Every year there's a bunch of hot AC stations that go all Christmas including Star 104.5 in Omaha and 99.1 WMYX in Milwaukee. Why don't they leave that up to the oldies and AC stations? Most Christmas music is slow and I don't think it portrays the hot AC format very well for that time being. Thoughts?
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Hot ACs should not go Christmas
- Thread starter icycool7227
- Start date
Some research of national Arbitron numbers in recent years has shown that non-AC stations which flip to Christmas actually suffer in the ratings more often than not, and clearly for Hot ACs and the like that go all-Christmas during the holidays the point is to boost ratings. Christmas music (the songs that are actually popular with mass audiences) is composed of mostly lite hits, so if lite hits isn't your bag to begin with, then don't try to make it your thing when Thanksgiving rolls around.
icycool7227 said:
I agree completely. Christmas music does NOT belong on Hot AC stations. That's why I was not surprised that Townsquare Media in Grand Rapids chose 100.5 WTRV (their mainstream AC station) to play 24/7 Christmas music instead of sister station WLHT 95.7 (which is now Hot AC).
Between the years of '07 and '09, Regent (what Townsquare Media used to be) switched 95.7 to all Christmas and left 100.5 kept its regular soft or mainstream AC programming during the Christmas season. But then again, that was before 95.7 officially went Hot AC. (It was a Hot-AC-leaning mainstream AC station.)
My big complaint now is that, as soon as 105.7 WOOD switches to all Christmas (after all, it is Grand Rapids' official Christmas Music Station), that will leave mainstream AC listeners in Grand Rapids who don't want to hear Christmas music left out in the cold. Both mainstream AC stations will have Christmas music, and folks who want to listen to regular music by artists like Elton John, Celine Dion, Rod Stewart, etc. will be out of luck until after Christmas.
Dial-Global's Hot AC service will not be doing a block of continuous holiday music this year as they have in years past. Last year they did 24 hours (3PM ET 12/24-3PM ET 12/25). This year they will keep to their regular format throughout, with one or two holiday tunes per hour starting after Thanksgiving. Four per hour on the Big Day itself. That's plenty for me.
Banjomax said:
That's how all AC stations (mainstream or otherwise) should do it. That's how it used to be... when things in our society were done in moderation. The days of moderation are long behind us.
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