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Christmas 106.5???

R

RonM

As of yesterday, apparently Christmas music is now being played on the WBHP 106.5 FM translator here in Huntsville. Anyone know the reasoning behind this or where the originating station is from?

Now I'll have to listen to crappy AM to get my afternoon replay Rick and Bubba fix! Ugh!
 
EDIT: found the originating station, 100.3 (WQRV) HD-2, which previously simulcasted WBHP.

Still not sure of Clear Channel's reasoning behind this.
 
wow, noticed it earlier today but just shrugged it off as DX, as I had Z 98.5 out of tupelo loud and clear at the time
 
They even have a website; christmas1065.com.

Maybe they'll flip to Top-40 after the holidays, and give ZYP a run for their money....... :)
 
It's also interesting that the website mentions nothing about the station being available as an HD-2 of WQRV.
 
This is a very interesting move by Clear Channel. It's got the wheels in my head churning LOL. I see one of two things happening here. Either they just want to get in on some of the Christmas music format revenue by temporarily splitting their AM/FM/HD2 simulcast of WBHP and plan on returning that simulcast once Christmas is over, or if they plan on flipping 106.5/100.3 HD2 to a new format once Christmas is over. I'm hoping for the latter, and I'm hoping RonM that you are right that they flip it to a real CHR station. If they do this, maybe they will test how well CHR will do for them on 106.5, and if it makes enough splash, maybe they will move it to the main 100.3 signal and put classic hits on the HD2 and 106.5 translator. Rick and Bubba of course would stay with the classic hits station. The River is never really all that impressive in the ratings, and adding the FM 106.5 signal to WBHP hasen't helped at all either. I guess we will see once Christmas is over!
 
A few more observations here. They haven't so far (that I've heard) mentioned any part of their former simulcast partner WBHP or of it returning once Christmas is over. They are presenting the station as its own entity naming it "Christmas 106-5" (as you may already know as the subject line of this thread states LOL). This, of course as we all know, cannot possibly be permanent. In the past when I've seen stations flip to all Christmas and completely abandon all mention of the old format, station, staff, station name, etc. it has always ended up as a new station launch once Christmas is over. Clear Channel themselves are known for doing this numberous times before. If I were a betting man, I'd say Huntsville will have a new station on December 26th. Then again this could just be a lot of wishful thinking on my part (that some real CHR competition for ZYP is comming) driving me to say that, but non the less the possibilities have me excited.
 
RollTide said:
In the past when I've seen stations flip to all Christmas and completely abandon all mention of the old format, station, staff, station name, etc. it has always ended up as a new station launch once Christmas is over.
Click to expand...

This is especially true for stations that flip so soon after Halloween, as this one did.

In fact, offhand I know of only one station that didn't flip after an early Christmas ride, and that was Magic 96 in Birmingham. It seems like any station that goes Christmas more than two weeks before Thanksgiving equals "flip imminent".
 
Zach said:
Whoops, I meant to add this: Magic in Birmingham and WMJY in Biloxi have now also gone all Christmas. WMJJ & WMJY are carrying the exact same feed, same songs, same order.
Click to expand...

I'm not surprised about Magic. I'm still waiting on Lite 96.9 to flip in Huntsville. They are always the traditional Christmas station here.
 
RollTide, it appears your wait is over....Lite 96.9 has now flipped to all-Christmas (much earlier than last year, by the way!)
 
Lol Zach, I would have to agree

I knew it was only a matter of time for Lite 96.9. I'm not much for listening to all Christmas stations but I know lots of people love it. With another frequency doing it this year already , I'm not surprised 96.9 went ahead and flipped.
 
I have a question regarding the speculation as to what this station will be after Christmas: are there any Clear Channel HD-2 stations (or associated translators) that are "stand-alone" stations (with local origination)? Or are they all pretty much satellite-fed?

Either way, I continue to wonder what CC will replace this with after Christmas.....
 
As of today, neither traditional station in Montgomery (Mix 103 or AM 950) has flipped to Christmas yet. AM 950, part of the "America's Best Music" network, has always done on Black Friday and apparently will again. Mix 103 - unknown

Could Lite 100.5 (WQKS-HD2) join the Christmas fray? Not yet if they are.
 
RonM said:
I have a question regarding the speculation as to what this station will be after Christmas: are there any Clear Channel HD-2 stations (or associated translators) that are "stand-alone" stations (with local origination)? Or are they all pretty much satellite-fed?

Either way, I continue to wonder what CC will replace this with after Christmas.....
Click to expand...

I can't speak for local origination, but in Birmingham CC runs no less than three HD-2 to translator operations (Hallalujah, The Vulcan and The Beat) and all are run as if they are real regular stations. There are jocks of some type (vt'd?) on The Vulcan for sure.
 
Zach said:
Regarding stations flipping to Christmas before Thanksgiving, I say this every year, and 2012 will be no exception:

TOO SOON!​

;D
Click to expand...

Here's the crazy thing Zach: Radio has been doing it so long, they may have worn me down. To me, it's weird to not have some accessible Christmas tunes on the radio--what's Lite Mix 99.9 waiting on? ;) Maybe I'm thinking of too many format flips (or new station launches, as in the case of WILF Monroeville), but 'going Yule' at or just past the midway point of November no longer seems that unreasonable. For 2012, Holiday formats starting this weekend will have about 40 days of play into Christmas Day.

Particularly with the conclusion of the way-too-long presidential election campaign and concurrent national concerns of the day, I'm going to predict that stations going all-Christmas are going to see ratings like never before.
 
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