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KKGO Will Flip to Christmas Music on Black Friday
- Thread starter Gregg.
- Start date
In my irrelevant opinion, that's the way it should be. Saul Levine marches to the beat of his own drum.
No flip yet
Actually, in many cases where there are multiple all-Christmas stations, when one flips, a second station often does so within minutes.
What KKGO should do if they go all-Christmas is to do a Country all-Christmas format.
Besides, there are enough Christmas songs recorded by Country stars, past and present, to sustain a Country all-Christmas format.
That way, they can spread seasonal cheer without alienating their regular listening audience, given that (unless a station goes all-Christmas as a stunt and changes formats after the Holidays) it's usually adult contemporary stations (and occasionally, classic hits stations) that go all-Christmas.
Besides, there are enough Christmas songs recorded by Country stars, past and present, to sustain a Country all-Christmas format.
That way, they can spread seasonal cheer without alienating their regular listening audience, given that (unless a station goes all-Christmas as a stunt and changes formats after the Holidays) it's usually adult contemporary stations (and occasionally, classic hits stations) that go all-Christmas.
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KKGO GM Michael Levine once commented on that by saying: Christmas has no genre.
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He added that 90% of the music will be classics.
And that is the real logic and explanation. Perfectly expressed, David.
I respectfully disagree.
I heard one station in my local market do such a format a decade ago. It was awful; the ratings reflected that fact, too.
The thing to understand about KKGO going all-Christmas---and Michael Levine is specific about it in the interview BigA posted---it's not meant to draw an audience. It's intended to keep the KKGO audience from going to KOST. Country stations tend to lose share in many markets when another station goes all-Christmas. Levine's theory is---play that music yourself, maybe stick a little closer to the classics than the A/C does, and you've got a better chance of keeping those listeners for the next month.
So you're saying there is real thought and market positioning strategy behind his decision and he is not just a loose canon doing things just because he wants to?
Who knew?
But with country music's primary audience being much younger now than in years past, does it make sense for a station that's playing Jelly Roll, Chris Stapleton, Luke Bryan and Morgan Wallen to put those artists on the shelf for a month and play Burl Ives, Nat King Cole, Johnny Mathis and Andy Williams instead? In a one-country-station city like Los Angeles, shouldn't KKGO be focusing on today's core country listener year-round?
No, he loses share that way. Time has proven his approach to be quite successful (even if "sucess" is defined as not losing as much audience as he would have).
What we want or think radio should be often conflicts woth market realities. Saul understands this.
Just to clarify, I meant that Saul ought to stick with mainstream hit country in December, not country Christmas music. Is that how you understood me, and is your reply still valid?
Couldn't the same question be asked about KOST, whose 11-month playlist is made up of artists eons younger than much of the Christmas music it plays?
I suppose, but to me, it seems a shorter leap from Bruno Mars to Andy Williams than from Luke Bryan to Johnny Mathis. Of course, it's that Sacred Money Demo of 25-44 females we're looking at here, and I have just as hard a time as most male Boomers in making sense of their fixation with holiday music.
Keep in mind this is the "holiday" ratings period, so it really doesn't matter.
It's not as much about the age of the songs, but the recognition factor. Everybody knows Rudolph.
I think adult females who are P1 Country listeners are more traditionally-oriented than adult females who are P1 AC listeners.
No, much of it is the December book with begins before Thanksgiving.
Keep in mind too that there is definitely a country Christmas leaning with KKGO’s Christmas music so the country listeners would be very familiar with the artists playing on KKGO during Christmas time.
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