Every year Ben FM celebrates April Fools Day with a format flip stunt. This year, it's Christmas Music all day. So if your craving holiday music today, here's where to go.
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Christmas in April
- Thread starter CaliRadioFan
- Start date
TV themes years ago was a fun one, too. Good for them for having lighthearted fun.
I'll be listening, hope they play some Taylor Swift Christmas songs!
IMO, going "All Christmas" on 4/1 is a lame joke, since a lot of stations already go the Christmas route in November/December already. And with the harsh winter some parts of the country went through, songs about snow and cold are some of the last things these people want to hear this time of year.
Not to mention bringing back Mariah Carey into the holiday spotlight again...
If you are going to change format for April Fools Day, go with a music genre that might not have been heard on your station 3-1/2 months prior...Just Sayin'.
Not to mention bringing back Mariah Carey into the holiday spotlight again...
If you are going to change format for April Fools Day, go with a music genre that might not have been heard on your station 3-1/2 months prior...Just Sayin'.
OrâŚlighten up and assume people have a sense of humor. Theyâve done a bunch of these over the years, and somehow people have survived sped-up songs, TV themes, et al. No one is going to get bent out of shape over an April Foolâs bit except those looking to get bent out of shape.
And sister station MGK still owns one of the best stunts when they âflippedâ back to the old Magic 103. Pretty sure the classic rock fans survived a gag.
And sister station MGK still owns one of the best stunts when they âflippedâ back to the old Magic 103. Pretty sure the classic rock fans survived a gag.
A few years ago on 4/1, Ben FM played all their music about 20% fast... for the whole day. It was excruciating to listen to, and made everyone think the station's playback computer was broken.
And it was a funny bit. By this point if they were suffering from the tomfoolery of April 1st, they wouldnât have someone going to the effort.
Would love for WOGL to revert back to Oldies 98 on 4/1 some year. They might as well because half of Philadelphia already thinks thatâs what it is anyway.
Bring back the hot hits jingles and suchâthey could basically play a big chunk of the same playlist being hot hits for a day that they do now. For the record I donât really believe that would happen, but it might be amusing to think about.
Of course it won't, but it would be pretty awesome. If anyone there wants to do it, they'd better do it in the next couple of years, while it would still resonate with folks in the demo. GIve or take half a century, and people would be saying, "What is a Hot Hits?"
Would love for WOGL to revert back to Oldies 98 permanently.
Do you really think people are going to hear "White Christmas" and have Blizzard of '26-related PTSD?
Beasley knows that other stations do all-Christmas in December, which is what makes the joke funny. If no one in the market did all-Christmas, we may well have been hearing TV theme songs again today.
[Acknowledges poster doesn't like Mariah Carey. Files information in appropriate can.]
Also: Christmas music wasn't heard on their station 3 1/2 months prior. The station that does it isn't even in the cluster. Also, also: If BEN-FM switched for the day to some other genre of music, some listeners might assume they changed their format and that BEN-FM is just gone. When they hear the Christmas music, they know it's just a one-day stunt.
Why am I typing all of this? đ
.
My favorite April Fools Day joke was nearly 30-some years ago on then-oldies WMJI in Cleveland.
A few times each hour during the day, they found and played songs sung in foreign languages by the same artists that originally did them in English (like the Beatles German version of She Loves You).
Once the internet was commonplace, I decided to go down that rabbit hole and find that there are literally dozens of songs by English singers in foreign languages! Most of them were done in the 60s, but there are still groups that occasionally sing a foreign version of the song for other countries.
Needless to say, that AFD stunt was a stroke of genius and to my knowledge was never replicated anywhere else.
A few times each hour during the day, they found and played songs sung in foreign languages by the same artists that originally did them in English (like the Beatles German version of She Loves You).
Once the internet was commonplace, I decided to go down that rabbit hole and find that there are literally dozens of songs by English singers in foreign languages! Most of them were done in the 60s, but there are still groups that occasionally sing a foreign version of the song for other countries.
Needless to say, that AFD stunt was a stroke of genius and to my knowledge was never replicated anywhere else.
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channelâ˘
I know it's not Philadelphia, but on KRKE, I work in a bunch of novelty songs and Weird Al parodies all day on April 1, and I got a call on the listener feedback line from someone who said they were enjoying it.
Thankfully, "your opinion" doesn't drive programming.
A =handful of familiar to the demo Weird Al novelty tracks on an 80s format is in no way the same as intentionally altering the speed of music for 24 hours.
I didn't say *all* gimmicks, stunts or off format music (or your Weird Al example that I had no possible way of knowing about) for a special day like April 1 were a bad idea. I cited the examples of Christmas in April and intentionally changing the speed of music for an entire day as things that were bad ideas.
I didn't say *all* gimmicks, stunts or off format music (or your Weird Al example that I had no possible way of knowing about) for a special day like April 1 were a bad idea. I cited the examples of Christmas in April and intentionally changing the speed of music for an entire day as things that were bad ideas.
Whether they were bad ideas or not depends on what happened to the station's ratings in the months after both stunts occurred. If the ratings either remained flat or (preferrably) increased, then the stunts turned out not to be such a bad idea after all. Since WBEN-FM is still on the air with its adult hits format, I'm guessing that the stunts were, on the whole, not a negative for the station ratingswise.