, Boney James, the Jazz Masters, etc were dead. They are not, but the Portland Smooth Jazz scene is. No more Country, and boring elevator 60-80’s Please can we get back our station, certainly you cannot be making any money on this canned repetitive waste of a station.
To comment 24. I think The Brew is a whole heck of a lot better than GayGON and their overplayed all cover band all the time crap.
I love the station and recommend it to everybody. The fact that it is commercial free would explain why there is a lack of personality. I like to hear the music not commercials and advertising or dj’s running there mouth. Awesome radio station.
It’s actually chalk full of commercials now with your typical FM deejays. The commercial free thing was just at first. I haven’t listened for some time though…
WOW! it is about freakin time someone in Portland Oregon got some brain cells working and is playing some music with some energy. 105.9 “THE BREW” is off the hook!
This is the only station that I listen to. The music is great! Keep it up.
It is baffling that people think we run this station. Baffling.
Hey Thanks for the kind words for my show. I’m honored that you list me among folks like Lisa Morrison-my Beer Goddess hero!
I love the music you play when I listen to the radio! It is AWESOME!
Happy New Years, Guys!
i love this station i listen day and night im listening kn ow on a saturday, an dloving every minute of it, best station ever love your playlist….. rock on the brew.
I LOVE your station. My cd player broke in my truck and I was going CRAZY, (which I already was, but anyhoo….) scanning stations to find decent music to listen to. Then one day, I found 105.9 THE BREW and I scan no more! The music and you guys are Awesome! Thank you!!!
Was told there were cheap houses that You guys were talking about. Do you have any info on them?
i have traveled the entire country from alaska to florida, and i think that all the people that make the brew what it is should know that you guys rock. i would say you are the best station there is in the nation. when i was living in vegas in 2000, i won tickits to the mgd blind date 2000, it was metalica.you guys are doing a great job with the contests and giving back to the people.i hope everyone of you find a million bucks. keep on rockin
This station has changed a lot. It is now owned by iHeart radio, and there are occasional advertisements. However the DJs are hilarious, especially Tanner/Klinger (hard to differentiate). The Dee Snider show is not, and it’s frankly quite annoying.
The station does seem to pick about 2 favorite songs and just play them over again, but I haven’t noticed it these past couple weeks.
Strange how people think that this site IS the Brew…