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Christmas

FTRlistenerAM said:
Has 100 FM The Pike ever played any Christmas songs on the actual day, December 25th?
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I live in Worcester County and listen to The Pike. If I recall correctly (which I probably don't), they may go all Christmas-ish from roughly 6pm Christmas Eve through Christmas night. Sister station WORC-FM, in their previous incarnation as Oldies 98-9, usually flipped to all Christmas at least a couple of weeks before. They flipped to a country format a few years ago (Nash Icon 98-9). Not really sure what they do now. Other sister station, 104-5 WXLO-FM, usually starts mixing in Christmas music a few weeks before. Pretty sure they go all-Christmas a week or two before as well.

I checked a thread here on this board from a year ago. Worcester's WSRS (not the same company as the other three) flipped to Christmas on November 15th.
 
I don't get stations dropping all Christmas music at midnight (or sometimes even 6 PM!) on 12/25. If you're going to go all-in on Christmas music for a month and a half, why not keep playing it until at least New Year's Day?
 
TheBigA said:
It's the kind of thing you do on the day. It's a one-day holiday. Christmas is much bigger.
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The Music Choice Sounds of the Seasons channel has enough Halloween songs in its library to make a whole format out of it. But many of those tracks would not be suitable for playing on FM radio. Some radio stations will mix in Halloween songs here and there throughout the month of October- heard the Beatles' Devil In Her Heart on WLNG the Saturday before Halloween this year, and WRKI in western CT played Werewolves of London and tied it to the upcoming holiday even back in September. But in terms of playing multiple Halloween songs back to back, that only happens on the actual day.
 
kevtronics said:
I don't get stations dropping all Christmas music at midnight (or sometimes even 6 PM!) on 12/25. If you're going to go all-in on Christmas music for a month and a half, why not keep playing it until at least New Year's Day?
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My opinion is that Christmas music should continue for one more day after Christmas- Boxing Day, 12/26- and then be dropped after that.
 
FTRlistenerAM said:
Some radio stations will mix in Halloween songs here and there throughout the month of October- heard the Beatles' Devil In Her Heart on WLNG the Saturday before Halloween this year, and WRKI in western CT played Werewolves of London and tied it to the upcoming holiday even back in September.
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The former is a Beatles track on a station that goes deep on the Beatles. The latter is the only Warren Zevon song a typical classic rock station will play, and WRKI is pretty typical. I have a feeling both get exposure winter, spring, summer or fall on those stations, and the Halloween tie-in you heard on I-95 was just a DJ ad lib, something he would never use with any of the spins Werewolves gets outside of the first six weeks of autumn.

As for WLNG, same thing -- "Devil in Her Heart" most likely got played in February, May, August, whenever, and its regular listeners thought nothing of it. I heard Fleetwood Mac's "Rhiannon" on WJMJ in early October. It's about a witch. It was also a huge hit and remains a positive tester today. If the Archdiocese's radio mouthpiece were ever to play songs about witches for the purpose of promoting the secular trappings of Halloween, hell must be close to freezing over. WJMJ is in the soft-ish classic hits business and that Fleetwood Mac track fits the bill.
 
kevtronics said:
I don't get stations dropping all Christmas music at midnight (or sometimes even 6 PM!) on 12/25. If you're going to go all-in on Christmas music for a month and a half, why not keep playing it until at least New Year's Day?
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Several stations have tried that, and found in the daily and full week PPM data that it was totally rejected.
 
DavidEduardo said:
Several stations have tried that, and found in the daily and full week PPM data that it was totally rejected.
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The songs are all about anticipation. Dreaming of a white Christmas. Santa is coming to town. Deck the halls. It's beginning to look like Christmas. Playing songs like that for a week after the holiday is like 10th of July fireworks or dropping the ball in Times Square again on Jan. 6.
 
Years ago WMGQ had a "Scary Songs Weekend" during Halloween -- not just Halloween/ghost/witch/etc. themed songs, but songs that are so bad that they're cringe-inducing, like Melanie's "Brand New Key" and Minnie Ripperton's "Lovin' You". Needless to say this was before PPM's, because I'm sure the tune-out factor was immense.
 
For Christmas music after Christmas, go to church. (of course there won't be any "anticipatory" selections from the secular songbook there)
 
According to today's Radio Ink Digest, 3 more stations have going Christmas:

The Sound of The Holidays Hits Hawaii Pacific Media Group’s 105.9 The Wave (KPOI-FM) has flipped its Modern AC format to Hawaiʻi’s Christmas favorites. The station says it will play "long, festive music sets of Hawaiʻi’s Christmas favorites, maintaining a positive atmosphere for our local, irrepressible community during the holiday season."

Syracuse Gets Some Holiday Cheer Galaxy Media Partners has started airing Christmas music on its Classic Hits station (WZUN) in Syracuse and Oswego. Brand Manager Paulie Scibilia said, “2020 has been rough on everyone, so we decided to break out the Christmas spirit a little early.”

It’s beginning to flip a lot like Christmas, all through the land. Warm 106.9 (KRWM-FM) has done the seasonal rebrand to, Seattle’s Christmas Music Station.

www.radioink.com
 
I’m a little late to the game here and just reading some of the posts from a few pages ago, but I wanted to talk about Alice’s Restaurant. I’m pretty sure the Pike played it last year, as well as WZLX and WROR. Also for the first time ever I think, WPLM Easy 99.1 played it, which was not surprising since that really is a classic hits station. It makes me wonder about MyFM 101.3 and a lot of those low power classic hits stations. I’m pretty sure Bob Bittner of WJIB says he doesn’t like playing it.
 
CTListener said:
The songs are all about anticipation. Dreaming of a white Christmas. Santa is coming to town. Deck the halls. It's beginning to look like Christmas. Playing songs like that for a week after the holiday is like 10th of July fireworks or dropping the ball in Times Square again on Jan. 6.
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There are some exceptions to that rule though. Same Old Lang Syne by Dan Fogelberg isn't about anticipation. That is one holiday song which still can be played on New Year's Day.

Only station I've ever heard play Christmas music up to and even past New Year's Day is WJMJ out of Hartford, which is a Catholic affiliated station left of 92 on the dial. A commercial FM station would never do it.
 
Retro said:
The Sound of The Holidays Hits Hawaii Pacific Media Group’s 105.9 The Wave (KPOI-FM) has flipped its Modern AC format to Hawaiʻi’s Christmas favorites. The station says it will play "long, festive music sets of Hawaiʻi’s Christmas favorites, maintaining a positive atmosphere for our local, irrepressible community during the holiday season."
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Jimmy Buffett's version of Mele Kalikimaka is much better than Bing Crosby's in my opinion. But Brett Provo of WMAS in Springfield, who does a Christmas request show, always plays Bing Crosby's version whenever someone requests it.

And I'm talking about the original version from Christmas Island, not when Buffett re-recorded it for the Tis The Season album in 2016. His second Xmas album was not a good album at all.

Jack Johnson's versions of Rudolph and Someday at Christmas are great. Those should get more radio airplay.
 
I heard the "Singing Cowboy" at noon/lunch. That was enough.
Probably a PR for 105.1 in beating Vet's Day for early C' start.
 
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