Exactly. The reason the "Christmas Format" has worked for 30-something years is because it was birthed in the research era, and programmers have been able to ask the audience what they love, like and will tolerate and continue to fine-tune it so that it works again next year.
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Great songs that test poorly
- Thread starter Mike Stark
- Start date
Exactly. The reason the "Christmas Format" has worked for 30-something years is because it was birthed in the research era, and programmers have been able to ask the audience what they love, like and will tolerate and continue to fine-tune it so that it works again next year.
I dunno. The problem with AI is it needs input. Where would it get that? Already, we're seeing AI eat its own tail for lack of quality data.
Model Collapse: AI Chatbots Are Eating Their Own Tails
Meanwhile, organizations that laid off writers and editors to save money are finding that they can’t just program creativity or common sense into machines.
mindmatters.ai
But Jerry Ryan's experiment in Phoenix 30 years ago was based on pure intuition and based on how well the days right before Christmas did in diaries (the Christmas week was not measured back then).
Yeah. But Jerry couldn’t have maintained it over the decades. Christmas is a (mostly) consistent performer because of research.
Now that we are on the topic of Christmas music, we've probably discussed this article from Radio Insight that talks about favorite Christmas songs broken down by age demographics. These are the top 100 songs from the 2023 season. The apparent winner from the 2023 season is "Jingle Bell Rock." This is anecdotal, but my son says that when he went to pick up his 12 year old daughter from the 7th grade afternoon Christmas dance social, they were playing "Jingle Bell Rock" and "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" in the original versions, rather than playing recent music. ( I don't know if the 7th grade suddenly had a fit of rock nostalgia or what, but those songs are tuneful and danceable).
For ages 18-24, according to the P-1 Media Group, the favorite song is Mariah Carey's ubiquitous "All I Want For Christmas Is You. " But that is one of the "newer" songs on the list. I'll link this below so that I don't copy and paste too much information, but look at the top 10 list of Christmas favorites. They are "oldies" or "gold" from way back. ( with a couple newer versions from newer artists). That is amazing:
radioinsight.com
For ages 18-24, according to the P-1 Media Group, the favorite song is Mariah Carey's ubiquitous "All I Want For Christmas Is You. " But that is one of the "newer" songs on the list. I'll link this below so that I don't copy and paste too much information, but look at the top 10 list of Christmas favorites. They are "oldies" or "gold" from way back. ( with a couple newer versions from newer artists). That is amazing:
P1 Media Group Releases Annual Survey Of Best Testing Christmas Songs
P1 Media Group has released its annual study of the the appeal of the 100 most-played Christmas songs from the
radioinsight.com
| 1 | Jingle Bell Rock | Bobby Helms | 1957 | 82.70 |
| 2 | Holly Jolly Christmas | Burl Ives | 1963 | 82.36 |
| 3 | It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year | Andy Williams | 1963 | 82.34 |
| 4 | Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree | Brenda Lee | 1964 | 82.22 |
| 5 | Santa Claus is Coming to Town | Jackson 5 | 1970 | 81.74 |
| 6 | Feliz Navidad | Jose Feliciano | 1979 | 81.70 |
| 7 | Holly Jolly Christmas | Michael Buble | 2011 | 81.35 |
| 8 | The Christmas Song | Nat King Cole | 1960 | 80.80 |
| 9 | Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree | Leann Rimes | 2004 | 80.77 |
| 10 | It’s Beginning to Look a lot like Christmas | Bing Crosby | 1945 | 80.75 |
A little error there: "Feliz Navidad" was released in 1970 from the album "José Feliciano". It was first played on WUNO in San Juan, Puerto Rico that Christmas season after PD Alfred D Herger and I heard it and instantly realized it was a hit.
"Feliz Navidad" broke just as quickly in the States, David.
In 1970, MOR stations started playing Christmas music around December 1, one song an hour and then ramping up to the point that they were usually a 50/50 mix the week before Christmas, all-Christmas on December 23 and 24 and usually a blend of the more religious songs and speciality programming on Christmas Day.
Top 40 usually didn't start hitting the Christmas songs until December 15, again, ramping up, but not hitting 50/50 until Christmas Eve.
But "Feliz Navidad" broke early---KIMN in Denver added it on November 28 (this thanks to the chart data at ARSA-Las Solanas), and KGB in San Diego was on it December 7th. That was probably an RKO national add. I was hearing it that early on KHJ and KFRC, but in those days, they didn't chart the Christmas stuff, even if it was new.
KHJ and KFRC did make an exception for the other big new Christmas single of 1970---Carpenters' "Merry Christmas Darling". Both stations added it December 9th, but KMEN in San Bernardino was on it on November 25---the day BEFORE Thanksgiving.
Now that we are on the topic of Christmas music, we've probably discussed this article from Radio Insight that talks about favorite Christmas songs broken down by age demographics. These are the top 100 songs from the 2023 season. The apparent winner from the 2023 season is "Jingle Bell Rock." This is anecdotal, but my son says that when he went to pick up his 12 year old daughter from the 7th grade afternoon Christmas dance social, they were playing "Jingle Bell Rock" and "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" in the original versions, rather than playing recent music. ( I don't know if the 7th grade suddenly had a fit of rock nostalgia or what, but those songs are tuneful and danceable).
For ages 18-24, according to the P-1 Media Group, the favorite song is Mariah Carey's ubiquitous "All I Want For Christmas Is You. " But that is one of the "newer" songs on the list. I'll link this below so that I don't copy and paste too much information, but look at the top 10 list of Christmas favorites. They are "oldies" or "gold" from way back. ( with a couple newer versions from newer artists). That is amazing:
P1 Media Group Releases Annual Survey Of Best Testing Christmas Songs
P1 Media Group has released its annual study of the the appeal of the 100 most-played Christmas songs from the
1 Jingle Bell Rock Bobby Helms 1957 82.70 2 Holly Jolly Christmas Burl Ives 1963 82.36 3 It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year Andy Williams 1963 82.34 4 Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree Brenda Lee 1964 82.22 5 Santa Claus is Coming to Town Jackson 5 1970 81.74 6 Feliz Navidad Jose Feliciano 1979 81.70 7 Holly Jolly Christmas Michael Buble 2011 81.35 8 The Christmas Song Nat King Cole 1960 80.80 9 Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree Leann Rimes 2004 80.77 10 It’s Beginning to Look a lot like Christmas Bing Crosby 1945 80.75
Christmas music is largely demographic-proof, Daryl. There just aren't that many hits from any specific year to create a category of "current Christmas". And rock-based Christmas happened in fits and starts---Bobby Helms and Brenda Lee in the late 50s, Elvis in '60 with "Blue Christmas" and the Phil Spector Christmas Album ("A Christmas Gift for you") in 1963, along with the Beach Boys' "Little Saint Nick" and "The Man With All The Toys".
And then it kinda got quiet. Most of the Motown artists did Christmas albums and/or singles, but they weren't huge.
Which made the "Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass Christmas Album" in 1968 kind of a big deal. Here was an act that had been in the top ten recently---and number one that year ("This Guy's in Love With You"), with a new Christmas album and TV appearances to support it.
Not much happened in '69, but the one-two punch of "Merry Christmas Darling" and "Feliz Navidad" in 1970, followed in '71 by John Lennon's "Happy Xmas (War is Over)" and Cheech and Chong's "Santa Claus and His Old Lady" was the beginning of a phase where we could expect one breakout contemporary Christmas single a year.
Didn't last long, though.
You can already see that in AI-generated art. Even when it outputs a lossless PNG file, the image has JPEG compression artifacts in it. Why? Because the models were trained on compressed JPG images, so that's what they think photos and artwork are supposed to look like.
A lot of the dates on that site are wrong. It lists a Bing Crosby song as being from 1992 (15 years after he died) and an Amy Grant song as being from 1963 (when she was 3 years old).
I never use AI for my automotive writing (in fact, U.S. News & World Report strictly prohibits it), but once a month, I'll try a prompt for an AI-generated image, just to see how well it works.
It improves a bit every month, but the one thing it has trouble with is secondary characters.
Here's a better example than anything I've generated---this is making the rounds on Facebook:
It gets the "Oreo" logo right, and the "Bailey's", but look at the "e" in "Irish Cream", it's falling apart. After that, any text is just garble---it can't even render the "Nabisco" logo.
The trouble is that you'd be surprised---despite the obvious flaws in the image---how many people ask where they can get them.
Part of it is that most people don't look at detail---they only see what they want or expect to see---and the glaringly apparent has to be pointed out to them.
Take the other hot one on social media this week:
"Oh,my gosh! How sweet!"
It actually has to be pointed out to them that their first question should be what a 1990s woman is doing in 1954 and then we can tackle the rest of it (including how come the boys are in their 20s instead of their 70s).
Lack of critical thinking is what will make AI---even bad AI---a problem for us all.
What's wild, but predictable, when you think about it, is the chain of events and how quickly it happened:
mindmatters.ai
The fundamental analogy here is that this is why the water supply to your house and the sewer are two separate lines.
- Generative AI text becomes available. It scrapes the internet for available information and uses it in what it creates.
- Publishers fire human writers and begin to use AI.
- The amount of fresh material AI needs to use slows to a trickle.
Another warning that the AI bubble is near bursting…
Maybe the reason there is no principled solution to AI hallucinations is that we cannot create artificial human minds.
mindmatters.ai
The fundamental analogy here is that this is why the water supply to your house and the sewer are two separate lines.
I like 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 8, 10, 13, 18, 19, 20, 21, 24, 25, 27, 28, 30, 31, 32, 34, 35, 37, 38, 39, 41, 42, 44, 45, 46, 47, 50, 52, 53, 54, 60, 61, 63, 64, 70, 72, 74, 77, 78, 79, 80, 84 and 89. Maybe 5, 6, 9, 29. 58, 66, 68, 87 and 93. The first part of 15 is good but it ends badly. I listed one Amy Grant song but I'm not sure about any of hers.P1 Media Group Releases Annual Survey Of Best Testing Christmas Songs
P1 Media Group has released its annual study of the the appeal of the 100 most-played Christmas songs from the
I'm surprised "Deck the Halls" by Mannheim Steamroller isn't there. I didn't see any of the versions of "Do You Hear What I Hear" that I really like.
I'm actually guessing I would like anything by Sinatra or Bing.
I'm in Southern California to visit relatives for Thanksgiving, and KOST is everywhere, in all the little stores and small venues, playing Christmas music as if it's Christmas Eve. Chimp, you would like KOST Christmas music - it's a lot of Andy Williams. Sinatra, Ray Coniff, songs and late 50's - early 60's music. They consider "Little Drummer Boy" to be one of their more "contemporary" songs. 😀 LOL.
In Puerto Rico, the "Christmas Season" began in November with the inclusion of traditional "jibaro" music about the season... often about drinking and partying...
... but in the case of "Feliz Navidad", my PD, Alfred D Herger, was friends with Feliciano as he had been instrumental in the early years of his career thanks to Alfred's "Teenager Matinee" on WKAQ-TV "Telemundo" every afternoon. (Despite the "Herger" name and the "Teenager Matinee" title, everything was in Spanish). So Feliciano and his team brought us the song and Alfred played it on his morning show on WUNO. I believe that it was actually a test pressing that they brought.
Song 21 is not even a Christmas song. It has no place on these "All X'mas" formats.P1 Media Group Releases Annual Survey Of Best Testing Christmas Songs
P1 Media Group has released its annual study of the the appeal of the 100 most-played Christmas songs from the
Well, it is the only time most stations will play it.
I did hear it on a standards station during the rest of the year.
It's because of being tied into the Charlie Brown Christmas special. But true, it's technically not a Christmas song
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