When will we hear Christmas Music on the radio? Just wandering.
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Christmas Music
- Thread starter charles1234
- Start date
"Try again next month." says the Magic 8-ball.
I moved this to the National board before we have the same post in every market.
More usual: week of Thanksgiving or weekend after Thanksgiving. Starting on a Thursday, the day each week's ratings start, is common.
More usual: week of Thanksgiving or weekend after Thanksgiving. Starting on a Thursday, the day each week's ratings start, is common.
Exactly. Maybe Vegas should start accepting wagers on when various radio stations switch Christmas music? Nah, the only people who would care are already regular contributors to this site. I could probably count their numbers on two hands.
Nearly every station goes earlier than that now. We'll probably have a handful start before Halloween. WLIT Chicago usually starts on November 1. iHeart flipped 80 stations nationally on the first Friday of November last year (which was 11/5, would be 11/3 this year). WLTW New York is usually the latest on the third Friday of November.
Last year, the first station to go all-Christmas was KRMD Shreveport LA on October 28. That was the latest any station made the first move in five years.
Personally I wish stations would hold off until Thanksgiving, but then keep the Christmas music playing until New Year's day. Kids don't return to school until after the New Year, some companies give their office staff the week between C and NY off or allow them to work remotely, and many people spend the week after Christmas visiting friends and relatives, many houses and businesses are still lit up, NYE parties and events take place, folks that traveled long distances for the holiday are getting home and finally putting their feet up, etc. I'm usually happy to continue listening to holiday tunes for a few days after ho ho day.
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"We Three Kings" and other songs include the Epiphany which is celebrated early in January. Plus some Orthodox churches celebrate in January as well. And if you really want to extend the season, Epiphany in those churches is January 19. That was approximately the date one church was still playing Christmas music along with the noon chimes.
How many times has the station done this since 1983? Which, by the way, was 40 years ago. A lot has changed in 40 years.
They were mixing Christmas and regular music in the early 80s where I live.
America's Best Music, last time I checked, started by playing Christmas music only after coming back from commercial breaks.
America's Best Music, last time I checked, started by playing Christmas music only after coming back from commercial breaks.
Some country stations in the 1970s 80 s and 1990's mixed in 3 or 4 Christmas songs done by county artists an hour a week before they went all Christmas on Christmas Eve. It really depended on if there was competitive county station in the market.
That's still the way it's done on pretty much all the country stations I've listened to, in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont, for at least the past 15-20 years. Haven't heard one yet that's gone all-Christmas Country for an extended period. Sirius XM seems to have that specialty all too itself, pre-empting Prime Country ('80s/'90s) for twangy ho-ho-ho music for several weeks, ending at 3 a.m. (midnight PST) on Dec. 26.
The only station I'm familiar with that doesn't put Frosty back in the freezer on Dec. 26 is WJMJ, the Hartford Archdiocese station that plays holiday tunes, secular and religious, right through Epiphany.
You should have driven 125 miles to the east of Kansas City where, at KFRU in Columbia, the run-up to Christmas rotation started the first week of December with one song out of every three being a Christmas song. This was during times when the station played music. The next week, it was one song out of two. Then every other song. Finally, on Christmas Eve, every song was a Christmas song. This continued on Christmas until 6 pm when it was back to regular programming. Probably that was a bit of an artificial boundary, since "The Sports Page of the Air" was on at 6. (Yes, that was the name of the show until 1984.)
And, yes, this was in the early 1980s, at an AM standalone full-service station that had managed to hang on to remnants of block programming.
I don’t mind it starting early but why does it have to end at midnight on Dec 26th. People want to hear it a little after Christmas too.
IMHO if there were a bunch of New Years songs that were commercial hits they could mix them in with Christmas and go till Jan 2 but I can only think of 3 or 4 New Years songs that could be considered a hit.
And one of them, Dan Fogelberg's "Same Old Lang Syne," despite its references to the traditional New Year's Eve song, describes events of a Christmas Eve. What are the others?
You can find people who want to hear it every day of the year. Like the "Why not till New Year's Day" cult, there just aren't enough of them to make sense for commercial radio, basically because everyone stops shopping for Christmas on Christmas Eve or earlier, and January is a traditionally weak month for retailers, so what's the point of spending ad bucks on radio the week after Christmas? If you're listening but not buying presents and decorations anymore, then you might as well just not listen at all, for all you mean to the station at that point.
There is the "original" Old Lang Syne by Guy Lombardo. (I actually saw him with the Canadians in 1971 or 72. They still sounded good playing a small 1,100 seat auditorium. My parents remembered a lot of the tunes. I only recognized Old Lang Syne.) There were a couple of County Songs with a New Year's Eve theme that I played but they were not hits and I can't remember them. Maybe someone will remember them. Kenny G redid Old Land Syne. But like I said there are not a lot of New Years themed hits
1) These days, some All-Christmas stations will still play one holiday song an hour for a few days after Christmas. This includes WLTW New York. But the one song per hour is not specifically about Christmas, it's more about winter. Sleigh Ride, Jingle Bell Rock, Marshmallow World, Let It Snow, etc.
2) There is one Country station that switches to All-Christmas music and it's in Market #2: KKGO 105.1 Los Angeles. It airs the standard Christmas playlist, not adding any additional Country artists who you wouldn't normally hear on an AC station. So Christmas songs by Faith Hill, Willie Nelson and Lady A (formerly Lady Antebellum) are heard, just like on KOST and other Christmas stations.
About 10 or so years ago, in Kansas City, where Steel City owns two Country FMs, it tried flipping one to Christmas music. Leading outlet KFKF remained Country through November and December. Meanwhile KBEQ went with Christmas music, trying to compete with Christmas leader KCMO-FM. Rather than getting a boost, KBEQ saw its ratings drop a bit. And KCMO-FM had its usual double-digit ratings for the December and Holiday ratings periods. So the following year, that idea was scrapped.
2) There is one Country station that switches to All-Christmas music and it's in Market #2: KKGO 105.1 Los Angeles. It airs the standard Christmas playlist, not adding any additional Country artists who you wouldn't normally hear on an AC station. So Christmas songs by Faith Hill, Willie Nelson and Lady A (formerly Lady Antebellum) are heard, just like on KOST and other Christmas stations.
About 10 or so years ago, in Kansas City, where Steel City owns two Country FMs, it tried flipping one to Christmas music. Leading outlet KFKF remained Country through November and December. Meanwhile KBEQ went with Christmas music, trying to compete with Christmas leader KCMO-FM. Rather than getting a boost, KBEQ saw its ratings drop a bit. And KCMO-FM had its usual double-digit ratings for the December and Holiday ratings periods. So the following year, that idea was scrapped.
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