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My 102.5 Greenville went all Christmas

AMRocks

AMRocks

They jumped before the usual Christmas station, Magic 98.9, did. (Now, they are both playing Xmas tunes.)
Since their ratings are pretty lackluster, do you think a format change is in store for after Christmas?

I wouldn't be surprised if they went classic hits. Earth-FM has a much worse signal and gets similar ratings to My 102.5
 
This is the first iHeart station I am aware of to go all Christmas nationwide. WMYI hasn’t gone all Christmas in a number of years.

Makes one wonder if a format adjustment or flip could come after Christmas. Entercom normally waited for the 2nd-3rd week of the month, but iHeart forced their hand.
 
My money would be on a format flip. Any guesses? I'm going to go with Classic Hits. They have a MUCH bigger signal than EARTH FM and WRTH has been doing pretty well in the ratings. If it's true that Salem was planning a format flip between WRTH and WGTK, they better do it now while WMYI is in all Christmas.
 
AMRocks said:
My money would be on a format flip. Any guesses? I'm going to go with Classic Hits. They have a MUCH bigger signal than EARTH FM and WRTH has been doing pretty well in the ratings. If it's true that Salem was planning a format flip between WRTH and WGTK, they better do it now while WMYI is in all Christmas.
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I don’t see classic hits. Unlike Cumulus, Entercom, and others, iHeart hasn’t shown much interest in the format outside of its legacy classic hits stations mainly in larger markets, and it’s rare to see a station pick up the format when it’s already in the market.

Hot 98.1 has been trending away from their CHR phase of 2016-2017 and seem to be going almost exclusively hip hop. I would say with B93.7’s recent showings, CHR would be a good bet, or a true urban. The Block is doing very well considering it’s signal issues. The audience is obviously there. Urban and CHR are both formats that iHeart knows and executes very well.

Or, the station could go back to soft/mainstream AC format, but I think it’s time for the AC format and the MY branding to go from 102.5. It just isn’t working anymore and hasn’t for some time. For a station that hasn’t gone all Christmas in years, the insanely early timing, and a rare move for a hot AC, I don’t think the My 102.5 of last week will return after Christmas.
 
I think it's strategic only returning to what they were doing before. Christmas music was a winner last fall for Magic 98.9. Sharing that audience would help their country stations and other non Christmas stations in the market.
 
101tm said:
For a station that hasn’t gone all Christmas in years, the insanely early timing, and a rare move for a hot AC, I don’t think the My 102.5 of last week will return after Christmas.
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I'm actually surprised they are still calling it My 102.5 while doing Christmas. I say that only because I thought they would drop the AC format and rebrand after the Christmas stuff. If I was correct, I would think they would be something like "Santa 102.5" in the interim.
 
AMRocks said:
I'm actually surprised they are still calling it My 102.5 while doing Christmas. I say that only because I thought they would drop the AC format and rebrand after the Christmas stuff. If I was correct, I would think they would be something like "Santa 102.5" in the interim.
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That is why i think it is only a strategic move and not a signal for a format change
 
I still don’t understand how Christmas music does so well. I mean I like it when I’m shopping, driving around to look at lights or putting up the tree. But to listen to it every day for almost two months would drive me insane. LOL.
 
I think I would agree, but since I hate for it to end when Christmas gets here, I should probably just enjoy it. Even if the station I've found is quite repetitive.

This is the proof that adult standards can be a popular format. As long as the subject matter is limited and so is the duration of the format. I wonder how many people realize they could listen to the same styles of music the rest of the year? Although there are few actual radio stations and online would be the way.
 
freqdev said:
I think it's strategic only returning to what they were doing before. Christmas music was a winner last fall for Magic 98.9. Sharing that audience would help their country stations and other non Christmas stations in the market.
Click to expand...

Maybe the idea is to knock out some of the peak that Magic gets? The station did really well last year and hung onto many listeners after the Christmas thing was over.
 
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