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Christmas Music

C

ChiefEngineer

Others have posted about the pros and cons of Christmas Music on other stations. Rather than muddy the waters on that thread, our Indiana station has the same dilemma.

This is a Christian station that is, if you consider it, all Christmas Music all year long. Both men and women have complained. Are we trading our core listeners for non core new listeners? Now this isn't seemingly a consideration. After numerous complaints on our Christian Music station about the large abundance of Christmas Music, all Christmas, here is the response from the network.

Christmas Music

We have a key demographic that we target - women ages 25-54 with adult contemporary Christian music. In so doing, we spend a lot of money in research and audience preferences to do everything possible to help our clients create the largest audience possible. We play the songs we play because, time and again throughout our research, this is what the listeners overwhelmingly prefer. Does that mean everyone likes it? Of course not. There are always detractors - no matter what you do.

We do know that with this target audience, the best-tested Christmas songs on a continuous basis results in an absolute home run. No TV campaign, no billboard campaign, no anything draws more new listeners to a Christian music station than Christmas music. It provides tremendous opportunity to meet the needs of current listeners and to convert new listeners to long-term listeners. It typically results in audience growth and both long and short term revenue growth. That's why 400 plus stations each year do it for at least a month prior to Christmas. (We've even tested it on our own CCM station here in Nashville the past few years and, like it's been for so many others, it's been an absolute home run). Arbitron diary and Arbitron PPM fully bear this out; no question about it.

Yes, there will be aberrations here and there. But by and large, with the right target and the right songs, this works. Our goal is to make our client stations the most interesting and compelling stations possible. Research and actual historical results shows that continuous Christmas music for a significant period prior to Christmas goes a long ways towards accomplishing that.
 
To add to this thread as to what stations air during the Christmas season,
WITT intends to keep the tradition of about 48 hours of holiday music
and special programs to air from about 6pm Christmas Eve to about
6pm December 26, Boxing Day in many countries, including Canada.
That said, some of the folks who produce their own hourly shows might
include a holiday episode before Christmas Eve.

WITT will also air a bit of holiday music up to January 12.
 
Playing Christmas music on radio goes back as far as I can recall (early 1960's). A couple of things that have changed have been that 50 years ago, every single music station played Christmas music starting on Christmas Eve & going through Christmas Day (there was no music station that stuck with it's usual format) and more strikingly was that at 11:59PM on 12/25, the Christmas music didn't suddenly disappear...some stations played varying amounts of it through New Years Eve. That last historic footnote begs the question of why it's appropriate to play Christmas music 6+ weeks before Christmas but totally out of the question to play it two days after? The trees are still up, the Christmas dinner leftovers are still being devoured, the kids are still excited about their new treasures, yet the music is gone.
 
I remember a few weeks out we would play 2 an hour then later 4 an hour until Christmas Eve.

I can't see how people who are committed listeners want to abandon their whole format on a Christian music station that is well, Christmas year round, in favor of secular artists and Christian srtists doing poor covers of secular Christmas music.

Paul McCartney's wonderful Christmastime is great. Some teen Christian band covered it poorly and their cover stinks. THIS is the one that network x plays up until Christmas.
 
ChiefEngineer said:
I can't see how people who are committed listeners want to abandon their whole format on a Christian music station that is well, Christmas year round, in favor of secular artists and Christian srtists doing poor covers of secular Christmas music.

Paul McCartney's wonderful Christmastime is great. Some teen Christian band covered it poorly and their cover stinks. THIS is the one that network x plays up until Christmas.
Click to expand...

A few Christian groups have covered it.. Are you thinking about the Earthsuit version (Christian Rock) or the Jump5 version (more of a pop feel)? Personally I like both of them.. I don't really think the Paul version has a place on Christian Radio but I do know more than one Christian AC station that "goes wall to wall Christmas" who sprinkle in the "mainstream" music for a month out of the year and play that version.

I run a Christian CHR/Rock internet radio station and I don't go wall to wall with Christmas until around a week before.. (May be less this year) currently doing 3 an hour. I also do not insert the Mainstream Christmas songs like the Christian AC stations.. I feel that they have a place for that and that's on the Mainstream AC .. Why should I give up my slots to them for a month a year when that is not my normal format.
 
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