Legends 100.3 West Palm Beach FL (which covers Boca, where apparently a lot of Jewish people live) played "Hanukkah in Santa Monica" by Tom Lehrer. Akk the other songs have been either Christmas songs or something that would be played at Christmas.
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Hanukkah?
- Thread starter vchimpanzee
- Start date
Perhaps the only market in the country where that would work. More suited to an LPFM than a full-market signal.
Plenty of us in Palm Beach County. Plenty more in Broward, home to Fort Lauderdale and suburbs. Keep in mind who the target audience is for Legends. You really have to be in that demo to have a fighting chance of even knowing who Tom Lehrer is.
Now ask me twenty years from now if that statement still holds up, and I'll probably be dead. But if not, I'd answer no.
Now ask me twenty years from now if that statement still holds up, and I'll probably be dead. But if not, I'd answer no.
Tom Lehrer is already a bit ahead of my time, if that makes you feel any better. It probably doesn’t.
Along with “Now get me out of this pine box!”
Is this really all that different (but with a different format) than the hundreds of stations that still play Adam Sandler's "Hanukkah Song?"
Sandler's comedy was big in the '90s and '00s. His stuff still plays well with Gen X, but that means he's become "Dad's favorite comedian" to much of the current generation. Additionally, "The Hanukkah Song" got much more radio exposure when current than Lehrer's satirical tune got in the '60s. If programmers think they need to throw a bone to non-Christians at Christmastime just to virtue-signal their station's ownership, Sandler is the obvious choice in 2024, and has been since the day it was released.
Also, those programmers need to know when Hanukkah falls, because it jumps around the calendar every year. This year, it begins the day AFTER Christmas, Dec. 26 (actually sundown on the 25th), so everyone playing Sandler this holiday radio season will be doing so correctly no matter the date. In other years, Hanukkah can begin in early December, ending a full two weeks -- plus -- before Christmas. MDs of stations that are still playing Sandler after Dec. 18 or thereabouts in those early-Hanukkah years are just proving they don't give a crap about Hanukkah or their Jewish listeners, or at least not enough of a crap to make sure when Hanukkah begins and ends.
Props for knowing it won't be bronze or mahogany.
I will spare everyone the details, but Hanukkah can start as early as the end of November. In 2021, the first candle was lit on the Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend. In 2013, also a year when Thanksgiving Day fell on the Nov 28th, Hanukkah began on that same evening. It's hard to accuse a PD or MD of not understanding this when some of the folks celebrating Hanukkah themselves don't understand how this works.
I had a thought while writing that there might have been a Hanukkah with a late November start fairly recently, I should have paused to do a little research at that point. The "Wandering Hanukkah" (and every other Jewish holiday) phenomenon is easily, but partially, explained by the difference between the Hebrew and Gregorian calendars. Anyway, it doesn't take any effort beyond consulting a standard desktop, wall, or online calendar every year to determine when Hanukkah begins and ends. The PD/MD can even believe that the holiday is some sort of "Jewish Christmas" if he/she wants to, just as long as the station's jocks aren't still playing the Sandler song 10 days after the last day while still slipping in a "Happy Hanukkah" to their listeners going into or coming out of the song.
Now, can one of our Gentile posters tell me why Easter and its kindred observances drift about the weeks of early spring?
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Because it floats with the Jewish feast of the Passover. Traditionally, Christ was betrayed by Judas Iscariot at the Passover feast, so usually Easter is a few days after Passover.
Easter Sunday is, obviously, on Sunday. Passover is not fixed to any day of our week. So the number of days between Passover and Easter varies.
Sometimes Passover and Easter do not line up at all, like this year. Many centuries ago, the Pope declared Easter to be on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox, which is not exactly how the Hebrew calendar defines Passover (always 14 Nisan in their lunar calendar). The falling away and catching up to the Gregorian calendar is because of the leap month system which the Hebrew calendar employs.
Do they, though? That's why I started the thread.
Wasn't he on "Dr. Demento"? I used to live where one of his stations was.
That's the only place I ever heard of him. I listened on the former WRKR in Racine, WI every Sunday night after AT 40. The only other current program I think could play Tom Lehrer (besides what you mentioned) is Anything, Anything with Rich Russo on WXPK.
I have heard the song on dozens of stations throughout the country, from AOR stations to CHR stations to Hot AC. Maybe it has tailed off in recent years, but it's definitely been played often
Legends 100.3 is not playing Christmas music. That was something they were doing over the weekend.
Oops. Mixing in the occasional holiday tune.
Oops. Mixing in the occasional holiday tune.
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Just to be clear, were you referring to Tom Lehrer's song or Adam Sandler's? (I have a hard time imagining an AOR, CHR or Hot AC playing Lehrer to people whose grandparents might have heard it when it was new.)
Yep, a week didn't go by without a Tom Lehrer song or two in his 'Funny Five' countdown. But that 'Fish Heads' song always seemed to get played the most, as it was the most requested song ever on his show.
And we'll poison the pigeons in the park, maybe we'll do in a squirrel or two...
Tom Lehrer was regularly played on The Dr. Demento Show, which aired Sunday nights on mostly AOR, and later Classic Rock stations. KUPD in Phoenix was one, as well as KSEG in Sacramento.
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