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CHRISTMAS(AND HALLOWEEN) MUSIC 2022!

gr8oldies said:
That would make sense if yours was the only station in town, or the full-service A/C station and it was 1975.
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I'll admit that I'm not really up on contemporary music anymore, but aren't most of the classic Christmas songs quite old (as in 30+)? I'd imagine most of them would stick out like a sore thumb on most comtemporary music stations today. Off the top of my head I can't think of any memorable holiday songs from this century.
 
Joseph_Gallant said:
Maybe a station could produce a half-hour or hour-long show of offbeat Christmas songs and promote it extensively in the days prior to the show
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So that the majority of listeners to familiar Christmas songs would know when to tune to the competition? This could only work on a non-commercial station.
 
Marcos_C said:
More specifically, a noncommercial freeform radio station.
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Yes like WMWM where I have played things like
--Polish Muslims "Yuletide Rock Opera"--mixed the rock standard 'Gloria' with the religious 'Gloria in Excelsis Deo' and sang Auld Lang Syne to the tune of I Wanna Hold Your Hand

--Kate Bush--December Will Be Magic Again

--Stompers--All I Want For Christmas is a Rock and Roll Guitar

--Tom Lehrer--I'm Spending Hannukah in Santa Monica

You won't hear those on WMJX. Steve Leveille used to play the Lehrer song on WBZ.
Youtube and various other online services feature some holiday music you won't hear including some I won't play due to profanity etc including novelty tunes from South Park and Denis Leary.
Or you can hear what seems like the same 40 songs over and over on WMJX, which does so to make lots of money. God bless us every one!
"Good morning Mr Scrooge!
Now the meeting will come to order if you please
Are all the advertising people represented here?
Everybody but Amalgamated Cheese"--Stan Freberg, "Green Chri$tma$" 1960
 
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Marcos_C said:
More specifically, a noncommercial freeform radio station.
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Yes, for 35 years from 1982-2017, (with breaks for a couple of years in the mid-'90s and mid-'00s), I was a weekly host of the weekday 1960's/'70s show "Lost and Found" on all-volunteer non-commercial non-profit freeform WMBR at MIT. The show plays '60s/'70s music mostly not heard on commercial Classic or Oldies stations. I chose to model my edition from my memories of listening to WBCN's early freeform rock "American Revolution" format years 1968-1974.

This was my last Christmas/Winter Solstice show on 12/20/2016. This may have flown on WBCN over half a century ago, but not on any ratings-conscious commercial or public radio station since then. Some of these are not explicitly Christmas songs, but could be associated by a stretch of the imagination:

The Electric Prunes - "Agnus Dei (Lamb of God, Grant Us Peace)"
Fifty Foot Hose - "God Bless the Child" (cover of the Billie Holiday classic by obscure San Francisco '60s psychedelic band, their one album was produced by one of the Grateful Dead's longtime sound engineers)
The Bee Gees - "Every Christian Lion Hearted Man Will Show You" (from their first USA album)
Ultimate Spinach - "Fifth Horseman Of The Apocalypse" (local Boston area band)

Winter solstice, longest night of the year set:
The Youngbloods - "Darkness, Darkness"
War - "Slipping Into Darkness"
The Beach Boys - "Fall Breaks And Back To Winter"
Family - "Winter" - (by request) - (British progressive rock band)
Neil Young - "Winterlong"
Simon & Garfunkel - "Hazy Shade Of Winter" - (by request)
The Doors - "Wintertime Love" - (by request)
The Blues Project - "Steve's Song" (lyrics: "call me from a snow white, starlit stairway...", "the sounds of our winters love at nighttime...")
Blood, Sweat & Tears - "Sometimes In Winter" - (by request)
It's A Beautiful Day - "White Bird" - (by request) - (lyric: - "In a golden cage, on a winter's day...)

Pink Floyd - "Merry Xmas Song" - (by request) - (unreleased from 1969 BBC performance, available online)
Jethro Tull - "Christmas Song" - (by request)
Jimi Hendrix - "Little Drummer Boy / Silent Night / Auld Lang Syne" medley (by request)
Arlo Guthrie - "The Pause Of Mr. Claus" - (by request)
Martin Mull - "Santa Doesn't Cop Out On Dope"
Procol Harum - "A Christmas Camel"
Rotary Connection - "Silent Night Chant" - (by request)
Leon Russell - "Slipping Into Christmas"
Joni Mitchell - "River" - (by request) - (lyric: "It's coming on Christmas...")
The Grateful Dead - "Run, Rudolph, Run" - (cover of the Chuck Berry Xmas hit, only performed by the Dead live several times in Dec. '71, sung by their late original blues singer Ron "Pigpen" McKernan. He was too ill to perform by Dec. '72 due to a shot liver from heavy drinking, and passed in March '73. The Dead never performed the song again without him).
The Band - "Christmas Must Be Tonight" - (by request)
Greg Lake - "I Believe In Father Christmas" - (by request)

Some others I played in previous years Christmas/Winter shows (not in order of airplay):
Tom Rush - "Urge For Going" (lyric - "Winter's closing in")
Tom Lehrer - "A Christmas Carol"
Simon & Garfunkel - "7 O'Clock News/Silent Night"
Laura Nyro - "Christmas In My Soul"
Neil Young - "The Star of Bethlehem"
The Who - "Christmas" (from "Tommy)
Cheech & Chong - "Santa Claus & His Old Lady" - (by request)
Johnny Winter - "Please Come Home For Christmas" - (by request)
Mott The Hoople - "Death May Be Your Santa Claus" - (by request)
Captain Beefheart - "There Ain't No Santa Claus on the Evenin' Stage" (by request)
The Sonics - "Santa Claus"
Canned Heat - "Christmas Boogie"
The Christmas Jug Band (w/Dan Hicks) - "X-Mas Shopping Blues"
Commander Cody - "Daddy's Drinking Up Our Christmas" - (by request)
The Strawbs - "The Winter Long"
Bob Dylan - "Winterlude" - (by request)
Gil Scott-Heron - "Winter in America" - (by request)
Lindisfarne - "Winter Song" - (by request)
Jesse Winchester - "Snow"
Jethro Tull - "Ring Out Solstice Bells" - (by request)
John Mayall - "Chrismas '71" (sic)
Brian Auger & The Trinity - "We Three Kings"
The Kinks - "Father Christmas"
The Beatles - "Happy Michealmas" (etc...) - (by request)
Genesis - "A Winter's Tale" - (by request)
Gordon Lightfoot - "Song For A Winter's Night" - (by request)
The Rolling Stones - "Winter" (by request)
The Choir - "It's Cold Outside" - (by request) - (1966 hit by this Ohio garage rock band, some members became the Raspberries in the '70s).
Pentangle - "Child Of The Winter" - (by request)
Frank Zappa - "Don't Eat The Yellow Snow"
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band - "Steal Softly Through Snow"
Steve Miller Band - "The Beauty Of Time Is That It's Snowing"
The Smothers Brothers - "Santa Claus"
 
Where on the buisness end, I understand why stations will stick to the hits. My post was simply subjective, to which I always enjoy going off the beaten path (my personal preference).
 
WCRB 99.5 turned off Christmas music at 10pm. Not all was classical.
 
WSRS/Worcester is mostly back to regular format. According to the Recently Played list, the last 24/7 Christmas song played was Last Christmas by Glee at 11:59pm. Back to regular format at 12:03am with Complicated by Avril Lavigne. They are still dropping in winter/Christmasy type songs such as Baby It's Cold Outside, Frosty the Snowman, Sleigh Ride, Let It Snow, Deck The Hall. Their website still has the "Your Christmas Station" logo.
 
WMC2006 said:
WSRS/Worcester is mostly back to regular format. According to the Recently Played list, the last 24/7 Christmas song played was Last Christmas by Glee at 11:59pm. Back to regular format at 12:03am with Complicated by Avril Lavigne. They are still dropping in winter/Christmasy type songs such as Baby It's Cold Outside, Frosty the Snowman, Sleigh Ride, Let It Snow, Deck The Hall. Their website still has the "Your Christmas Station" logo.
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Does anyone here listen to WSRS on a regular basis and, more specifically, the morning show? Suzanne Lewis has been out for quite some time (I think since last fall) and just wondering if they have ever announced why at any point. I'm more of a semi-regular listener and have not heard anything and haven't found anything online. I do realize that they probably would not mention anything specifically if she was ill. I certainly hope she is ok.
 
Joseph_Gallant said:
Here's my own view:

If I were programming a music station, especially an Adult Contemporary format (the format most likely to go all-Christmas), here's how I would approach Christmas music:

1. I wouldn't even program any Christmas songs until December 1st.

2. From December 1st through December 10th, I'd program one Christmas song every third hour.

3. From December 11th through December 17th, I'd program one Christmas every other hour

4. From December 18th through December 24th at 12 Noon, I'd program one Christmas song every hour.

5. For the 36 hours between 12 Noon Christmas Eve (December 24th) through 12 Midnight Christmas Day (December 25th), I would program a day and a half of all-Christmas music. But only during those 36 hours.

6. At 12:01 A.M. December 26th, the Christmas music would go away.

This way, I would ease my listeners into the season and listeners would know that Christmas is coming, but they wouldn't be hit on the head with Christmas by a two-by-four, and certainly not as far out as 55 days before the Holiday.

Fifty-five days (or even thirty days) of round the clock Christmas music is, in my opinion, overkill.
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And this is why you aren’t programming them.
 
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