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All X-Mas starting in late October?

T

TheTiger

I saw on the another message board that an AC station out of Detroit is switching to "all Christmas" at the very end of October or early November.
So is this means that B101 or Sunny 104.5 will follow the same suit in this time period as Detroit? I may have plans to go to Philadelphia this month if things are right but I do not want to go down there when it's November or December because neither stations won't be playing any regular music.

So, which station will go first in starting the X-Mas race?
 
In the two previous years of all-holiday music, both B101 and Sunny have switched within hours or days of each other. This usually happened just after Veteran's Day. If I remember it right, Sunny has gone first in those two years (last year by an entire weekend I think)and still B101 beat them at their own game of going all-holiday all the time. Three years ago, Sunny converted to the "all the time" format, and B held it's ground with their regular format, only to have most of their Fall numbers grabbed up.
I don't think B101 liked having Sunny clean their Arbitron clock, thus the two holiday formats here.
I wouldn't be surprised to see Sunny go in October. They must be wondering how they can get a leg up.




> So, which station will go first in starting the X-Mas race?
>
 
> I saw on the another message board that an AC station out of
> Detroit is switching to "all Christmas" at the very end of
> October or early November.
> So is this means that B101 or Sunny 104.5 will follow the
> same suit in this time period as Detroit? I may have plans
> to go to Philadelphia this month if things are right but I
> do not want to go down there when it's November or December
> because neither stations won't be playing any regular music.
>
>
> So, which station will go first in starting the X-Mas race?
>

Christmas in October? Thats crazy! Christmas in EARLY November is still crazy. If one of those stations starts way too early, I'll bet they will lose some listeners, at least for a while. Sunny will probably be the first to switch, unless B101 wins the race for X Mas music.<P ID="signature">______________
The Place for the Latest Happenings in Radio
www.freewebs.com/radiostuffandnews
This site has been updated! Check it out! Thanks
</P>
 
Re: All X-Mas starting in late October? X-mas Commercials have started

> > I saw on the another message board that an AC station out
> of
> > Detroit is switching to "all Christmas" at the very end of
>
> > October or early November.
> > So is this means that B101 or Sunny 104.5 will follow the
> > same suit in this time period as Detroit? I may have plans
>
> > to go to Philadelphia this month if things are right but I
>
> > do not want to go down there when it's November or
> December
> > because neither stations won't be playing any regular
> music.
> >
> >
> > So, which station will go first in starting the X-Mas
> race?
> >
>

Christmas in October? Thats crazy! Christmas in EARLY
> November is still crazy. If one of those stations starts way
> too early, I'll bet they will lose some listeners, at least
> for a while. Sunny will probably be the first to switch,
> unless B101 wins the race for X Mas music.
>


Heard a commercial for a toy store this afternoon on B101..
and it said something like get a jump on your Christmas Shopping..
It's only Oct 1st...!!!
 
> In the two previous years of all-holiday music, both B101
> and Sunny have switched within hours or days of each other.
> This usually happened just after Veteran's Day. If I
> remember it right, Sunny has gone first in those two years
> (last year by an entire weekend I think)and still B101 beat
> them at their own game of going all-holiday all the time.
> Three years ago, Sunny converted to the "all the time"
> format, and B held it's ground with their regular format,
> only to have most of their Fall numbers grabbed up.
> I don't think B101 liked having Sunny clean their Arbitron
> clock, thus the two holiday formats here.
> I wouldn't be surprised to see Sunny go in October. They
> must be wondering how they can get a leg up.
>
>
>
>
> > So, which station will go first in starting the X-Mas
> race?
> >
>
Why can't they all start on Black Friday, like the stations used to? I think that it is ridiculous to start in October myself. If either one starts earlier than that, I will definitely NOT listen to those stations.

-kingbill
 
> Why can't they all start on Black Friday, like the stations
> used to? I think that it is ridiculous to start in October
> myself. If either one starts earlier than that, I will
> definitely NOT listen to those stations.
>
> -kingbill

Or I would delay my plans to visit Philly until after X-Mas to listen
to these stations.
 
> > Why can't they all start on Black Friday, like the
> stations
> > used to? I think that it is ridiculous to start in
> October
> > myself. If either one starts earlier than that, I will
> > definitely NOT listen to those stations.
> >
> > -kingbill
>
> Or I would delay my plans to visit Philly until after X-Mas
> to listen
> to these stations.
>

You would REALLY skip a trip to visit Philly because of two stations radio format? wow.
 
> > > Why can't they all start on Black Friday, like the
> > stations
> > > used to? I think that it is ridiculous to start in
> > October
> > > myself. If either one starts earlier than that, I will
> > > definitely NOT listen to those stations.
> > >
> > > -kingbill
> >
> > Or I would delay my plans to visit Philly until after
> X-Mas
> > to listen
> > to these stations.
> >
>
> You would REALLY skip a trip to visit Philly because of two
> stations radio format? wow.
>

Ditto. On the Oldies Board (I think) someone suggested moving to a city with a FM oldies station, if yours doesn't crazy. Yeah, I love radio, but not enought to delay trips or move to another area!<P ID="signature">______________
The Place for the Latest Happenings in Radio
www.freewebs.com/radiostuffandnews
This site has been updated! Check it out! Thanks
</P>
 
>
> >
> Why can't they all start on Black Friday, like the stations
> used to? I think that it is ridiculous to start in October
> myself. If either one starts earlier than that, I will
> definitely NOT listen to those stations.
>
> -kingbill
>

It was a good idea to start Christmas a month or two after September 11. But, ending 2005, is it reall necessary to flip at the beginning of November? Sure, it probably draws ratings and revenue, but most people want to hear their regular programming until Black Friday. <P ID="signature">______________
I've done it all...HOO HOO...tell 'em, Fred!
FOX News Alert: YOU SUCK!!! Ya like apples?</P>
 
> Christmas in October? Thats crazy! Christmas in EARLY
> November is still crazy. If one of those stations starts way
> too early, I'll bet they will lose some listeners, at least
> for a while. Sunny will probably be the first to switch,
> unless B101 wins the race for X Mas music.

People always say stuff like this and they're always wrong. Stations go all-Christmas earlier and earlier every year and it only ever seems to make an improvement. I'm sure there must be some stations somewhere in the world that run into problems like this but they don't seem to be around here!
 
Re: All X-Mas starting in late October? WSTW will gain listenrs

> > Christmas in October? Thats crazy! Christmas in EARLY
> > November is still crazy. If one of those stations starts
> way
> > too early, I'll bet they will lose some listeners, at
> least
> > for a while. Sunny will probably be the first to switch,
> > unless B101 wins the race for X Mas music.
>
> People always say stuff like this and they're always wrong.
> Stations go all-Christmas earlier and earlier every year and
> it only ever seems to make an improvement. I'm sure there
> must be some stations somewhere in the world that run into
> problems like this but they don't seem to be around here!
>

At my office (of about 100 people) last year, was forced by our (60 something)
Vice Pres. of the company to listen to Sunny 104.5 till they switched to Xmas
music. Then I think she (the VP) switched to B101.. When B101 went all Christmas she switched to WSTW in Delaware..(we are in Upper Darby, PA)

She and most of the people around the office were complaining about the Xmas music too early)

The 18-50 crowd liked WSTW best anyway.. :)

Unfortunately she switched to B101 around Xmas week and it has remained on B101
since.
 
Re: All X-Mas starting in late October? WSTW will gain listenrs

In situations like that, perhaps 95.7 will ben-efit (sorry, too easy)...but I agree with other posters that the stations won't suffer from switching to all Christmas by Columbus day (which seems to be the trend).

I can't stand non-stop Christmas music until the week of Christmas (I much preferred the lost art of gradually building in the music beginning on the day after Thanksgiving), but appear to be in the minority.

>
> At my office (of about 100 people) last year, was forced by
> our (60 something)
> Vice Pres. of the company to listen to Sunny 104.5 till they
> switched to Xmas
> music. Then I think she (the VP) switched to B101.. When
> B101 went all Christmas she switched to WSTW in
> Delaware..(we are in Upper Darby, PA)
>
> She and most of the people around the office were
> complaining about the Xmas music too early)
>
> The 18-50 crowd liked WSTW best anyway.. :)
>
> Unfortunately she switched to B101 around Xmas week and it
> has remained on B101
> since.
>
 
Re: All X-Mas starting in late October(for the malls)

Forgot about Ben 95.7...maybe they will be the alternative this year.


I remember last year we were talking about the shopping malls gaining the most benefit from the early all Christmas format. The stations were really doing it to help their advertisers. It would get the customers thinking about Christmas buying early..




> In situations like that, perhaps 95.7 will ben-efit (sorry,
> too easy)...but I agree with other posters that the stations
> won't suffer from switching to all Christmas by Columbus day
> (which seems to be the trend).
>
> I can't stand non-stop Christmas music until the week of
> Christmas (I much preferred the lost art of gradually
> building in the music beginning on the day after
> Thanksgiving), but appear to be in the minority.
>
> >
 
Re: All X-Mas starting in late October? WSTW will gain listenrs

> In situations like that, perhaps 95.7 will ben-efit (sorry,
> too easy)...but I agree with other posters that the stations
> won't suffer from switching to all Christmas by Columbus day
> (which seems to be the trend).
>
> I can't stand non-stop Christmas music until the week of
> Christmas (I much preferred the lost art of gradually
> building in the music beginning on the day after
> Thanksgiving), but appear to be in the minority.
>

Add me to the minority list. Thanksgiving weekend always semed like the right time to start adding Christmas songs t station playlists, then going all-Christmas just before the holidays. What gets me is a lot of peple have off around Dec 23 - Jan 2, and you would think that people would enjoy hearing heavy rotation of Christmas songs at that time, but B and Sunny usually drop the 24-7 Christmas format on the 26th or 27th of December.
 
I don't think anyone will start an all-Christmas format until Monday, November 1st.

But I could see over a hundred stations taking the plunge on November 1st, with both WSNI-104.5 and WBEB-101.1 in Philly doing it within minutes of each other, likely on November 1st.

Why will it start so early this year??

Thanks to higher energy prices due to the impact of Huricanes Katrina and Rita, not to mention other "discretionary" income being diverted to contributions to the Red Cross and other hurricane-relief charitable causes, the nation's retail industry may well have it's worst Christmas-shopping season (when adjusted for inflation) in at least a decade, maybe longer.

What does that have to do with radio??

For most music-formatted stations (except those who are commercial stations programming classical music), revenues from retail advertisers make up the majority of income. Retailers (and their ad agencies), scared that this may be a disasterous Christmas-shopping season, will probably pressure radio to "play more Christmas music" to subliminally pressure listeners to go Christmas shopping. And given retail's dominant position in music-formatted radio advertising, retail has radio's ear.

That may mean more stations going all-Christmas this year than last (actually, the number of all-Christmas stations peaked in 2003 at 394 stations according to 100000 Watts.com; last year, the number actually declined to about 300 stations), and even those stations that don't go all-Christmas may well play more Christmas music than in the past. It will likely also mean that more stations will go all-Christmas earlier; hence, many will flip around November 1st. It will likely mean that even those stations that don't go all-Christmas may start playing Christmas music earlier this year, perhaps also in early November.

I suspect there will be very, very few Adult Contemproary stations around the country this year that won't go all-Christmas. In effect, the AC format will disappear from American radio in early November for almost eight weeks.

Personally, I wouldn't start playing Christmas music until December 1st. For the first ten days of the month, I'd program one Christmas song every three hours. From December 11th through 18th, I'd play one Christmas song every two hours. From December 19th until 12 Noon on Christmas Eve, I'd program one Christmas song an hour. I would only go all-Christmas from 12 Noon Christrmas Eve through 12 Midnight Christmas Day.
 
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