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Gee, WJBR, Thanks for Starting Christmas Songs a Week Before Thanksgiving

6

650AM

I know you had to do it because B101 made the move Thursday afternoon... but what a shame. Now your listerners will be hearing the same 10 Christmas songs between now and midnight- 12/25.
 
Just another reason to NOT listen to WJBR or B-101 for that matter until Christmas Eve.
 
When I am ready for Christmas music, and I will be at some point, I will depend on my own CD collection, anyway. That way I don't have to hear the same song each from Springsteen, Lennon, Eagles and Carpenters ad nausium.
 
I do the same thing.

In my family, we celebrate both aspects of the Christmas season, first and foremost, the Holy Day of Christmas - Christ Mass (Christ Celebration) so I want the Religious Christmas Carols, Hymns, Motets and other music by Bach and Handel as performed by the worlds greatest symphony orchestras and vocalists/choirs, etc. Then as we also celebrate the Christmas holiday season we also want the "secular" Christmas songs, but by the artists that we enjoy in the quantities we desire.

The people I really feel sorry for are all the store employees that have to listen to the same Christmas songs over and over again at their job from now until Christmas Eve (they don't get an option to change stations or turn it off, they're stuck). No wonder store clerks get angry, irritable, and short with customers by time Christmas gets here. How many times can you listen to Blue Christmas, Rudolph, Frosty, and Grand Ma Got Ran Over by a Reindeer and not lose your sanity as that's cruel and unusual punishment.
 
It seems the backlash of Christmas music too soon is starting to catch up not only with WJBR and B-101, but a lot of stations across the country. A lot of people were complaining about stations starting too soon...if I recall, WJBR and B flipped about a week in to November last year. This year, only a few stations flipped REALLY early. Something tells me that in the not too distant future, that the Christmas format will be played when it's supposed to - 12/20 to 12/25...not the day after Memorial Day...

I will say, though, that from witnessing it first hand, that the 'battle to get to Xmas music first' between WJBR and B-101 is probably the last strategic radio planning that goes on these days...
 
Mike & Ned. I agree fully with you both...... and wish you an early Merry Chirstmas.... but a Happy Thanksgiving to you first!
 
Ned Braden said:
It seems the backlash of Christmas music too soon is starting to catch up not only with WJBR and B-101, but a lot of stations across the country. A lot of people were complaining about stations starting too soon...if I recall, WJBR and B flipped about a week in to November last year. This year, only a few stations flipped REALLY early. Something tells me that in the not too distant future, that the Christmas format will be played when it's supposed to - 12/20 to 12/25...not the day after Memorial Day...

I will say, though, that from witnessing it first hand, that the 'battle to get to Xmas music first' between WJBR and B-101 is probably the last strategic radio planning that goes on these days...
Click to expand...
Based on the ratings here and far, there was no backlash against Christmas and stations flipping before Thanksgiving. Quite the contrary.
 
Let's face it. the female demo is king in radio, and stations like WJBR, B-101 are, for all intents and purposes, chick stations. Women seem to like Christmas music and can't get enough of it, unless they work in a store where they've got to hear it day in and day out non-stop. Those women don't seem to enjoy it like the rest of the female population. So WJBR and B-101 will continue to program Christmas music early.
 
We were talking in another thread about the absence of standards from radio - here and most everywhere. Ironic that Christmas is the only time radio plays anything like standards music and the artists associated with it. I guess people of a certain age think that's all these people ever recorded. A few months back I entered "Bing Crosby" into Last.FM and all that was included in the computer-generated playlist was popular Christmas songs. And this was a guy consistently at the top of the charts for 30 years (while simultaneously topping movie box office numbers and prime time ratings).
 
You're right. Christmas is the one time during the year you can hear Bing Crosby, Perry Como, Gene Autry, etc, on commercial FM radio. even rare on AM radio in most markets now. It's a shame that many folks think that the only songs Crosby or Como, etc, ever sang were Christmas songs. They've sure missed a lot of good music.
 
I asked someone in radio about this very subject. I was told that "Christmas Is About Memories." Thinking back to your child hood and remembering good times. It's why there aren't many new Christmas songs that catch on in a given year. It's neat that these great artists and songs will be passed down from generation to generation. 100 years from now, it'll still be about Andy, Bing, and Nat.
 
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