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Middle Georgia's Christmas Station...

O

olhankster

Is, of course, Peach 96.5. Started with Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer by Burl Ives at Midnight. Sounds good...and yes, I am not ashamed to say I work at Clear Channel. I am not in programming, though.

By the way, thumbs up on calling it The Christmas Music Station. The old Holiday Music Station slogan in this town just doesn't fly with the target audience around here. (I know, I am the one that started that across town. But, we all change over time. It's called growing up.)

Hank Brigmond
Account Executive (Not PD or anything else)
Clear Channel Radio/Interactive Macon, GA

(Left Georgia Eagle for this position because I wanted to have more time with my child and make enough to send her to college. Nothing else.) ::)
 
Is wpez suppose to start their's tonight?The've been starting the Friday before Thanksgiving at 6pm 2 years in a row.
 
Wpez flipped to all Christmas tonight at 6pm now we have 2 Christmas stations in Middle GA and Sunny 99.9 plays all Christmas at night during Delila. :)
 
Um, Hank...

Hate to break it to you, but we haven't used "holiday" music station slogan on WPEZ in two years... at least not as a primary slogan.

We too at "clueless" broadcasting (or "cumeless" or whatever the radio-info nation like to refer to the company I work for as) are aware of the sensitivity that many people have about "removing" Christmas from the Christmas season... something we've never set out to do (not you, not me, not Clear Channel, not Cecil Staton, no one). Frankly, I've not had a complaint about using the "H" word... except for the one guy who claimed to be a Christian and tried to start a fight with me in the middle of Macon Mall while I was on the air over that subject.

Holiday -it's only a word... besides, we also celebrate Thanksgiving (which is not Christmas) and New Year's Day (which is also not Christmas). We even give greetings to Hanukkah (definitely not Christmas) and also have been known to mention Boxing Day (or as I like to call it, Christmas hangover).

Just a programming question... should I take Andy Williams' "Happy Holiday/The Holiday Season" out of rotation?

Glad you're getting some downtime to be with your family by moving over to Clear Channel... I wish you nothing but success.

And it's good to know you're still competitive enough to take a cheap shot...

Oh, and sharklover... WPEZ flipped at 5pm Friday... just in the interest of accuracy.

David
y'know... the guy who "screwed up" WPEZ... singlehandedly!
 
Umm, Dave...never mentioned you, your station or what you were doing 'cause that station hasn't been on my radar since March 30, 2005. Glad to see everything is about you. (sarcasm)

Folks, the only think I was talking about calling a Christmas Music station that instead of Holiday since how many of the Holidays you mentioned have songs? Not the same 400-600 Christmas stations play nor the passion. I won't even go on the overused Official word that I used as a crutch for most of my career. :eek: Again, never mention any former employer, only myself and I am big enough to admit when I am wrong.

I never in all these years said I ever owned this issue nor have I ever said you were the one that ruined the station. In fact, I have come to your defense on occasion and when I submitted my resignation, even pushed to have you take over because of the fact I thought you would be best for the job. Forget that? Guess so. And if anyone cares, I am beyond ever going back, so I don't have a dog in this fight. (That is Southern for I don't give a rats behind about the thought...especially when interviewed, was asked what I would do different and that person went to you and blew it out of reality and caused friction among old friends. Ain't ever working there, pal. Friends mean more to me than that.)

I do wish you and your's the best, after all these radio jobs don't last forever and there is more than enough room for all of us in this market. So take a deep breath, do a great job with the upcoming radiothon and have yourself a Merry Christmas. Anything else on this, you know where to find me. ;)

Now...back to what is important, spending time with my family and getting ready for a nice evening with my best friend and our girls, setting up the tree and listening to Peach 96.5.
 
Hank
Git' em!

I will grant that Clear Channel has a lot of weight to throw around but you do it with better class than CumeLESS.

I do hope that your playlist does NOT mirror 93.7's this holiday season. I think that if people choose to have you reflag the program as Christmas music you should do so. But since Thanksgiving is included in "holiday season" you should keep on keepin' on.

Throw in some humorous stuff and even some faster Eighties stuff. I remember when 106.3 was playing a song about an NFL junkie celebrating Christmas back in '83. And how about "Christmas Wrappings" by The Waitresses. Now if that isn't Eighties-ish! Just be sure to be open minded with the songs and make it fun; that'll knock Clueless off their rocker.

Finally, when you go back on the air 12/26 think about going with Sixties and Seventies music (1964-1977) and kill the late-Seventies slow stuff. The oldies format is NOT dead and a bulging playlist of post-1965 oldies will even make kids happy.

Keep up the good work. CC has been good to my company; I miss Carmen from sales; hope she is well!

KT
 
The more the merrier...

It seems like it's been eons since stations would ramp up from just a couple of Christmas songs per hour in late November to full tilt Christmas music by December 22nd or so. With a dial full of choices, I don't have a problem with multiple stations in the market spreading the holiday cheer 24/7 from now 'til Christmas. It certainly does seem to translate into higher ratings in the core female demos so the listener demands it and the marketplace responds. On the satellite side, Sirius has three holiday music channels with three different directions (pop, country and classical) and I suppose XM does, too. Ironically, when Fred and Oscar cranked-up newly acquired B-93.7, WMGB Jeffersonville-Macon-Warner Robins, on September 27, 1993, they stunted with Christmas music for the first day. A good friend of mine not in radio was unfamiliar with stunting and commented that they were either getting a huge jump on the rest of the market for the holidays or were completely off their rockers for playing "Blue Christmas" in late September. My daughters love "I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas" anytime they can hear it, Christmas or not.
 
Let me preface by saying I haven't been in programming in 23 years, and probably would not survive in today's radio climate. But it seems to me that radio stations are burning a lot of good Christmas music. I don't listen to that much terrestrial radio since I got XM. I don't mind the fact that XM has multiple holiday music channels because they're not changing any formats to run them. They just add channels for the holidays. And except for the fact that it's not baseball season and I can't catch the games on the MLB channels, the other channels I normally listen to are still there with their regular formats. But I come from the era when you started slipping in a few Christmas songs after Thanksgiving, normally by artists within your format, and then gradually play a few more closer to Christmas Day. Then it was really a special event for stations to break their normal format for 24-36 hours on Dec 24-25. Now it's no big deal because you have 2 stations who essentially changed formats last week. Do the listeners get burned out on Christmas music by Dec. 25? What about the air staff? Anybody from the old days of radio always worked on holidays - it just went with the territory. But working Christmas Eve and Christmas Day was a little more bearable because you got to play music that you didn't play the rest of the year. Even stuff waaaay out of the format like Sinatra, Cole, Crosby, Burl Ives, Gene Autry, etc. on a Top 40 station - what a treat that was! So if there are any non-voice-tracked dayparts left, do these announcers get sick of the holiday music? And most important, let's go back to the effect on listeners. Are there complaints from those who enjoy the regular format, but have to do without it for 6 weeks or so?
 
Talk about the old days.... I think I opened up on Christmas morning for more years than I can remember....at every station I worked for. Somehow at MAZ Bill Powell could always find a way to schedule me on Christmas morning. Had to get the kids up about time they went to sleep for Santa to come before I trudged off to play Christmas music on Christmas morning.

And as far as starting Christmas music, WBML used to start right after the Christmas parade downtown.....and they played quite a bit of Christmas music.
However, at WMAZ, even though I was music director at the time, Bill Powell insisted we only play one Christmas song, and a light one at that, each hour beginning after Thanksgiving. Then the second week after we could play two per hour. And then several the next week, but not even the week before Christmas did we play all Christmas. That was saved for after 6PM Christmas eve and till 6PM Christmas day. Then it was back to the old grind. KOKO.

I'm telling my age, but I remember WSB playing some Christmas music after Christmas day and until New Years day way back when. After all it is Christmas week. Not a bad idea if you wern't already burned out on it by starting so soon.
 
Steve, it just wasn't Christmas at 99WAYS without you starting the day. I remember coming in some weekends (during the Wade Ryan days) and having some good conversations. You are right, it was a great time when we started the Christmas tradition then. When I started at WPEZ ten years ago, we did 9-5 all Christmas on the day after Thanksgiving and used a similar rotation. I wasn't so sure it would work the first time we went all Christmas, but the numbers and revenue told me otherwise. After so many years of doing it right, on both stations in town, there are still people coming to listen to it.

And yes...it can get old to some that are live or voicetracked, but when you can raise money for the Children's Hospital (over 100K each year for the past few years at Z), give food to the homeless (Peach), and touch the lives of many (both), it is worth it. My best friend called me last night complaining she couldn't hear Christmas music on the way to Tennessee. Maybe Macon went a little early for some, but for this thirtysomething female she is listening, along with others like her. Plus, it will translate to a better fourth quarter for both sides of the street...hopefully more on mine. (Sorry, couldn't resist. And yes, I do know what is going on across the street, but I have my personal preferences like anyone else. WBBQ.)

And to Ben, Daryll, Steve, Bill, KT and all my other real friends or once friends on this board...Happy Thanksgiving and thanks for listening to (insert station here).
 
Okay, 2 more radio holiday memories and it's back to 2007...
(1) Back in the early 70's, stores closed on ALL holidays, except for a few pharmacies and a handful of convenience stores. Charlie Colter at WNEX always sold a holiday remote to Morgan's Minute Mart because they were one of the only stores open. One year, he even sold a Christmas Day remote. Every one on the air staff refused to do the remote. Working air shifts on Christmas day were bad enough, but we certainly didn't want to add 3-or-4 more hours to a holiday, especially with the sliding scale pay system at the Big X. Al Lowe, Jr. (GM) for the first time in his life supported programming over sales, and ended up making Charlie cancel the remote.

(2) As I open up this morning's Telegraph, which is bigger than the Sunday AJC, I imagine all of the radio and TV sales managers in Macon (and maybe a few dedicated sales people) hating this day (Thanksgiving) and saying things like, "If we had just gotten 20% of the money spent in the paper today, we'd be over budget for the year." They'll spend the rest of the weekend going through all of the ads and circulars, and planning their Monday morning sales meeting. Come Monday, they'll chew out every sales person who didn't get a buy from these accounts. By the Monday afternoon sales meeting, the salespeople will have to have called on each of these accounts, told them how stupid they were for wasting all that money in the paper, and filled out a corporate report explaining why the newspaper got so much advertising $, and another report outlining their plan to get more than their share of this money that's already been spent in the paper.
"Boy, do I miss these days," he says with his tongue firmly planted in his cheek.
 
Amen to Ben

Your second bonus point from Turkey Day hits the mark. As we all know, "Everyone reads the newspaper" or so we are lead to believe. Don't you just love absolutes like that one? I didn't see too many of my customers falling for that one this time. Yep, those follow-up calls are definitely a Monday morning reality and a real encouraging way to come back from the holiday.
 
Ben Sandifer would make a great radio station GM. I wouldn't blame him at all for not wanting to do it under today's conditions. He is the unique combination of left brain / right brain. He knows sales and the business part of radio and is a great programmer.

So as not to hijack the thread, I saw the first Christmas TV ad the day after Halloween this year. At some point we'll start hearing Christmas music the next song after Jerry Lewis sings his last song on the MDA telethon. Don't feel badly. The stores are no better. And to think, it isn't even Advent yet.
 
I concur with Ben about Ben not being able to survive today- he's got too much bleep bleeping sense :)

It's almost mandatory today that Christmas music gets cranked up right after Thanksgiving. My cats love Peach 96.5 though they do get tired of being locked in the room where the radio is playing it. I love it too. As for my remark about playing The Waitresses, please disregard it. The demo for New Wave isn't here- my bad.

I just got through converting two department store Christmas albums (their compilations of major acts) to tape (will digitize the tapes). Remember the JCPenney and Grant's albums (ATTN kiddies; Grant's was a store in the Houston Mall in WR; was a national chain of discount stores)? Remember the Firestone and Goodyear Christmas albums?

Keep it a-goin' Hankster.

KT
 
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