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The Treasure Coast: Christmas on the Ocean

John FL

John FL

97.1 Ocean FM (WOSN-FM) has switched to Christmas/holiday tunes this weekend. "Your Treasure Coast station for the holidays" is the tagline. While there are those who favor hearing Christmas music after Thanksgiving, I believe this to be a smart move as it will strengthen the 'Ocean' brand of lite and refreshing.

Like it or not, retail is already in full Christmas mode. Malls are decorated and we're already seeing holiday gift spots now that all the political ads have ended. If you are a store that doesn't subscribe to a satellite service, tuning into the Ocean would seem more likely.

This will be my first Christmas season on the Treasure Coast. I would think other radio stations will be offering holiday tunes but it would appear The Ocean is first. Soft AC 97.1 Ocean FM is doing a good job differentiating themselves from Classic Hits 103.7 WQOL. Playing the holiday classics first can help differentiate themselves even more in my opinion.
 
John, I'd like to go on record as thanking MY favorite local station, WQOL, for NOT going to an all-Christmas format. Some other iHeart classic hits stations in other communities I monitor have gone all-Christmas, but I appreciate WQOL for not following suit. In many cases these days, there is only one classic hits or oldies station in the market. That's the case here with WQOL (Ocean is NOT a classic hits station). So if you are one who enjoys classic hits or oldies you are generally limited in your choice. When that sole classic hits or oldies station goes all-Christmas for a month, sometimes more, they play artists and genres they do not play at any other time during the year (e.g., Bing Crosby, Burl Ives); on top of that, the all-Christmas formats I've sampled on classic hits stations are not very creative or diverse: they play the same stuff over and over again, non-stop. In short, it's a new format, and one I would not choose.

Don't get me wrong: I appreciate Christmas standards, and what WQOL does (and what most Top 40 stations I listened to growing up did) is to mix in a few tracks each hour with the regular format music, and I think that's just fine. I don't want to turn this into a religious discussion, but I do not celebrate Christmas; I am Jewish. I am -not- demanding that local radio stations mix in Chanukah tracks (although that would be very innovative!). But I think you may be able to understand why I would not choose to listen to a non-stop all-Christmas station in my home and car for a month or more. When my favorite station goes this route (as they've done in past years when I've lived in other markets), I tune out completely -- I don't listen at all when they dump my format for a completely different format. I suspect you'd tune out, too, if your favorite station decided to play only Chanukah music non-stop for a full month.
 
Alex, you make some great points.

As a subject, I find the Christmas/holiday music format to be extremely interesting. Stations flip to holiday programing for all kinds of reasons. Some are market driven. Some can foretell an eventual format flip and/or major tweaking of the playlist once the holiday season ends.

As a recent resident of the Treasure Coast, I’m not in the position to predict because I have virtually no knowledge of the history of the market, especially as it relates to seasonal formatting. But some things are pretty consistent everywhere and that has to do with brand.

If I had to make an educated guess, I wouldn’t think iHeart’s management is in any hurry to flip 103.7 WQOL. (Treasure Coast’s Greatest Hits) to all Christmas. It’s been less than a year that WQOL lost its’ ‘oldies’ tagline along with a modification/updating of the playlist. There could be risks to messing with the brand this quickly. They appear to be building a good classic hits brand and I don't think old Christmas ballads would help them. As we approach Christmas, there could be a few Christmas songs here and there with maybe a 24 hour Christmas special on Christmas Eve. Some stations do that. Perhaps that's an option. Probably safer to just do the format.

There are radio stations across the country that have earned really huge numbers by flipping to all Christmas early in the season. We’ve also seen rival companies try to get in on the action. But, once a station has established itself as “the official Christmas station” in the listener’s view, it’s very difficult for a competitor to take that title away. Not everyone is successful offering Christmas tunes. I don't like when 2 or 3 stations offer the Christmas format in the same market and it seems listeners feel that way too.

Again, as it relates to Christmas formats, I have no idea what station(s) hold the crown on the Treasure Coast since I haven’t lived here long. I’m not even sure if The Ocean did Christmas last year. But, I feel you can make a case for the brand for them as well. The Ocean wants to position themselves as a “one of kind Radio station” that plays “refreshing” and “light” music. Well, Christmas tunes are not in the hard rock genre so it’s probably their way of strengthening their brand. The ratings are the ultimate decider as to whether their strategy worked or not.

To your other point about The Ocean not being a classic hits station, I still believe there is a great deal of artist overlap between WQOL and WOSN. WQOL plays the edgier, more rock-leaning songs that WOSN does not. But both stations feature lots of 70s and 80s. They both target upper end 25-54. There seems to be a lot more latitude for AC formats but classic hits formats are more restrictive. In a lot of ways I consider The Ocean a Soft AC/hybrid (pop) classic hits station. But that’s just my opinion.

WQOL has certain advantages such as better signal but these two stations are at the least indirect competitors. Right now in the Treasure Coast, those who love Christmas music have a place to go and those who love old time rock ‘n roll and soul and pop have a place to go too.
 
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John, more southerly on the Treasure Coast, WOSN gets all-Christmas competition from WEAT/West Palm Beach, Sunny 107.9. Signal is about equivalent to WOSN's here in Port St. Lucie. They're an AC, currently owned by Alpha Media but part of the WPB cluster that has been sold to Hubbard.
 
Alex Browne said:
John, more southerly on the Treasure Coast, WOSN gets all-Christmas competition from WEAT/West Palm Beach, Sunny 107.9. Signal is about equivalent to WOSN's here in Port St. Lucie. They're an AC, currently owned by Alpha Media but part of the WPB cluster that has been sold to Hubbard.
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Yes, Alex, I’m familiar with WEAT and the Sunny brand. I lived in and visited the northern Broward County area for many decades. I’m not sure how the signal is today but WEAT was formerly ‘Sunny 104.3.’ It was heard pretty well in my neck of the woods.

Interestingly, during the holiday season, I remember hearing Sunny and their Christmas format in a number of businesses/restaurants etc. in Broward. As I recall, these places usually listened to AC, WLYF. The Miami/Ft. Lauderdale radio market, for all kinds of reasons back then, shied away from wall-to-wall Christmas/winter tunes. Over the years, it's been pretty erratic.

Today, AC WLYF has been all Christmas for weeks and probably hoping the Yule tunes will help them get a much needed bounce in the ratings. This heritage AC is facing strong headwinds from a formidable competitor, WFEZ (Easy 93.1). Easy has recently added holiday hits to the regular playlist. It will be interesting to see how holiday programming fares this go-around from The Treasure Coast, across Florida, and around the country. I mentioned this before but I find Christmas programing to be an extremely engaging topic.
 
Today, I noticed WQOL (103.7 The Treasure's Coast's Greatest Hits) added some Christmas tunes to the music mix. Not sure if this will be the case on Monday, so we'll have to see. WQOL appears to utilize iHeart's syndicated programing known as Premium Choice on the weekends. I'm not even sure if that's what it's still called or if it that option still exists. But, the bottom line is local programing/music scheduling is M-F.

Some stations/formats that don't go all Christmas gradually add seasonal music as December moves along. Perhaps that's the case here. Again, we'll know more soon enough.
 
Some final thoughts.

Per my last post, WQOL has maintained a very limited number of classic/traditional Christmas tunes each hour. I believe they did it right. It's become obvious to me that WQOL is a very well run operation. I believe they are going "All Beatles" on Christmas Day. Perhaps the folks are burned out on Yule tunes.

What follows is not scientific but merely an observation. Over the past few weeks, I've heard holiday tunes in various places but these appeared to come from a satellite/subscription type service. I heard WQOL practically everywhere. In the northern Treasure Coast I heard 93.7 WGYL which sounds like a CHR or Hot AC. Interestingly, I only heard WOSN and their Christmas format once in an antique shop in Vero. I listened here and there but 97.1 Ocean FM didn't exactly hold my attention. There's lots of competition that I preferred.

SiriusXM's Hallmark Channel has done an outstanding job. Commercial free obviously and a good mix of songs. There were various artists such as Debbie Gibson who hosted countdown shows of their favorite Christmas tunes. Typical of those who don't make a living from radio is that they all need to learn "less is more." Man, can they talk!

At home, we tuned into our cable provider's Christmas music channel. It was interesting but not commercial radio quality. They were all over the place musically. If there was any benefits, it was hearing songs I never heard before.

Christmas music is big business. It seems anyone who has had at least a couple of hits to their credit does a holiday song. I've sampled mainly AC doing the Christmas format across the country. Simply, some stations do it way better than others. The ratings are the ultimate report card and that too can make for interesting discussions.

All that's left to say is stay safe, have fun, and enjoy the remainder of the holiday season!
 
Re WQOL: yes, John, they have been all-Beatles since 5 am today (Christmas), and it's a welcome break from all the other options on the dial! They've done this for a couple of years now. It's the second year I will be driving to the Fort Lauderdale area on Christmas, and WQOL will be a great listen! (Note that it disappears, going south, at about Hobe Sound, but I will listen to WQOL on the iHeart Radio app from there south.) Happy Holidays to all!
 
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