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Sorta surprised (Christmas Music)

Y

Yabadabado1

I remember in years past that once noon or even 3 pm came around on Christmas day, the Christmas tunes were chucked out the window and radio went back to normal programming. Dialing around, Christmas night, was surprised that most of the Christmas music was still ongoing and apparently that waited till midnight and then chucked the computer files into the delete bin.
Now......wonder if any format changes or tweaks will be in the offing.
 
I like to hear Christmas tunes on Christmas day. The day ends at midnight and so do the tunes. I am good with that. It happens once a year. I hope no programming changes take place.
 
Yabadabado1 said:
I remember in years past that once noon or even 3 pm came around on Christmas day, the Christmas tunes were chucked out the window and radio went back to normal programming. Dialing around, Christmas night, was surprised that most of the Christmas music was still ongoing and apparently that waited till midnight and then chucked the computer files into the delete bin.
Now......wonder if any format changes or tweaks will be in the offing.
Click to expand...
They probably didn't put all of the Christmas music in the delete bin, rather they just stopped using that category at a certain time. Why delete all of the songs? That would mean the station has to go through the process of re-loading them next year. There may be individual selections that are deleted. They'd have to, actually, delete them if space considerations are an issue.
 
The Christmas "season" actually begins on December 25th. Christmas on most church calendars doesn't end till at least the Epiphany or Feast of 3 Kings. They could easily play Christmas music till New Years Day minimum as a lot of people are off this week. Start the Christmas music during the week of Thanksgiving.
 
johnbasalla said:
They probably didn't put all of the Christmas music in the delete bin, rather they just stopped using that category at a certain time. Why delete all of the songs? That would mean the station has to go through the process of re-loading them next year. There may be individual selections that are deleted. They'd have to, actually, delete them if space considerations are an issue.
Click to expand...
Songs aren't deleted, just....not scheduled. Imagine having a whole rack of carts you just don't pull from, but it sits there year round in the control room.
 
How many music stations played little to no Christmas music AT ALL this year? There always seemed to be a station or two in previous years that would be the "anti-Christmas" alternative -- just continued their normal format with an occasional reference to the holiday on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
 
thenetwork said:
How many music stations played little to no Christmas music AT ALL this year?
Click to expand...
WAKS 96.5 FM would, kind of, fit that bill. Close to Christmas, they played "Jingle Bell Rock" by Bobby Helms and "Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree" by Brenda Lee. I didn't hear, or hear about, Christmas music on WQAL, WNWV, and others too.
 
Yabadabado1 said:
I remember in years past that once noon or even 3 pm came around on Christmas day, the Christmas tunes were chucked out the window and radio went back to normal programming. Dialing around, Christmas night, was surprised that most of the Christmas music was still ongoing and apparently that waited till midnight and then chucked the computer files into the delete bin.
Now......wonder if any format changes or tweaks will be in the offing.
Click to expand...

We went from 12noon Tue to 9am Thursday here in alaska with all xmas, after having sprinkled it in during the regular day since the day after thanksgiving. in wyoming, we started at the same time and went all christmas saturday before the big day, going commercial free tuesday afternoon till 2am thursday when xmas music stopped (106 hours of christmas music, for our 106.1 fm frequency)
 
In the day, in January we would just take the Christmas music carts out of the rack, put them back in the box labelled "Christmas Music" and put the box back on the shelf in the slop sink room across the hall.
There was always water running from a pipe that came out of the ceiling into that sink, 24/7. Don't know why, but when it stopped running, the air conditioning didn't work.
 
There are a few songs not specific to Christmas which they could still play - Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Sleigh Ride, Marshmallow World, Frosty the Snowman, etc.
 
CleveRadioInsider said:
They could easily play Christmas music till New Years Day minimum as a lot of people are off this week.
Click to expand...
They could, but the research shows even the fun secular holiday tunes test poorly as early as the morning of the 26th. A few holiday stations may play one or two of them an hour through this weekend, but keeping 24/7 holiday music after the 25th would be a major tune out factor.
 
If you go back far enough, nearly all formats switched to Christmas music from Christmas Eve to, as you said, noon on Christmas Day, or maybe even 10 a.m. I remember Top 40 stations and Talk stations even did it. Partially this was to give the regular staff off on Christmas Eve and Christmas morning. You could suspend your regular format and just have a board op run Christmas music from 6 p.m. on Dec. 24 to 10 a.m. or noon on Dec. 25.

But these days, not as many stations do this. Talk stations just run repeats of recent talk shows. Top 40, Country, Urban AC and Hot AC stations sprinkle a few Christmas songs into their regular format. The staff is off anyway. Music formats can just automate or voice track. You don't need to suspend the format with a board op playing Christmas songs.

And by the way, we really shouldn't title a post "Just Wondering" or "Sorta Surprised." We should know what the post is about from the title. Then we can decide whether to click it or not. Maybe you wanted to say "Christmas Music Keeps Playing Until Midnight?" or something like that.
 
Santa fe said:
In the day, in January we would just take the Christmas music carts out of the rack, put them back in the box labelled "Christmas Music" and put the box back on the shelf in the slop sink room across the hall.
There was always water running from a pipe that came out of the ceiling into that sink, 24/7. Don't know why, but when it stopped running, the air conditioning didn't work.
Click to expand...
Condensate drain.
 
Gregg. said:
If you go back far enough, nearly all formats switched to Christmas music from Christmas Eve to, as you said, noon on Christmas Day, or maybe even 10 a.m. I remember Top 40 stations and Talk stations even did it. Partially this was to give the regular staff off on Christmas Eve and Christmas morning. You could suspend your regular format and just have a board op run Christmas music from 6 p.m. on Dec. 24 to 10 a.m. or noon on Dec. 25.

But these days, not as many stations do this. Talk stations just run repeats of recent talk shows. Top 40, Country, Urban AC and Hot AC stations sprinkle a few Christmas songs into their regular format. The staff is off anyway. Music formats can just automate or voice track. You don't need to suspend the format with a board op playing Christmas songs.

And by the way, we really shouldn't title a post "Just Wondering" or "Sorta Surprised." We should know what the post is about from the title. Then we can decide whether to click it or not. Maybe you wanted to say "Christmas Music Keeps Playing Until Midnight?" or something like that.
Click to expand...
Sorta surprised you're complaining about my sorta surprised headline.......
 
Gregg. said:
If you go back far enough, nearly all formats switched to Christmas music from Christmas Eve to, as you said, noon on Christmas Day, or maybe even 10 a.m. I remember Top 40 stations and Talk stations even did it. Partially this was to give the regular staff off on Christmas Eve and Christmas morning. You could suspend your regular format and just have a board op run Christmas music from 6 p.m. on Dec. 24 to 10 a.m. or noon on Dec. 25.
Click to expand...
And some of the easy listening stations posted their playlist in the newspapers on Christmas Eve so listeners could follow along.
 
WNIR breaks out the Christmas music every Christmas Eve through Christmas Day. Depending on the year it ends as early as 6pm or sometimes goes through December 26th if it is a weekend.
 
vw86 said:
They could, but the research shows even the fun secular holiday tunes test poorly as early as the morning of the 26th. A few holiday stations may play one or two of them an hour through this weekend, but keeping 24/7 holiday music after the 25th would be a major tune out factor.
Click to expand...
WJMJ Hartford, CT, plays Christmas music right through Epiphany, but it is affiliated with the Catholic church (Hartford Archdiocese) and its extended observance of what, to outsiders and maybe even some laymen, is a two-day holiday (Eve and Day) at the absolute maximum is dogma, not sound programming strategy.
 
CTListener said:
WJMJ Hartford, CT, plays Christmas music right through Epiphany, but it is affiliated with the Catholic church (Hartford Archdiocese) and its extended observance of what, to outsiders and maybe even some laymen, is a two-day holiday (Eve and Day) at the absolute maximum is dogma, not sound programming strategy.
Click to expand...
Well if it is associated with the Catholic church it would make sense to play Christmas music as it is the Christmas season in the church. If it was a 80s station maybe not such a sound strategy. I doubt many people are going to be upset a Catholic radio station is playing Christmas music during the Christmas season of the church.
 
Here in NJ, AC station "Magic 98.3" WMGQ was all-Christmas music until Sunday, December 29th. But I did hear some other non-AC stations (which normally don't go all-Christmas for almost a month) advertise "24 hours of Christmas music", as in from 6 PM Christmas Eve until 6 PM Christmas Day.
 
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