-
Get involved.
We want your input!
Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.
After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.
After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/
Thanks in advance and have fun!
RadioDiscussions Administrators
Christmas Music Overload
- Thread starter rain9613
- Start date
We live in Nielsen-UNrated Schuylkill County, PaPaul. And I suppose the area A/C's with signals in our region are all shovelling the stuff by now.
Do we 'listen' in these places in stores or off the car radio? No. Not really. We just go into a store and GTFO as quickly as possible. I liken the barrage to a far more aggravating soundtrack than the trucks on I-81, a mile south. I-81 can be a nice, reassuring lullaby at times ; 24/7 mistletoe and holly is more like a musical :10'minute cluster full of 1-800 numbers.
Do we 'listen' in these places in stores or off the car radio? No. Not really. We just go into a store and GTFO as quickly as possible. I liken the barrage to a far more aggravating soundtrack than the trucks on I-81, a mile south. I-81 can be a nice, reassuring lullaby at times ; 24/7 mistletoe and holly is more like a musical :10'minute cluster full of 1-800 numbers.
WTDY is CHR. They haven't been AC since B101 was bought by then-Entercom, and they flipped from "Today's 96.5" to "96.5 TDY" to avoid cannibalizing their new sister station.
WSTW is Hot AC at the lightest, but basically adult CHR.
Closest "AC" that's not All-Christmas one could argue would be Y102 WRFY out of Reading. They're essentially a Hot AC that still plays some 80s tunes and they only go all-Christmas on Christmas Eve and Day.
Have you seen the numbers each year? This is very simple. Of course people listen to it. In droves.
If you're in the AC demo, as in women 25 to 45, you listen. If you're a guy in the car alone, you don't.
If you're driving with your wife or girlfriend, you do. And you're probably not happy about it.
The core appeal is more Women 35+, with a significant 25-34 component. If you look at the 65+ among women, you see a huge number.
Or tolerant. My personal acceptance increases as Christmas nears, and that reaction is born out in the weekly numbers during the season.
Grandmothers! I wouldn't expect them to be listening to anything else.
I checked out the 18-34, 18-49 and 25-54 numbers for the top 10 markets one holiday season about five years ago.
Every All-Christmas station was #1 for the Holiday ratings right across the board, with two exceptions. Otherwise, WLTW NY, KOST LA, WLIT Chicago, etc. were #1 25-54, #1 18-49 and even #1 18-34, for all these stations. I didn't have a gender break out. I was really surprised to see the 18-34 demographic so into Christmas music, most of it recorded decades before they were born.
What were the two exceptions? 1) There was no secular station that switches to Christmas music in Atlanta. WSB-FM, the AC station, doesn't go all-Christmas. 2) WASH Washington was #1 25-54, #1 18-49 but it was #2 18-34. The #1 18-34 station in Washington was an Urban that year. But WLTW, KOST, WLIT, KOIT, KEDG, KODA, WBEB and WMJX were all #1 18-34 during the Holiday ratings period.
Every All-Christmas station was #1 for the Holiday ratings right across the board, with two exceptions. Otherwise, WLTW NY, KOST LA, WLIT Chicago, etc. were #1 25-54, #1 18-49 and even #1 18-34, for all these stations. I didn't have a gender break out. I was really surprised to see the 18-34 demographic so into Christmas music, most of it recorded decades before they were born.
What were the two exceptions? 1) There was no secular station that switches to Christmas music in Atlanta. WSB-FM, the AC station, doesn't go all-Christmas. 2) WASH Washington was #1 25-54, #1 18-49 but it was #2 18-34. The #1 18-34 station in Washington was an Urban that year. But WLTW, KOST, WLIT, KOIT, KEDG, KODA, WBEB and WMJX were all #1 18-34 during the Holiday ratings period.
That is good information. The important thing is that those are all PPM markets that have data for the several weeks ahead of Christmas which are not covered in diary markets which survey only 48 out of 52 weeks of the year.
And in the PPM markets, there are a lot of stations and considerable fragmentation, so an AC that adds a couple of share points or more with Christmas is going to be #1 in just about every female demo and look quite good if not #1 among me.
And don't forget 100.7 WLEV from Allentown.
Sure, they and JBR are generally listenable in a large part of the area, but for the sake of a conversation about Philly itself, they’re non-factors.
The wife and I do not. We're both in our 60's. We both prefer Christmas music sprinkled in to regular programming. She listens to Christian music station The Sound of Life, me when listening to music mainly to Poconos station WABT and sometimes WXPN via 91.9 Hackettstown.
I believe WLTW, WLIT and KOST all do well ratings wise year round even outside of the Christmas season
Sure. And WBEB, speaking of Philly, had quite the long run with consistently strong numbers. That doesn’t change that Christmas pushes “strong” to a different level.
I was listening to WWIZ Oldies Z 104 when they flipped back in October.
- Status