• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

I know it's August, but...

radiodx10

radiodx10

Okay, okay. I know it's August 13th. And I know we still have over two months before Halloween. But...I'm too eager to not discuss the ever-interesting Christmas format flips.

Let's place bets.

WISX- they stunted as Christmas before the Breeze blew in. Will they attempt a soft christmas format?
WBEB- we know they will do christmas. but how soon?
WJBR- same as B101- when do they go ho-ho-ho?

As a semi-related, I work at target. Today, we began stocking thanksgiving/ christmas candles. So, it's not just me feeling the urge to break out the fall/ winter spirit.
 
WOGL will never play Christmas music again as long as Entercom owns B101 too.
I could see The Breeze going all Christmas with a Sunny 104.5 approach that worked in 2003-2005 against B101.

Sunny 104.5 and Now 97.5 had the best Christmas music ever!
 
AbrahamJSimpson said:
And yet the B beat them.
Click to expand...

Of course B101 beat them. No one would have expected otherwise. But that doesn't mean that they necessarily had a better library. Action News wins constantly but it's not like they're telling better news stories. lol
 
I don't know if iHeart necessarily wants to do all-Christmas with The Breeze. LIke, "We're doing fine so let's stay the course and keep building." Or if B101.1 stays in a relatively vulnerable ratings position, it could make iHeart think, "We could really hit them by making them share the Christmas bump."

Two things though: It's not so much about "hitting" the other stations; it's more about making money. And also... if The Breeze goes all-Christmas, it's almost certainly gonna be the cookie-cutter iHeart Christmas library and not at all like the Sunny 104.5 library that many are so fond of.
 
And as we all know better library is a vague subjective term. Sunny made me cringe plenty of times. There were things in there I found god-awful. But ratings are at least a more objective measure of broader audience preference, imperfect though any system may be.

Action News is a great analogy. The broad strokes may be similar to the other stations, it’s the trappings and intangibles. Is it better? Subjectively, depends. Objectively, their track record says more viewers find it preferable over a long history.

I tend to think objective is a better measure in business. But what do I know? ?
 
One year in my market, the now defunct Oldies 102.9 DRC-FM went all-Christmas to go up against AC Lite 100.5 WRCH. Did they beat WRCH in the ratings? No, but they had a bigger Christmas Music library than WRCH and less repetitive. In the last few years WRCH has gotten horrible with their all-Christmas library. Very repetitive. Lots of new music. Fewer holiday classics or new versions of holiday classics. WRCH usually flips at 3PM Thanksgiving Day (one year they flipped The Monday of Thanksgiving Week) and my mom listens to it continuously. I can't deal with it, which is why I'm thankful for my smart phone and the Tune-In app. My Mom's birthday is in December and she has milestone one coming up this year. I can't what it is. She will kill me.

A side note: In December 2015 a 21 year old male co-worker gave me a ride home from work. He had Lite 100.5's all Christmas Music on the stereo in his SUV. I questioned him about it since obviously he's not a 30-something housewife (the target audience of Lite 100.5) and he told me he loves Christmas Music and Christmas is his favorite holiday. So there you have it. Listeners of all demographics listen to all-Christmas Music - from retired senior citizens all the way down to stoner millennials.
 
Interesting tidbit ... I don't think The Breeze played a single, solitary holiday tune last year. Even on Christmas morning at 7 a.m. I tuned in and it was the same 'ol, like it was any other day. They really took that counter-programming to WBEB seriously, being the brand new station in town. I have no clue what they'll do this year. There are valid arguments for going all Christmas, doing no Christmas at all like last year, or a mix of Christmas and regular. Will be interesting.
 
Route 222 said:
Interesting tidbit ... I don't think The Breeze played a single, solitary holiday tune last year. Even on Christmas morning at 7 a.m. I tuned in and it was the same 'ol, like it was any other day. They really took that counter-programming to WBEB seriously, being the brand new station in town. I have no clue what they'll do this year. There are valid arguments for going all Christmas, doing no Christmas at all like last year, or a mix of Christmas and regular. Will be interesting.
Click to expand...

I believe you are right about The Breeze not playing even one Christmas song (after the stunting that preceded the station launch). Last year, they wanted to be the alternative for people who wanted a break from the Christmas music. Obviously, it wouldn't be great if a listener tuned from "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town" by Mariah Carey on 101.1 to "All I Want For Christmas Is You" by Mariah Carey on 106.1. That listener may well never have given The Breeze another chance!

While that seems to have had the desired effect, I don't know how much sense it makes to continue ignoring Christmas. The numbers make pretty clear that more people want to hear Christmas music than don't. I think it might make sense to start playing 1 Christmas song per hour on Thanksgiving and gradually build to 3 per hour by Christmas Day. And differentiate by advertising that listeners will hear Christmas music on The Breeze...but not only Christmas music. I think it would make good business sense. (Personally, I would prefer that an iHeart station do that--and pick only the biggest Christmas hits--as opposed to going wall-to-wall Christmas with that bizarre library they employ year after year.)

What would be really cool is if every year, The Breeze stunted for a few days and forced B101.1 to flip earlier than they'd like. It's the closest we'll ever get to an old skool radio "war." :cool:
 
I think the best thing THe Breeze could do is a mix of xmas and regular music. I think there should be one all xmas station in a large market and the rest could play the occasional "wonderful christmas time" or "last christmas" just to fill a quota.
 
New owners, new people, new philosophies. I think old comparisons go even more out the window.

That aside, there’s zero benefit to repeatedly engaging in that kind of stunt annually.

If you mix in the songs as your strategy, great, but the risk in calling it out is reminding the die-hards that the “other guys” are all freaking holiday all freaking season.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom