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Will 106.1 the Breeze go all Christmas this year?

N

nd2023

Banned
Never too early to speculate on Christmas music. Last year, Real 106.1 abruptly switched to Christmas music while they put together The Breeze over the weekend. Then it stopped playing Christmas music on Monday and went soft AC. They did not play a single Christmas song, not even on Christmas itself.
This year I think will be different. Now that they would have had a year to get established, they'll go all Christmas. None of the Breezes across the country went all Christmas last year
The same differences in the 3 stations formats are in play now as it was back when Sunny 104.5 was on. They went all Christmas every year and enjoyed a ratings boost. Going up against B101 and Oldies 98.1. Now, every station is relatively the same, just playing music 15 years newer than when Sunny was on.
 
nkd said:
Never too early to speculate on Christmas music. Last year, Real 106.1 abruptly switched to Christmas music while they put together The Breeze over the weekend. Then it stopped playing Christmas music on Monday and went soft AC. They did not play a single Christmas song, not even on Christmas itself.
This year I think will be different. Now that they would have had a year to get established, they'll go all Christmas. None of the Breezes across the country went all Christmas last year
The same differences in the 3 stations formats are in play now as it was back when Sunny 104.5 was on. They went all Christmas every year and enjoyed a ratings boost. Going up against B101 and Oldies 98.1. Now, every station is relatively the same, just playing music 15 years newer than when Sunny was on.
Click to expand...

Well, I don't mind talking about it. LOL.

Did all of iHeart's Soft AC's launch last year and in markets where there's an established "official" Christmas station that they don't also own? The reason I ask: If they have Soft AC's in markets where they could have already been competing for the Christmas dollars but they have chosen not to, that may be indicative of their M.O. If on the other hand, all of their Breeze stations were new last year (which may be why they chose not to flip), then it's anyone's guess.

Established stations that do all-Christmas don't seem to suffer any collateral damage after they revert to their regular format. If they did suffer, they'd probably have stopped doing the flip by now. That having been said, I don't see any good reason to not compete. Why just roll over and let Entercom have the spike all to themselves?

Also: WOGL won't be doing all-Christmas for as long as Entercom owns both them and B101.1. So if The Breeze doesn't do it, Philly will have only B101.1 playing the Christmas format. Seems like a lotta money to leave on the table.
 
How about doing something bold and different -- which actually used to be the norm across the industry -- and sprinkle a gradually increasing amount of holiday music into the playlist as Christmas approaches? I know it gets "yuge" ratings when the leading AC station in a market goes all-Xmas, but has anyone actually mapped out the ratings day-by-day to see if people are really flocking to the radio to hear non-stop Christmas music when it's 65 degrees and sunny outside on the Friday before Thanksgiving?
 
I have little doubt there are number crunchers who carefully analyze the available data six ways from Sunday. That doesn't negate that sometimes you do what you gotta do because other factors come into play. Everyone is looking for an advantage. I'd have to imagine if there were data indicating a different approach worked on a wide scale, we'd have seen those efforts crop up in meaningful numbers.

I fondly remember the days of gradually adding songs to the playlist. It made the "24 hours of Christmas"
type events more special to me, rather than just a commercial-free version of what they've been doing since Halloween, but that ship sailed years ago.
 
kevtronics said:
but has anyone actually mapped out the ratings day-by-day to see if people are really flocking to the radio to hear non-stop Christmas music when it's 65 degrees and sunny outside on the Friday before Thanksgiving?
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Yes in fact with PPM you can see ratings day to day or hour to hour, even song to song, if you want to. So yes they know if people want Christmas music before Thanksgiving. And one might view doing that as being "bold and different," while sticking with the standard format as boring.
 
PPM has made it so that station management can get so much data, down to such a granular level, they could literally drive themselves insane studying it. What to do for Christmas --and when to do it--are likely the result of a ton of data analysis (and not an online listener survey--LOL). Overall, it seems that all-Christmas brings more ears to these stations than would be listening if they just stayed in the regular format. If three hundred desirable B101.1 listeners tune out for the month of December, it doesn't much matter if they are each replaced by 2 or 3 other desirable listeners. And so far, it seems like the listeners who tune out do reliably come back in January. If it didn't work, stations would have stopped doing it long ago.
 
No way 106.1 goes X-mas. There would be no short term ratings gain, When the heritage x-mas station does it right, as WBEB surely does, you simply cannot compete by copy. In the long term, it is best to stick with what you are known for, and not give that feel that you are inferior to the heritage station by trying to chase them. The mission statement must remain consistent and strong, relaxing and refreshing favorites. This is a mood channel and keeping true to the feel is better than trying to chase ho ho hos (a few per hour as it gets close to 12/25 is more than fine).
 
DOB said:
No way 106.1 goes X-mas. There would be no short term ratings gain, When the heritage x-mas station does it right, as WBEB surely does, you simply cannot compete by copy. In the long term, it is best to stick with what you are known for, and not give that feel that you are inferior to the heritage station by trying to chase them. The mission statement must remain consistent and strong, relaxing and refreshing favorites. This is a mood channel and keeping true to the feel is better than trying to chase ho ho hos (a few per hour as it gets close to 12/25 is more than fine).
Click to expand...

I think it would depend on how they're performing and how they think Christmas music would perform. If they're consistently #4 or #5 in their target and they think Christmas can make them #2 or #3 for a month each year, why not go for it? The point is to sell the next December based on those numbers. Of course, if they're consistently #1 or #2 and they don't think Christmas would add that many listeners, then it might make more sense to stick with the status quo. Still, if half-a-million (I'm just making that number up) non-regular B101.1 listeners flock to Christmas music on 101.1 every year, and you have a shot at getting one or two hundred thousand of them to flock to 106.1 instead, why not give it a shot?

I'd also point out that B101 has been very successful with all-Christmas after they copied the idea from the Soft AC in the market at that time. So I think a case can be made that competing by copying actually can work. And we should keep in mind, no one in town is thinking they're going to "beat" B101.1 in the Holiday Book. It's not about that. It's about adding a month-long revenue boost at the end of every single year. If it's not hurting revenue for the rest of the year (and why would it?), it could be a no-brainer.
 
Let's be fair though. Sunny didn't invent something. They brought it to town, "copying" from others. B did the same thing. Virtually everyone copies (with adaptations) from someone. Not a knock, just business.

I'm not hazarding a guess about how it plays out in seven months hence. Much remains to shake out in the weeks ahead.
 
AbrahamJSimpson said:
Let's be fair though. Sunny didn't invent something. They brought it to town, "copying" from others. B did the same thing. Virtually everyone copies (with adaptations) from someone. Not a knock, just business.

I'm not hazarding a guess about how it plays out in seven months hence. Much remains to shake out in the weeks ahead.
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No, Sunny certainly didn't invent it. There were quite a few stations who had done it in the preceding couple years. I think I remember reading that the trend started growing in earnest at the end of 2001 as a reaction to the 9/11 attacks, though I don't recall reading any proof of that being the reason. That having been said, B101 seemed to be quite happy with their annual 36 hours of Christmas music programming. If Sunny hadn't brought the extended stunt to Philly, it probably would have been years before B101 started doing it. (Possibly around the second week of November 2008--LOL.)
 
Maybe not quite that long. :)

Soon enough, the tales of big bucks would have traveled here. I mean, it doesn't matter about "being happy" with 36 hours, right? Jerry Lee was not going to leave that kind of potential $$$ on the table long term.
 
AbrahamJSimpson said:
Maybe not quite that long. :)

Soon enough, the tales of big bucks would have traveled here. I mean, it doesn't matter about "being happy" with 36 hours, right? Jerry Lee was not going to leave that kind of potential $$$ on the table long term.
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I chose 2008 because that's the year Now 97.5 entered the market and flipped to all-Christmas on Halloween. LOL. But yes, I'm sure B101 would have seen the nationwide trend and started doing it even without someone in the market giving them a nudge.

I'll tell ya something else which is slightly off-topic while also being on-topic. I've seen mention around here of the old Sunny Christmas library "sitting on a hard drive somewhere." While I'm pretty sure that library is no longer assembled anywhere, if The Breeze got whoever programmed it to re-create it for Christmas 2019, I would have very little use for B101.1. Not to say they don't do a good job with it, because they have really stepped up their Christmas game in recent years. But they still don't touch some of the stuff I loved about Sunny's Christmas format.

You know, I'm realizing how much I liked Sunny when it was on the air. As a 30ish-year-old, I was surprised to find that a new Soft AC became my favorite station. And then when they did Christmas, I just thought they knocked it outta the park: Great library with some interesting titles no one else was playing but which sounded great in context. (To me, B101's library at the time was a little too safe to be interesting.) I was excited that year when Greater Media did it because they had a pretty interesting library and fun imaging too. But alas, that was just one year. (Though if I remember correctly, they put that library on the HD2 of one of their stations in 2009.)

I don't mind talking about Christmas in April. The challenge is remembering what year I'm talking about so I can decide whether to put the ".1" at the end of "B101." haha
 
If I'm iHeart market management, there's no way I'm flipping The Breeze to all-Christmas this year. Their best bet to grow audience long-term is to reach some B101 listeners who want their ho-ho-ho in smaller doses, and wow those listeners.
 
PTBoardOp94 said:
If I'm iHeart market management, there's no way I'm flipping The Breeze to all-Christmas this year. Their best bet to grow audience long-term is to reach some B101 listeners who want their ho-ho-ho in smaller doses, and wow those listeners.
Click to expand...

It's funny though, The Breeze format seems like it should compete more for WOGL's listeners than for B101.1's. I just don't think there's a whole lotta B listeners who are going to say, "Oh, yeah! Ambrosia and Lionel Richie! How could I have been such a fool all this time?" LOL
 
Miguelito said:
It's funny though, The Breeze format seems like it should compete more for WOGL's listeners than for B101.1's. I just don't think there's a whole lotta B listeners who are going to say, "Oh, yeah! Ambrosia and Lionel Richie! How could I have been such a fool all this time?" LOL
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My question would be how many listeners are shared between 101 & 98...and with who else. 106 aside, I fall into that camp, with Ben and some others.
 
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