J
JournalGuy
Guest
Looks like KBEZ is already crankin' the holiday hits. Wonder who else is next??
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In Oklahoma City, I woke up to Magic 104.1, KMGL, exclusively playing Christmas music something like a week ago this past Monday.
This gives me the opportunity to ask a question: Is it really that profitable to do "all Christmas all of the time" starting in mid November? I liked the "classic" intro to Christmas whereby, using KMGL as an example, the first Christmas song of the season would be played right after the six AM news break on the day after Thanksgiving and then the ratio of "regular play list" music to Christmas music would slowly shift until Christmas day.
I can't stand the thought of Christmas music until after Thanksgiving, but let me make it clear that I'm not in any way, complaining. If it maximizes profits and listener share for stations to exclusively play Christmas music for a month and a half prior - or all year for that matter, good for them. I don't have to listen. I have other stations, XM, and an iPhone as an alternative, so "Little Drummer Boy" all you want.
It does make me really curious, though.
This gives me the opportunity to ask a question: Is it really that profitable to do "all Christmas all of the time" starting in mid November? I liked the "classic" intro to Christmas whereby, using KMGL as an example, the first Christmas song of the season would be played right after the six AM news break on the day after Thanksgiving and then the ratio of "regular play list" music to Christmas music would slowly shift until Christmas day.
I can't stand the thought of Christmas music until after Thanksgiving, but let me make it clear that I'm not in any way, complaining. If it maximizes profits and listener share for stations to exclusively play Christmas music for a month and a half prior - or all year for that matter, good for them. I don't have to listen. I have other stations, XM, and an iPhone as an alternative, so "Little Drummer Boy" all you want.
It does make me really curious, though.
I am curious about the profitability of the all Christmas formatting done these days. One station I am aware of fired their whole staff and basically put the station on autopilot playing Christmas music. I suppose they made more money without all that extra drag on their bottom line in the short term, but what damage was done long term to the station? This was their way of cleaning house and changing formats January 1 the following year. But some stations do this month of Christmas now every year. I prefer the old days where the frequency of Christmas music was increased as the proximity to Christmas day neared.
J
JournalGuy
Guest
Mix made the switch this morning too. Now we have two.
K
kxojbob
Guest
We switched last night at 6pm, and this morning KKCM was promoting a weekend of music, so at least for the next few days there are now 4 in the market.
I hate to be all bah-humbuggy, but I can't stand Christmas music. In fact, I can't think of anything I'd like to listen to less. I'd rather listen to a preacher on one of the religious stations telling me I'm going to Hell all afternoon than Christmas music! Of course, I'm male, which means I'm not in most of these stations' target audience, and that means they don't care what I think.
I seem to remember reading an article somewhere, possibly R&R, a few years ago that said almost nobody wants to hear a month of Christmas music. The problem is that about 5-7% of the total market wants to hear it, and a 5 share will make you #1 in many markets. So, stations are willing to get rid of part of their core audience and bleed off listeners from the other stations who want all Christmas music. Then, they assume their audience will return on December 26th, and life will be even better than before because they were #1 in the fall book.
I seem to remember reading an article somewhere, possibly R&R, a few years ago that said almost nobody wants to hear a month of Christmas music. The problem is that about 5-7% of the total market wants to hear it, and a 5 share will make you #1 in many markets. So, stations are willing to get rid of part of their core audience and bleed off listeners from the other stations who want all Christmas music. Then, they assume their audience will return on December 26th, and life will be even better than before because they were #1 in the fall book.
J
JournalGuy
Guest
As a fellow male, I agree on too much X-Mas. It was a blow to the old ego to go to a family event on Friday and have to listen to 102.3 all day. I love being asked "are you still doing that radio thing?" and "Is this the station you work for?"
Daytime-only AM 1570 / KZLI out of Catoosa (the former KMYZ-AM in Pryor) says they're all-Christmas, all day through Christmas day.
My only annoyance is that, with everybody and their uncle (and cousin, and step-daughter, and next door neighbor) recording Christmas music, most stations STILL manage to burn me out. I still like White Christmas, Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer, and I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus... but NOT EVERY THREE HOURS!
I'm not saying every lame recording of a carol should be played, but if you know your TSL is going to go through the roof for the month, why not back off the rotation on the hottest cuts? 5 hours minimum? Maybe slower since most people will turn it on in the office and leave it on, 8 hours a day?
I'd say Mix 96 has been the biggest offender in previous years, but Spirit 102.3 has given them a run for their money. There was a time when KXOJ played a wide variety of Christmas music but the rotation seemed to tighten in recent years. KBEZ still burns me out, but it's not as fatiguing as the others... 1570 I haven't heard go all-Christmas before, so I don't know what kind of rotation they will have.
...Ironically, the way I feel about these station's Christmas rotations is about the way I feel about their regular rotations... so does that mean they're super-serving their audience?
Christmas is, as mentioned above, a moneymaker for especially AC stations, whether you're talking about massive TSL or massive sponsorship opportunities.
I like what 94.1 / The Sound is doing: an all-Christmas stream on their website, so they don't have to feel pressured to play Christmas music on the air.
...a good use for an HD-2 channel, perhaps?
My only annoyance is that, with everybody and their uncle (and cousin, and step-daughter, and next door neighbor) recording Christmas music, most stations STILL manage to burn me out. I still like White Christmas, Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer, and I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus... but NOT EVERY THREE HOURS!
I'm not saying every lame recording of a carol should be played, but if you know your TSL is going to go through the roof for the month, why not back off the rotation on the hottest cuts? 5 hours minimum? Maybe slower since most people will turn it on in the office and leave it on, 8 hours a day?
I'd say Mix 96 has been the biggest offender in previous years, but Spirit 102.3 has given them a run for their money. There was a time when KXOJ played a wide variety of Christmas music but the rotation seemed to tighten in recent years. KBEZ still burns me out, but it's not as fatiguing as the others... 1570 I haven't heard go all-Christmas before, so I don't know what kind of rotation they will have.
...Ironically, the way I feel about these station's Christmas rotations is about the way I feel about their regular rotations... so does that mean they're super-serving their audience?
Christmas is, as mentioned above, a moneymaker for especially AC stations, whether you're talking about massive TSL or massive sponsorship opportunities.
I like what 94.1 / The Sound is doing: an all-Christmas stream on their website, so they don't have to feel pressured to play Christmas music on the air.
...a good use for an HD-2 channel, perhaps?
NightAire said:
This is something I really don't understand. Cox is doing all Christmas on two of its stations? It seems like WAY too small of a niche to compete with yourself. The usual pattern when multiple stations go all Christmas is that one of them comes up big while the others hit record lows. I seem to remember that happening in Tulsa a few years ago with KQLL hitting some of its highest numbers ever doing all Christmas while KBEZ, which jumped on the bandwagon a few days later, had a terrible Fall book. There was an even bigger extreme in Cincinnati, which saw WGRR hitting the top-3 with all Christmas while WVMX went so low it never recovered.
A lot of the "Jack FM" variants are doing the Christmas stream on their websites. I've heard of a few stations doing it on their HD-2's as well.
Ah, but there IS a bit of a method to their madness:
Mix96 (for the most part) is doing Xmas: Santa Claus, ho-ho-ho, frosted windowpanes, etc.
Spirit 102.3 is doing CHRISTmas, with a capital CHRIST. Mostly CCM artists, mostly pointing very clearly to the religious symbolism of the holiday.
Depending on the office or business, it might be hard to play Spirit over the PA, whereas Mix 96 is "PC" for pretty much anywhere. However, if your religion is a huge part of your life and you feel businesses have been taking the Christ out of Christmas (or you're a religious business), Spirit is the place to go.
(It also seems likely Mix 96 is trying to take a bite out of KBEZ, and Spirit is trying to take a bite of KXOJ... Cox seems to enjoy playing chess games with their properties [Rock 102.3, anybody remember?]...)
All of this makes me think of the station that used to do all-Christmas the BEST, imho: Love 98, KCFO. They had a huge library of secular & CCM and would go all-Christmas Thanksgiving Day, I think... then when people were fa-la-la'd out at noon on Christmas, they would switch back to their regular format.
I personally prefer stations to go all-Christmas until at least midnight (for Christmas evening celebrations, light tours, etc), but it really made a lot of sense for the majority of the audience... especially after 30 days of Jingle Bells.
I think Mix 96 typically pulls the plug on the holiday nights at noon as well.
Here's the full article (from 2006):
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/12/11/business/main2249434.shtml?source=related_story
K
kxojbob
Guest
NightAire,
Funny you should mention KCFO. I was in the OKC market back at the end of their run, but I did follow them enough to know of that policy of switching back at noon and in fact considered that for this year, BUT since Christmas is a Thursday it's likely some will be celebrating on any of the 4 days that will make up that long weekend. Alas I think we'll be playing at least some holiday music through Sunday evening.
I was driving downtown Sunday at 1pm when KKCM suddenly switched from Christmas to regular again. So I figure it was either a holiday weekend strategy (but why end in the middle of Sunday afternoon- possibly because for 10 years KXOJ did a "Christmas Preview" on Friday and then went back on Saturday and maybe they thought two days would "beat" it) OR someone at Cox realized they were competing with Mix who was already late behind KBEZ and decided to not self-compete OR when they realized 3 stations were in it for the long haul they decided to try to monopolize the CCM audience... OR some reason I have no clue about
As for the size of the library- we have reduced it some, but not because we are over-researched. It's really because some of the plethora of late 80's to mid 90's Christmas music we used to include doesn't sound so good now. Have you listened to the Young Messiah CD LATELY? It's a better memory than actual experience! ;D
I'd still venture a guess we are playing more Christmas titles than anyone else in town- maybe by a hundred titles.
Anyway- we've had great response. I don't know that 2.5 weeks is enough to create a huge difference but it always made since to me for a Christian station to "own" Christmas and we finally had the chance to do it this year. Hope you like the new Christmas jingles!
Bob
Funny you should mention KCFO. I was in the OKC market back at the end of their run, but I did follow them enough to know of that policy of switching back at noon and in fact considered that for this year, BUT since Christmas is a Thursday it's likely some will be celebrating on any of the 4 days that will make up that long weekend. Alas I think we'll be playing at least some holiday music through Sunday evening.
I was driving downtown Sunday at 1pm when KKCM suddenly switched from Christmas to regular again. So I figure it was either a holiday weekend strategy (but why end in the middle of Sunday afternoon- possibly because for 10 years KXOJ did a "Christmas Preview" on Friday and then went back on Saturday and maybe they thought two days would "beat" it) OR someone at Cox realized they were competing with Mix who was already late behind KBEZ and decided to not self-compete OR when they realized 3 stations were in it for the long haul they decided to try to monopolize the CCM audience... OR some reason I have no clue about
As for the size of the library- we have reduced it some, but not because we are over-researched. It's really because some of the plethora of late 80's to mid 90's Christmas music we used to include doesn't sound so good now. Have you listened to the Young Messiah CD LATELY? It's a better memory than actual experience! ;D
I'd still venture a guess we are playing more Christmas titles than anyone else in town- maybe by a hundred titles.
Anyway- we've had great response. I don't know that 2.5 weeks is enough to create a huge difference but it always made since to me for a Christian station to "own" Christmas and we finally had the chance to do it this year. Hope you like the new Christmas jingles!
Bob
Bob,
Thanks for the reply; I noticed tuning in this evening that Spirit wasn't all-Christmas... odd! I would think counter-programming against all-Christmas with straight CCM would be a good strategy, except of course how as a Christian can you NOT go all-Christmas, the biggest religious holiday of the year (Easter being arguably more important to the faith, but it's harder to find "Easter music.")
CCM has become tough to program for the very reason you mention: older CCM (still loved by a devoted few) is so much weaker than modern CCM that trying to program them together, they stick out like a sore thumb. I'm sure the same is true for CCM Christmas (although you can have my "Evening In December / First Call" acapella CDs when you can pry them out of my cold dead hands!). In some ways, it's a good problem to have, in that CCM has come so far, so quickly!
I think it's GREAT you guys will be doing Christmas into the weekend... and why not? I agree with you that people will be doing Christmas stuff all weekend long at parties, etc... and especially if KBEZ & Mix 96 go back to regular programming, you'll be the only soundtrack on the radio for their Christmas weekend celebrations.
It always struck me as... sad... to turn on the radio Christmas day at noon and hear regular music, though. With CCM it's a little easier because at least you're still singing about Jesus... but for secular radio... it's back to the musical rat race... Bleah! Although I saw Love 98's strategy, I always wished for it to go to midnight (I often listened to KBEZ finish their "festival of music" and then play something like Whitney Houston's "How Will I Know..." still feel weird to this day).
Heck, I say go to 4am! That way 99% of the people go to bed hearing Christmas music, and wake up to regular programming... it minimizes that moment of sadness when the station "unplugs the tree."
I'll have to check out your Christmas programming... if anybody should own Christmas, I agree: it's the Christian station(s)!
P.S. - I've wondered how a station that kept regular format 9 to 5 (or 8 to 6, or 7:30 to 5:30) and went Christmas nights, overnights and weekends might do. I remember KBEZ doing just weekends some years ago, too, and it kinda made sense... you do regular music for the regular work day, then Christmas music when people are wrapping gifts, having parties, looking at lights, etc. I don't know if that kind of "compromise" would work or not... I'd say an AC would be the one to try it, not a CCM...
Thanks for the reply; I noticed tuning in this evening that Spirit wasn't all-Christmas... odd! I would think counter-programming against all-Christmas with straight CCM would be a good strategy, except of course how as a Christian can you NOT go all-Christmas, the biggest religious holiday of the year (Easter being arguably more important to the faith, but it's harder to find "Easter music.")
CCM has become tough to program for the very reason you mention: older CCM (still loved by a devoted few) is so much weaker than modern CCM that trying to program them together, they stick out like a sore thumb. I'm sure the same is true for CCM Christmas (although you can have my "Evening In December / First Call" acapella CDs when you can pry them out of my cold dead hands!). In some ways, it's a good problem to have, in that CCM has come so far, so quickly!
I think it's GREAT you guys will be doing Christmas into the weekend... and why not? I agree with you that people will be doing Christmas stuff all weekend long at parties, etc... and especially if KBEZ & Mix 96 go back to regular programming, you'll be the only soundtrack on the radio for their Christmas weekend celebrations.
It always struck me as... sad... to turn on the radio Christmas day at noon and hear regular music, though. With CCM it's a little easier because at least you're still singing about Jesus... but for secular radio... it's back to the musical rat race... Bleah! Although I saw Love 98's strategy, I always wished for it to go to midnight (I often listened to KBEZ finish their "festival of music" and then play something like Whitney Houston's "How Will I Know..." still feel weird to this day).
Heck, I say go to 4am! That way 99% of the people go to bed hearing Christmas music, and wake up to regular programming... it minimizes that moment of sadness when the station "unplugs the tree."
I'll have to check out your Christmas programming... if anybody should own Christmas, I agree: it's the Christian station(s)!
P.S. - I've wondered how a station that kept regular format 9 to 5 (or 8 to 6, or 7:30 to 5:30) and went Christmas nights, overnights and weekends might do. I remember KBEZ doing just weekends some years ago, too, and it kinda made sense... you do regular music for the regular work day, then Christmas music when people are wrapping gifts, having parties, looking at lights, etc. I don't know if that kind of "compromise" would work or not... I'd say an AC would be the one to try it, not a CCM...
B
BehindTheLines
Guest
Nightaire,
We did "Christmastime weekends" last year. We were all Christmas every weekend in December. During the weekdays, we mixed it in with our regular categories.
We had a HUGE Fall book last year. Top 4 in Women for the whole book JUST based on December. In other words, it was December of 07 that took us to top 4 in women for the complete fall book. BIG...BIG...December. Without December on the book, we'd have been a good deal lower for fall '07.
This year we're doing the same thing. But we're selling the weekends to a different title sponsor each week. "This Christmastime Weekend brought to you by Jensen Jewelers in Hudsonville...."etc.
We did "Christmastime weekends" last year. We were all Christmas every weekend in December. During the weekdays, we mixed it in with our regular categories.
We had a HUGE Fall book last year. Top 4 in Women for the whole book JUST based on December. In other words, it was December of 07 that took us to top 4 in women for the complete fall book. BIG...BIG...December. Without December on the book, we'd have been a good deal lower for fall '07.
This year we're doing the same thing. But we're selling the weekends to a different title sponsor each week. "This Christmastime Weekend brought to you by Jensen Jewelers in Hudsonville...."etc.
Gang-
Funny how attitudes change over time. When I "retired" from radio I swore I'd never go to the state fair again because of all the years I had to go stand in a booth and be stared at. Well, I really haven't gone back......yet. As far as the Christmas music, when my OP's Director Tod Tucker announced we were going 24/7 with Christmas music until further notice I thought, at first, 'I want to bulk erase the hard drive'.....but after further consideration I believe that action would, at the very least, make Tod feel bitter. After we got going with the music I realized we play some pretty darn good stuff. I also find I enjoy it! I guess it's all a matter of approach. We actually sound like we're having fun playing it....and we are. MIX 96 is also doing a great job with Christmas music and my hat is off to my friend Steve Hunter for a job well done. Clearly 92.9 KBEZ outshines, but hey...it's our job....it's what we do. That's the way we roll! ;D
Lord Bob
Funny how attitudes change over time. When I "retired" from radio I swore I'd never go to the state fair again because of all the years I had to go stand in a booth and be stared at. Well, I really haven't gone back......yet. As far as the Christmas music, when my OP's Director Tod Tucker announced we were going 24/7 with Christmas music until further notice I thought, at first, 'I want to bulk erase the hard drive'.....but after further consideration I believe that action would, at the very least, make Tod feel bitter. After we got going with the music I realized we play some pretty darn good stuff. I also find I enjoy it! I guess it's all a matter of approach. We actually sound like we're having fun playing it....and we are. MIX 96 is also doing a great job with Christmas music and my hat is off to my friend Steve Hunter for a job well done. Clearly 92.9 KBEZ outshines, but hey...it's our job....it's what we do. That's the way we roll! ;D
Lord Bob
One of my stations is now all-Christmas. KZLI 1570 Catoosa/Tulsa.
Some listeners love it. Others hate it. It's a very complicated dynamic. For some folks, the holidays signal a high stress period. Who hasen't walked into a Wal-Mart and been irritated by the Christmas music playing just past Haloween? It can be a great stressor. Hearing that same stuff on the radio can be a turn-off for some.
If we could figure out what everyone likes, we would all be #1.
From my viewpoint, I kind of adhere to the old Church calendar. Christmas starts at the end of Advent and extends until Epiphany (January 6, this year). That's when we should go all Christmas. Snipping it off at the eve of the 25th is missing the point.
Stan
Some listeners love it. Others hate it. It's a very complicated dynamic. For some folks, the holidays signal a high stress period. Who hasen't walked into a Wal-Mart and been irritated by the Christmas music playing just past Haloween? It can be a great stressor. Hearing that same stuff on the radio can be a turn-off for some.
If we could figure out what everyone likes, we would all be #1.
From my viewpoint, I kind of adhere to the old Church calendar. Christmas starts at the end of Advent and extends until Epiphany (January 6, this year). That's when we should go all Christmas. Snipping it off at the eve of the 25th is missing the point.
Stan
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