Cities 97 Sampler

The Cities 97.1 Sampler (also titled Cities Sampler and The Cities' Sampler) was a series of albums, cassette tapes and CDs containing "live in studio" recordings from Studio C located at radio station Cities 97.1, KTCZ-FM in Minneapolis at 97.1 MHz. It occasionally contained live tracks recorded from local concerts in the Twin Cities. It was released annually during the holidays from 1989 to 2018. New volumes would appear each November at local Target stores in time for Christmas gifts. In later years the sampler was also available on Target.com. Proceeds benefited Minnesota charitable organizations. The albums, cassettes and CDs usually generated over $500,000 every year for Minnesota charities. In the last several years, the recordings sold quickly, disappearing within minutes in many stores.

The 16th volume, released on November 11, 2004, had a print run of about 35,000 copies. In Forest Lake, Minnesota, the local Target store ran out of its shipment of discs in seven minutes.

On October 1, 2018, KTCZ-FM announced that the upcoming sampler (volume 30) would be the last. It sold out in stores the same day and online later that night after a technical glitch was resolved freeing the remaining copies for online purchase. Throughout the 30 years of its run, the sampler raised over $13 million for Minnesota non-profits and charities.