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Christmas Watch 2008

jal41

jal41

Predictions:
94.9 The Bull - Monday 11/24
104.7 The Fish - Wednesday 11/26
B98.5 - Friday 11/28

There seems to be a pattern to when these stations switch, and it seems to have stayed consistant year after year. At least these stations have shown restraint and haven't flipped already (as has been the case in every market around us).

Also...WLND 98.1 Chattanooga, a classic country station, is all-Christmas without their "Legend" name. This seems to be a sign of a pending flip (CC launched an AC on 103.7 in Chattanooga a few months ago - the logical place for CC to put Christmas music). I am mentioning this because if 94.9 does the same thing (ditches the Bull name for their Christmas format)...
 
jal41 said:
Predictions:
94.9 The Bull - Monday 11/24
104.7 The Fish - Wednesday 11/26
B98.5 - Friday 11/28

There seems to be a pattern to when these stations switch, and it seems to have stayed consistant year after year. At least these stations have shown restraint and haven't flipped already (as has been the case in every market around us).

Also...WLND 98.1 Chattanooga, a classic country station, is all-Christmas without their "Legend" name. This seems to be a sign of a pending flip (CC launched an AC on 103.7 in Chattanooga a few months ago - the logical place for CC to put Christmas music). I am mentioning this because if 94.9 does the same thing (ditches the Bull name for their Christmas format)...
Click to expand...

Still no evidence on the web, newspapers, or any news outlet on when or if 94.9 flips. I would suspect a few months notice but it's getting close to a new year.
 
Christmas watch? What about Festivus watch?
 
Can't wait to hear jal's thoughts on B98.5's formatics/jingles this Christmas...
 
B98.5 played Xmas tunes starting at 11:53am this morning (wedn).
That was after Jordan gave away $20,000 cash for the song of the day.
She then announced to listen for Jingle bell rock and win $10,000 cash.
 
I've switched stations...it is WAYYYYY too early for Christmas music. Maybe a couple of weeks before Christmas...but not now. I supected B98.5 acted on the 94.9 "gift" tip, and went ahead this afternoon.

As of 8:45 this evening...94.9 is still playing country music...not a Christmas song in sight. Looks like the delivery courier "misplaced" the "gift".

This could mean one of two things:
1) No flip - everyone go home, nothing to see here. Going country Christmas is not worth it, so they will just stay with the normal format. We will go commercial free for a while because - why bother selling ads in a bad economy!
2) They are going to flip sooner than later (mid-December). The relaunch is a ruse to shut everyone up. After the 3000 songs (no commericals - no advertisers to harm). Remeber - the Bull came in one-week before Christmas 2006 and abrupted ended Christmas music.

This really adds to the speculation of a flip rather than detract from it. Hunnicutt and Co. want that speculation to go away, regardless of whether they flip or not. They will say they are committed to country...but they want everything to go down on their terms, not those of the speculators. (Can't really do it in the Internet era). They may flip December 1st, January 1st, March 1st...they may not be ready to flip.

This is the time of the year CC makes their moves. Until Hunnicut publicly explains things, the speculation will continue.
 
This sort of reminds me of when struggling Oldies 100.7/WTRG (now WRVA) in Raleigh, NC stunted and said they "were officially signing off the air" in May 2004...they kept telling when to tune in, airing these "goodbye" stories, etc. Turns out they were "signing off" on money. In November 2004, the station finally flipped. Shortly before the flip, they went on about being 'less than 2 minutes away from a song' when going to commercials, etc etc...I know that is a different CC market, but this Bull thing is reminding me of that for some reason...grasping at straws.
 
I spoke to the DJ at 104.7 the Fish last night and asked him when they will start playing Christmas music and he said not until Thanksgiving day at 6pm. So they will be playing their regular music up until then. Listen at 6 tonight to hear the sounds of Christmas on 104.7 the Fish.
 
Jal

Clearly you are a fan of the biz and not in it
(as Seinfeld once said "and theres nothing wrong with that")
But theres a reason why the first time a lonely ole station decided to go
xmas tunes some years ago for the month of Dec.
and,the results showed that playing xmas music "saved" radio stations in
monthly trends (94.9 in Atl tried to sell the entire year off the month of dec).
Whether peach,Lite or Bull that was it for them....and many others around the
country.

Since clearly there is no longer any Creative thinking in radio any longer, only
"Creative Remembering" PD's all around the country started copying what showed
to be successful at many other stations by playing Xmas music earlier and earlier.
So now in markets from Atl-to Dallas-to-Philly-to Phoenix- Stations race to be the first.

B98,the fish,and 94.9 (whatever they are right now) have always been the 3 stations in Atl
to do xmas music....all we're expected to go Thanksgv. day sometime....only makes sense.
I've seen call out research this month that showed that 97 % of WOMEN 25-49 when asked
if they wanted to hear xmas tunes this early respond a resounding YES.

So Jal....to stations that seek that demo I would say it makes ideal programming and sales sense
huh.
 
As expected and promised 104.7 The Fish has now flipped on the Christmas lights. They did so after the first commercial break of the 6 PM hour.
 
Hey jal41....

I beilieve that in reality no matter what Hunnicut "explains" most folks on here will continue to believe what they want to... and try to get
Clearchannel Atlanta to agree with them....
 
gooberhead said:
Hey jal41....

I beilieve that in reality no matter what Hunnicut "explains" most folks on here will continue to believe what they want to... and try to get
Clearchannel Atlanta to agree with them....
Click to expand...

Agreed. They will keep on doing what they do best...screw up things...until the station are sold...and everyone better not hold their breath on a sale anytime soon.

On a side note...it looks like 94.9 is not going Christmas for the first time since 1999.
 
Still no Festivus format.

When I become PD of 929 Radio Atlanta, I will make Festivus a priorout.

Speaking ot 929, no Call to Auction this year. Too bad, I paid off my Mastercard so Mara could play side one of "Something/Anything" by Todd Rundgren.
 
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