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Too early?

K

Kal

???

Since NOTHING is happening here on the board, I thought it might be time to start (or re-start) the annual discussion of 'What date is too early to add Christmas music to the rotation?'

After all, it is the 2nd of November and retailers are forcasting a BAD holiday selling season and as radio is just a retailing tool, rather than a service to it's listeners ...

Heavens ... are we too late already, this season? Should we have started before Halloween? When school started? Just after the 4th of July? Darn ...

Musically yours!

Kal
~
 
Kal said:
???

Since NOTHING is happening here on the board, I thought it might be time to start (or re-start) the annual discussion of 'What date is too early to add Christmas music to the rotation?'
Click to expand...

What do you mean nothing is happening? Apparently the emoticons are back! :p ;D ;)
 
Wal-Mart and Sears are off to the races with "pre-black Friday" sales and stations in some markets, notably St. Louis, have already flipped to All-Christmas. I'd guess that WJYE and Star will flip on November 12, giving them four full weeks of sampling before the Fall book ends December 9. This may be the earliest Fall end-date on record (or CD, cassette and 8 track tape, available at Cavages & Record Theatre.)

Question: Will at-work listeners consider such an early flip annoying or re-assuring? Research indicates that female listeners especially, find Christmas music re-assuring. In these tough economic times, one wonders if All-Christmas might have the opposite effect on listeners who find little to cheer about.
 
Maybe it's just me...but it seems to me a little holiday music goes a long way, especially in times like these. Stations would do well to hold back until after Thanksgiving, and then only plug a few songs here or there into a given hour of programming while mostly holding to their regular formats.

And some formats should treat it differently than others. Oldies, classic hits, soft AC and standards stations can get away with playing more of the Christmas standards than rock, urban and CHR stations, which ought to stick to an occasional holiday song from a core artist in the format while staying 90% or more true to format. Country stations can probably get away with a little more holiday stuff too, because core artists heard on both classic country and modern country stations seem to record more holiday tunes than CHR, hip hop or rock artists.
 
WJYE an d Mainstream A/C stations target women. That's why Christmas works best on these stations.
It gets even trickier when a market features two stations doing this. Unless you have been doing Christmas for years and own the position, you need to flip when the competitor does.
Year after year, stations determine when is too early.
An earlier poster suggested November 12, which would give a station 4 weeks in the fall book doing this.
To get the ratings bump, you can't wait til the day after Thanksgiving.
November 12 works for me.
 
If anyone in Buffalo would like to do a format change, the day after Halloween is perfect for all Christmas...at least a radio station in St. Louis thinks so!
(they went all Halloween music just before going all Christmas)

http://stlchristmas.com/main.html
 
Would anyone in Buffalo notice? ???
 
I would say that Nov. 12 date sounds about right. As I recall, last year, WRMM didn't actually go full Christmas until Christmas was almost here. They did a hybrid format, with Christmas on the weekends and peppered throughout the day. Something like that allows you to actually flip earlier if you want to without alienating too many people. It will be interesting to see if they repeat that this year.
 
I think it's interesting that Syracuse & Utica already have all-Christmas on the air.
 
Sorry I didn't get this out earlier. Last week on Ch. 7's early morning news, there was a story about morning radio at WJYE. When asked about the flip to all Christmas music, the PD replied that it would be on the 16th. I was quite surprised to hear that, figuring it was something he didn't want to let out, lest STAR 102.5 beat him to the punch...
 
It's official. WJYE and Star are sluggin' in out with Burl Ives, Madonna and Nat Cole. Will listeners find the thought of All Christmas before Thanksgiving hard to take? If so, does WHTT derive the most benefit or will Jack and WYRK also cash in?
 
BUFFALOFLYGUY said:
I just wonder if WHTT will sneak in a few current hits until the 26th of December, juust to fill a niche which is gone.
Click to expand...

Not a chance. They're promoting as the alternative to "All Christmas". Kiss will daypart in the AC currents. I expect that 'HTT is out of the AC race, and will concentrate on Classic Hits, with a few Christmas tunes starting around Thanksgiving.
 
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