Um, that’s true the whole season and in all formats.
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Christmas Music
- Thread starter charles1234
- Start date
I know that, but strange from a societal perspective how the 24 hour Christmas thing was a more recent development. Hallmark didn't even start Countdown to Christmas until 2009, so it could have been people didn't used to want so much Christmas programming as later on, or just untapped into.
Maybe a little from column A, a little from column B....
Someone had to have the (seemingly) wild idea, try it out and find the success. We can all talk 9/11, but it's hard to imagine that alone created a market that wasn't already there. At the same time, the same audience has been conditioned to holiday advertisements showing up by Halloween, and earlier.
There's also something of a self-sustaining energy. Particularly in the social media era, it became more of an event, and some people (by no means all, we know) just sort of came to accept it as the norm. Some would flee for less jingle, but the sweet spot for when most stations can maximize return has pretty well been established in a relatively defined range.
Someone had to have the (seemingly) wild idea, try it out and find the success. We can all talk 9/11, but it's hard to imagine that alone created a market that wasn't already there. At the same time, the same audience has been conditioned to holiday advertisements showing up by Halloween, and earlier.
There's also something of a self-sustaining energy. Particularly in the social media era, it became more of an event, and some people (by no means all, we know) just sort of came to accept it as the norm. Some would flee for less jingle, but the sweet spot for when most stations can maximize return has pretty well been established in a relatively defined range.
In a way, I'm surprised that it took a decade or two for the Christmas format to break the chains of Thanksgiving and creep closer to Halloween. After all, as beloved a holiday as Thanksgiving is, it's a limited holiday for retailers to capitalize on. It's mainly food -- and one specific food, at that -- and family, neither of which can be monetized to the extent that either Christmas or Halloween are. Halloween shoppers are looking for new costumes, new decorations, new treats to stuff baskets and bags with. Christmas shoppers are looking to max out their cards on pretty much anything trendy, the newer and more expensive the better. It makes much more sense to start courting them with music on the radio right after their Halloween spending has stopped than to waste almost four weeks just because Thanksgiving is in the way.
I was trying to find a good ol' bag of Brach's candy corn, but all I could find was some fruity variety in fall colors. Humbug!
Even the seasonable aisle in my local Target looked like a swarm of locusts had picked through it, leaving only a few remaining bags the awful fall-colored candy corn. There were store employees already knocking down Halloween displays, and putting up Christmas stuff. May make a (cringe) visit to the local Wally World. If anyone would have candy corn, it would likely be there.
In college, roughly when Moses was still dealing with the plagues, my job was at one of the now departed mass retailers. The Christmas tape (singular…for the entire bleeping season) went into the sound system ahead of Thanksgiving by a few days. We didn’t quite have things switched over as quickly as today, but easily by Halloween the process was underway. No social media meant it wasn’t a “thing” people shared to complain about, but it’s not at all new.
Was that one of the Muzak tape 4 track cartridges? Stereo-Pak 4-Track Cartridge (1962 - 1970) | Museum of Obsolete Media
Oh no, it was a Kmart bargain basement honest to God cassette tape. And it was enough to make everyone loathe Christmas by the time it arrived.
The customers didn’t help, admittedly.
The customers didn’t help, admittedly.
That must have been traumatic for sure. By the time December 26th rolls around, I'm ready to jab my eardrums out with a pen given the constant drone of Christmas tunes. I can't imagine what its like being stuck with one cassette-worth.
A story: When I was teaching high school, I used to have a Christmas vacation & summer vacation job at Macy’s, as a merchandiser. Those are the people who set up the displays throughout the store.
In previous years, the stores in this mall had been accused by some conservative churches of having a “war on Christmas.” That was started by Bill O’Reilly at Fox News. He thought that merchants were turning away from Christian holidays because it was no longer politically correct to be Christian. Macy’s had lost money, the previous Christmas season, due to a boycott. They normally did about 1/3 of. their business during that time.
Macy’s responded the next year by having a super-gonzo-over-the-top Christmas promotion. The Christmas ornament shop opened on October 10. The housewares department had all of their Christmas dinnerware on display by Nov. 1. They ran that simultaneously with Thanksgiving kitchen equipment.
But the worst was the music. They programmed huge amounts of very solemn religious choral arrangements. It sounded like a funeral. The best of it was Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus. The worst of it was “O Holy Night” by the 3 Tenors. Even worse was Paul M’s “Simply Having a Wonderful Christmas Time” and “ Little Drummer Boy. “ ( God, please, no. 😕). I had to help put a Christmas tree loaded with angels, little mangers, and ornaments with “Merry Christmas.” on every display fixture in a huge 3 story dept. store. In short, Macy’s rammed Christmas down everyone’s throats and had a hugely successful, highly profitable season.
On December 26, we had to be at work at 4 a.m. When the Christmas music came on, one of the merchandising team members found the building engineer/ supervisor and told him, “ Please- we cannot stand if any more. It’s affecting our mental health.” And the building engineer knew how to change the music.
I never liked Xmas music after that. I will never like it again.But it drives sales like crazy. It brings in money. Same w Hallmark Channel. JMO, but that’s why it starts so early. JMO. - Daryl
In previous years, the stores in this mall had been accused by some conservative churches of having a “war on Christmas.” That was started by Bill O’Reilly at Fox News. He thought that merchants were turning away from Christian holidays because it was no longer politically correct to be Christian. Macy’s had lost money, the previous Christmas season, due to a boycott. They normally did about 1/3 of. their business during that time.
Macy’s responded the next year by having a super-gonzo-over-the-top Christmas promotion. The Christmas ornament shop opened on October 10. The housewares department had all of their Christmas dinnerware on display by Nov. 1. They ran that simultaneously with Thanksgiving kitchen equipment.
But the worst was the music. They programmed huge amounts of very solemn religious choral arrangements. It sounded like a funeral. The best of it was Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus. The worst of it was “O Holy Night” by the 3 Tenors. Even worse was Paul M’s “Simply Having a Wonderful Christmas Time” and “ Little Drummer Boy. “ ( God, please, no. 😕). I had to help put a Christmas tree loaded with angels, little mangers, and ornaments with “Merry Christmas.” on every display fixture in a huge 3 story dept. store. In short, Macy’s rammed Christmas down everyone’s throats and had a hugely successful, highly profitable season.
On December 26, we had to be at work at 4 a.m. When the Christmas music came on, one of the merchandising team members found the building engineer/ supervisor and told him, “ Please- we cannot stand if any more. It’s affecting our mental health.” And the building engineer knew how to change the music.
I never liked Xmas music after that. I will never like it again.But it drives sales like crazy. It brings in money. Same w Hallmark Channel. JMO, but that’s why it starts so early. JMO. - Daryl
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Those early days in retail were killers on their own. The music just added to it. 😉
I showed up at some ungodly hour on Black Friday and as I went into the store, was accused of cutting in line. I was quick to note if I didn’t have to be at work long before dawn, I sure as heck wouldn’t choose to be there.
I showed up at some ungodly hour on Black Friday and as I went into the store, was accused of cutting in line. I was quick to note if I didn’t have to be at work long before dawn, I sure as heck wouldn’t choose to be there.
Prior to COVID, my sister and niece used to stay up all night Thanksgiving evening hitting the black Friday (appropriate title if you ask me) sales. Places they would go were intentionally madhouses. They loved it and said they got an adrenaline surge by having to fight other unwashed masses for discounts that really weren't that great.
Accurate observation, and why retailers start Christmas so early these days.
When exposed to the same Christmas music over and over, it really does become an emotional form of torture. And that's not being hyperbolic, because your brain detects the repetition and triggers a defensive response, eventually becoming a fight or flight feeling.
Sure, it's a lot like the emotional scars from some food-borne illnesses. Once you get really sick after eating somewhere, or a certain food, the negativity scars make you not want to eat that type of food again.
When I was something like 16, I worked at a radio station doing various things, including working on the air Christmas Eve through day so the other staff could have the time with their families. I didn't mind the double-time OT, but part of that role was running Christmas music reels starting at noon Christmas Eve, through midnight the 25th. There were some spot breaks too, so I had to pay attention to the time and what was happening with the reels of Christmas tunes. It got to the point after hearing the four reels of music on two rotations, I set up an alarm clock two minutes before having to run a commercial break so I didn't have to listen further. I'd sit there in the production room watching TV keeping one eye on the VU meters and the reels of tape spinning. Even to this day, when one of those songs pop up, I change the station or just hit the power button. It's like an instant negative reaction.
I know people who do that. I call them mutants.
I haven't worked in retail for (mumble mumble mumble) eons, and still have no, zero, zilch interest in going anywhere near a retailer black Friday. I'll shop online, for the right deal, but otherwise hell no. For a number of years, I chose to work in the office that day rather than take it as a holiday. It was blissfully quiet, and I was nowhere near a store. Win-win.
Exactly right about the emotional scars and a form of torture.
That's cool that you had an on-air job at age 16. A lot of people listened to those 36 hours of Christmas shows that started at noon on Christmas Eve and ran through midnight on the 25th. My family always played those stations while we opened our gifts on Christmas morning.
I don't remember what year other than I think it was the 80s but I was in a big box store on Election Day and Christmas music was already being played.
I don't think we even had Christmas music in the big box store I worked in one year. I wasn't there right before Christmas but I was just before and just after Thanksgiving, and not early on the Friday.
Some stations are already going Christmas like The Fish in Portland and Mix 94.5. Maybe The Fish on 104.1 doing it today is hinting that Christmas music is coming to SPIRIT 105.3 @ Midnight on Nov 1 which is the earliest they would have ever done.
https://radioinsight.com/headlines/...irst-all-christmas-station-of-2023/Apparently the river 97.9 WAGM flipped on October 19th.
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