Holiday question

[CassChopper96]

Are the people who listen to Q104 the most likely people to tune out for Christmas music during the holiday. The reason I am saying because AC stations skyrocketed ratings wise across the country white classic rockers like WAXQ are lower than normal

 

[Steve Green NEPA]

Just a casual peruse here of the ratings of a few markets, Cass, tells me that ALL other music stations suffer ...Urban A/C, Greatest Hits, Classic Rock, A/C, Rock, CHR, Country .... even news stations.

Those double-digit Holiday-calorie numbers have to come from somewhere. Market to market will differ as to victimization. And as you know, 'A/C' and 'Hot A/C' can wobble inconsistently depending on the approaches. No mass appeal music competitor is immune.

 

[CTListener]

Just a casual peruse here of the ratings of a few markets, Cass, tells me that ALL other music stations suffer ...Urban A/C, Greatest Hits, Classic Rock, A/C, Rock, CHR, Country .... even news stations.

Those double-digit Holiday-calorie numbers have to come from somewhere. Market to market will differ as to victimization. And as you know, 'A/C' and 'Hot A/C' can wobble inconsistently depending on the approaches. No mass appeal music competitor is immune.

And the stations that don't break format in December, I'm sure, have budgeted for lower ad revenue while their market's Christmas station(s) reap their annual windfall. Do they make up for it by overcharging the other 12 months or is this just a fact of radio life in these days of yearly Christmas music obsession among money-demo women?

 

[vchimpanzee]

Classic rock fans would probably enjoy "Sarajevo" by Trans-Siberian Orchestra, "O Come All Ye Faithful" by Twisted Sister, "Please Come Home for Christmas" by The Eagles and "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town" by Bruce Springsteen. Actually, that second one wouldn't be on the AC stations. There may be a few others but it doesn't seem likely that many moved over.

 

[vchimpanzee]

Those double-digit Holiday-calorie numbers have to come from somewhere.

Those of us who quit listening to anything over the air until there was something worth hearing, which happens in December.

 

[Ai4i]

Slightly off topic, but...
It has always bothered me that of all the many great hits that Burl Ives recorded during his career,
plus he was a great character actor, we only get to be subjected to one of them and only in December

 

[Theater of My Mind]

Those double-digit Holiday-calorie numbers have to come from somewhere.

Those of us who quit listening to anything over the air until there was something worth hearing, which happens in December.

Some of it surely comes from PPM meters picking up the station being played in public locations for the Christmas music, not all of it from listeners deliberately tuning in.

 

[davideduardo]

Some of it surely comes from PPM meters picking up the station being played in public locations for the Christmas music, not all of it from listeners deliberately tuning in.

While this may be a little bit of the listening, in most cases it's limited to the short time of a single visit to a store by a customer. In fact, these short incidents actually reduced the average time spent listening.

On the other hand, there are a few metered people who may be at a retail location where a Christmas station is played. But that is not likely to be that many as most major retailers today have their own music service which does not have the risk of running a competitor's ads.

Remember that about 90% to 95% of the listening is done by about half of the listeners who spend hours a week with the station. You could take away all the incidental listeners and station shares would remain nearly the same.

That applies any time of the year. But you can note that the TSL for the majority of all-Christmas stations is actually higher than the rest of the year, meaning that the core listeners spend a great deal of time with the station.

 

[davideduardo]

And the stations that don't break format in December, I'm sure, have budgeted for lower ad revenue while their market's Christmas station(s) reap their annual windfall. Do they make up for it by overcharging the other 12 months or is this just a fact of radio life in these days of yearly Christmas music obsession among money-demo women?

There is usually so much extra revenue at Christmas time that the only change is added revenue from Christmas extra budgets for the Christmas station.

Generally, advertisers don't buy from one book. They buy averages of 3, 4, 6 or more books. The Christmas programmed stations justify higher rates by using last year's numbers, and they are usually sold out when they have a heritage position in the market.

We should also remember that a lot of non-retail advertising reduces or suspends their advertising between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day since they know that people are not thinking about car insurance or fumigation services or other non-seasonal things during the season.