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Who is playing Christmas music?

V

vchimpanzee

America's Best Music began doing it on Thanksgiving. I can remember when it was all-Christmas for the entire month but now they are only doing a song after each commercial break and after the news break. Which is a good thing because so much of what they are playing is so bad. AC sounds more traditional than usual this time of year. This format sounds more contemporary. There are so many good songs and so many good versions. Why THESE?

Pat McNulty (did I get that right?) was filling in for Carl Hampton.

On the local morning show during the last 30 minutes, listener requests are played. Yesterday the first three songs were Christmas songs, and GOOD ones. In fact, a Ray Conniff-style group was singing "The Twelve Days of Christmas" (the 12 Lords A-Leaping version) even before Mike Huckabee at 8:30.

This morning the first song after Mike Huckabee was Rod Stewart's "Just My Imagination". I went for a walk and don't carry a radio when I do, so I don't know what else was played until I got back and Jeff Rollins was on.
 
These are some soft pop/rock Internet stations I listen to. These stations mix in Christmas music with regular music. They tend to stay away from the sillier Christmas songs.

This station plays two Christmas songs per hour. If Christmas falls on Saturday or Sunday, the station's specialty program, Magic of the 80's, which airs on Saturdays at 8 pm and Sundays at 12 pm, will play a Christmas edition of the show. They start playing their Christmas music December 1.
www.softneasy.com

This station will play a Christmas song after about every 3 non-Christmas songs. A lot of the Christmas songs are by crooners (Bing Crosby, Andy Williams, etc.). They also like a lot of Christmas songs by the cast of Glee. They also play several Christmas songs by American Idol alums, Carrie Underwood and Mandisa. They start playing their Christmas music around Thanksgiving.
www.joy995.com

This is another station I like. They have yet to start playing Christmas music.
www.lite99online.com

Several local stations flipped to continuous Christmas in mid-November.
 
Somewhat OT: Pat McNulty has been filling in for Carl Hampton much of the last 4-5 weeks. Oddly enough, Hampton filled in for both John Gleason and Jeff Rollins over two days in November only to have McNulty on the air in Hampton's own time period. Very unusual. McNulty, though, goes out of his way every day to say he is substituting for Hampton.

America's Best Music's Christmas playlist is weirdly contemporary. You do get a fairly decent dose of Perry Como, Bing Crosby and Nat King Cole, but there is a lot of country-inspired stuff from Kenny Rogers, Anne Murray, Lorrie Morgan, Martina McBride and others who never show up on the year-round playlist. Then there is the maudlin cuts from Celtic Woman and intolerable "Christmas Shoes" by Newsong.

Hands down, The Carpenters seem to be the most predominate artists on the format's holiday playlist.
 
What are "maudlin" and "intolerable" to one person is not to other people.
 
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In the Detroit market both WNIC (100.3 FM-iHeart) and WOMC (104.3 FM-CBS) are all Christmas.

One of the country stations, WDRQ (93.1-Cumulus) or WYCD (99.5-CBS) may flip later in the month.
 
I was lucky to have gotten in the car late just before Pat told us Celtic Woman was played. i can't remember if I like them but I don't expect I would.

Faith Hill's "Where Are You Christmas?" was on this morning. Terrible! And I have no patience for any performance that starts, "Heey. Whooa."

It's a bad sign when the songs that come AFTER the Christmas songs are the ones that make you feel good.
 
There was a great version of "O Tannenbaum" that sounded as good as the performance before The Preakness, although the Naval Academy has added women and these were all men. Then Johnny Mathis started singing. Still good, and then there were some weird and evil sound effects that in my opinion have no business anywhere near Christmas music.

Karen Carpenter has an angelic voice. I'd rather hear her sing "Merry Christmas Darling" than Vanessa Williams, though it's the instrumentals on her version that are the problem. Vanessa does have a nice voice. Even Gloria Estefan does, but only recently has she begun to sing standards with the "proper" instrumentals. And that's not Christmas music.
 
The local morning DJ played "Mary Did You Know" and said it had become one of the great Christmas songs. Not to me. I didn't like it when Kenny Rogers and Wynonna did it. And I certainly don't like hearing it done by a Contemporary Christian singer, or at least in that style. even worse s when he screams like Michael Bolton. That was the first of the last six songs on the morning show(other than "May Each Day" which has replaced "Mr. Lucky" as the last song before the news and Jeff Rollins) . Yesterday, the only other Christmas song was "Pretty Paper".
 
I should add that the Christmas music has been much better today, at least when I was listening.

One that I don't recall hearing years ago was Perry Como's "Christmas Bells". I think I heard that right. Jeff Rollins usually doesn't talk about the Christmas music. He talks after the first song after the news, and he didn't say today who did "Let It Snow" and "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" with something about counting your blessings in the middle. The next time he talked after a Christmas song, it was the second to last song of the hour, and he doesn't always talk at that time.
 
I definitely agree with the DJ. "Mary Did You Know" is one of my favorites.
 
This station is pretty good if you're into mostly 60s, 70s, and 80s Christmas hits: http://hdwebradio.com/island/holiday/

A lot of the selections played bring back fond memories of an oldies station my family enjoyed. Sadly, the station no longer exists. :(
 
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This is another station I like. They have yet to start playing Christmas music.
www.lite99online.com

Several local stations flipped to continuous Christmas in mid-November.
Click to expand...

Our Christmas music programming begins tonight at 9 pm CT here on Lite 99. We'll be interspersing the Christmas music alongside the regular programming through Christmas Day, because we know most soft AC listeners don't want to hear nonstop Christmas fare. :)
 
After hearing LeAnn Rimes horrible version of "I Want A Hippopotamus For Christmas" recently, I now appreciate the original version a little more.
 
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