What's startling about Christmas radio in Phoenix this year is that *none* of the AM stations in the market flipped. (I can't vouch for the Spanish stations as I barely speak the language but I didn't hear chords to English Christmas music with Spanish lyrics sung anywhere in the Phoenix market this year.) Let's take a look by station owner:
IHeart. IHeart decided to put all of its Christmas eggs in one basket, that basket being the perennial KESZ. While in the past, say five or ten years ago, there would have been flips at country outlet KNIX and KFYI (which would run one of the syndicated holiday programs), this year none of those other flips occurred--KFYI remained nihilistic (conservative) talk and KNIX continued its regular format of Modern country. So, for IHeart, the only game in town was/is KESZ which heavily favored/favors Christmas AC.
Audacy. Unlike IHeart, Audacy decided to have twin Christmas baskets. First, its country station, KMLE flipped at 12 noon on Christmas Eve playing, you guessed it, Christmas country with a modern bent. At 6:00pm, KOOL-FM followed suit with a noncommercial blend of baby boomer and Generation X Christmas favorites. (For the record, this was my favorite of all of the Christmas flips in Phoenix.) I'm guessing that KMLE will switch back at noon today and KOOL will either switch back at noon, 6pm, or midnight. None of the other Audacy outlets did anything special for the holidays.
Hubbard. While I was thinking that KAZG might do all-Christmas this year (it was playing three Christmas songs per hour during the last two weeks before Christmas), that never occurred. In fact, the only Christmas special you heard on any of the Phoenix Hubbard outlets was Nights With Alice Cooper which played (mostly) rollicking Christmas rock and blues numbers between 7pm and midnight on Christmas Eve.
Bonneville. KTAR-FM was the only basket for Christmas that Bonneville had this year. It's now running the Manheim Steamroller-backed 20th anniversary of An American Christmas. In years past under different owners, the station has done prerecorded versions of A Christmas Carol with its announcers and local celebrities (Alice Cooper and his wife were featured one year) playing the various roles in the production but that appears to be gone now. The two sports stations remained all-sports throughout Christmas Eve and are not expected to do any Christmas Day specials.
Zelus. None of the stations owned by Zelus did any Christmas specials. I heard a single Christmas song on KZON (Cheech and Chong's "Santa Claus and His Old Lady,") on Christmas Eve but no additions. Over on oldies KOAI, I heard Kenny Loggins' "Celebrate Me Home," once and that was during the week after Thanksgiving.
Noncommercial. Both K-Love and Family Life Radio have been playing all-Christmas music since the day after Thanksgiving as well as Family Radio. KBAQ did play some classical Christmas compositions on Christmas Eve while KJZZ stuck with its regular programming schedule of BBC and NPR news for the holidays. Though 1310 is considered part of the commercial spectrum, Relevant Radio's KIHP is a noncommercial outlet that did a couple of midnight Catholic Masses with some religious Christmas music on Christmas Eve and is expected to do the same for Christmas Day. KIHP is the only Phoenix AM station doing any Christmas music whatsoever.
Salem. For an outlet that claims to be all about religion, neither of the two stations owned by the religious broadcaster played any Christmas music, either religious or secular. Possibly some of the ministers and talk-show hosts carried by the stations may have had special holiday messages but I can't stand to listen to these stations during their regular programming and was in no mood for listening to them now; ditto for non-Salem owned KXXT (religious) and KFNX (conservative talk).
Anyway, that's a run-down of the Phoenix Christmas radio dial from this curmudgeon. I'll close with the first four lines of the last verse from my favorite Christmas offering (which I never heard over the air this season), Greg Lake's "I Believe in Father Christmas,":
"I wish you a hopeful Christmas.
I wish you a brave New Year.
All anguish, pain and sadness
Leave your heart and let your road be clear."