Yet again, 106.7 Lite FM hasn't fully expanded their Christmas song playlist.

[JohnVin2000]

Holiday season once again. On Friday, WLTW-FM (106.7 Lite FM) has gone 24/7 nonstop Christmas music until Dec. 25th. And guess what? The playlist: Nothing new, nothing changed, same old stuff, same repeated songs and no playlist expansion! Like what is going on with the station that they lack a lot of great Xmas songs?

So WEBE-FM (WEBE 108) from Southern Connecticut, is like the only Adult Contemporary station in the NYC area that has the largest playlist of Christmas songs. Their playlist is larger and they would play many versions of a Xmas song with the same title (sung by different singers). Additionally, songs such as Ariana Grande's "Santa Tell Me", Elton John's "Step Into Christmas", "Kenny Rogers Ft. Wynonna "Mary Did You Know", 'NSYNC's "Merry Xmas, Happy Holidays", Chipmunks "The Chipmunk Song", Carnie & Wendy Wilson's "Hey Santa", NewSong "The Christmas Shoes", Josh Groban's Xmas songs, etc. etc. (sorry if the list was long). All these songs are like #1 Xmas songs, and enjoyed by many listeners.

Why is it that LITE FM ditches these songs and gets to repeat the same songs by the same artists over, and over again. Like almost every hourly block of music broadcasting. Will it be possible that these songs will be played on LITE FM in future Holiday seasons?

 

[TheBigA]

Holiday season once again. On Friday, WLTW-FM (106.7 Lite FM) has gone 24/7 nonstop Christmas music until Dec. 25th. And guess what? The playlist: Nothing new, nothing changed, same old stuff, same repeated songs and no playlist expansion! Like what is going on with the station that they lack a lot of great Xmas songs?

The word "great" is subjective. The goal of a radio programmer is to play the songs the public likes, regardless of whether they're great. Year after year, polls are done about Christmas music, and amazingly, the SAME SONGS are picked by people every year. I could post hundreds of polls. But you can just search for yourself. They all have Mariah Carey as #1. It's been that way as long as I can remember. People are creatures of habit. They wear the same clothes, they commute to the same job using the same route, they stay married to the same person (or at least some do), and they love the same Christmas songs.

Year after year, WLTW plays those same songs, and year after year, they see a huge ratings increase. If it ain't broke, why fix it?

 

[CTListener]

New York City is the No. 1 radio market, in the home of the advertising industry. Stations there can't afford to make drastic changes to formulas that work, and that includes bloating the tried-and-true, proven holiday playlist of Lite FM with songs that work in New Haven, which may only be on the WEBE playlist because of seat-of-the-pants programming by a PD who thinks big playlists are better, in the face of all research on the subject.

 

[Tibbs4]

New York City is the No. 1 radio market, in the home of the advertising industry. Stations there can't afford to make drastic changes to formulas that work, and that includes bloating the tried-and-true, proven holiday playlist of Lite FM with songs that work in New Haven, which may only be on the WEBE playlist because of seat-of-the-pants programming by a PD who thinks big playlists are better, in the face of all research on the subject.

Wait a sec. CT? Is that still you? You sound like BigA has taken over your moniker. It's true, though. Less is more. And you have to look at the key target demo, JohnVin. Something tells me you are not it. Nor is the PD/MD at WEBE. Did AC/DC ever put out a Christmas Album? That's what I would program.

 

[radiofan2023]

Did AC/DC ever put out a Christmas Album? That's what I would program.

“Mistress For Christmas” 24/7

 

[Miss Tuned]

Holiday season once again. On Friday, WLTW-FM (106.7 Lite FM) has gone 24/7 nonstop Christmas music until Dec. 25th. And guess what? The playlist: Nothing new, nothing changed, same old stuff, same repeated songs and no playlist expansion! Like what is going on with the station that they lack a lot of great Xmas songs?

Isn't this standard? Christmas rolls round and the kind of people who listen to AC radio all year want to hear the same comforting Christmas songs that they've been hearing all their lives, they don't want weird new songs, they don't want novelty crap by the Chipmunks and they don't want unfamiliar attempts at Christmas tracks by boy bands from the 90s.

Personally, I don't really want Christmas music at all, I find it sappy and unpleasant, so I don't listen to all-Christmas stations, but just like stores that put the Christmas tunes on to get people into buying mode, AC radio stations know what sells.

 

[CTListener]

Isn't this standard? Christmas rolls round and the kind of people who listen to AC radio all year want to hear the same comforting Christmas songs that they've been hearing all their lives,

The main selling point of the Christmas format, though, is that it increases -- in some markets, nearly doubles -- the listenership of the stations that run it. It's unlikely that those additional listeners aren't listening to any kind of musical format from January through October, or not using radio at all except for holiday music. Therefore, they can only be migrating from other stations -- hot AC, classic hits and country, I suspect. If stations were merely maintaining their non-holiday numbers, they'd have no motivation to do the annual switch.

 

[davideduardo]

. Did AC/DC ever put out a Christmas Album? That's what I would program.

You have marvelously defined the difference between “could have” and “should have” in music selection.

 

[Gregg.]

Three things to remember about Christmas music and why these songs differ from the other playlists the rest of the year.

1. The reason people like Christmas music is to remember happy holidays from years past. An unfamiliar song can't do that. It has no happy memories attached to it. Inserting the words "snow" or "holly" into a new song doesn't make it special.

2. During our youthful memories of Christmas, someone else was in charge of the music we heard, parents or grandparents. That's why stations that don't want to play anything before 2000 the rest of the year play almost no holiday songs written in this century. It was our elders who chose Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, The Carpenters and Burl Ives, not us. But we want to hear these familiar songs and pass them down to our kids.

3. The Christmas music season, even if you start in early November, is only seven weeks long. That's too short a time to introduce more than one or two new songs that year. If you start playing an unfamiliar Christmas song, it doesn't have enough time to become a favorite. You'll put it away for the year on Dec. 26, well before it becomes familiar.

 

[TheBigA]

Let me add that the Christmas format on a commercial for-profit radio station is very different on a non-commercial service such as Sirius. If the commerciality or repetition bother you, there are several options available at Sirius...for a price.

 

[kevtronics]

they don't want unfamiliar attempts at Christmas tracks by boy bands from the 90s.

But yet NSYNC's "Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays" from 1998 is in WLTW's playlist.

 

[CTListener]

But yet NSYNC's "Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays" from 1998 is in WLTW's playlist.

And who knows how many listeners changed the station when that came on and will never return! Off with the MD's head!

Seriously speaking, though, is that song being played on iHeart's other holiday-flipped ACs? How about those belonging to other companies? As a previous poster said, there's sometimes room for a couple of "new" songs on Christmas playlists every year. This NSYNC song must be one of them. I'd imagine it was researched thoroughly before being placed there.

 

[Xale57]

They've only broadcasting Christmas songs for a few days. I'm sure their playlist will throw in those hits mentioned as Christmas approaches. It's like a new radio station. Going to play the most popular songs of that format to attract as many listeners as they can. That is what Lite is doing.

 

[vw86]

90% of the iHeart stations that flip to Christmas run identical logs during holiday music. I believe WLTW has their own custom logs but it's essentially the same song selection.

And the majority of these stations skyrocket, often to #1, during the holiday book. Because nobody other than us cares if the music is scheduled nationally, nor do they care if it's repetitive if they are only listening for a short time here and there. When they do tunw in they're cleary hearing what they want to hear.

 

[Delete My Account]

There are lots of other alternatives for interesting holiday music, my favorites being "Jolly Old Soul" and a few others on Soma FM, or the Sirius XM Holiday Soul channel, some other choices like JD McPherson's "Socks" which is all original music that sounds straight out of the 50s.

Lite FM's audience isn't looking for discovery or depth. They simply want a mostly sentimental mood boost in the background while they lead their lives. There's no real incentive to expand the playlist or turn that audience on to something new, it's AC. It's inherently conservative in music selection.

 

[davideduardo]

Let me add that the Christmas format on a commercial for-profit radio station is very different on a non-commercial service such as Sirius. If the commerciality or repetition bother you, there are several options available at Sirius...for a price.

During several of the last few years during our three hour or so drive each way for the family dinner on Christmas Eve we listened to the satellite offerings during the part of the drive when LA's KOST was not available. We could not switch fast enough to KOST once we were in its coverage area.

The satellite offerings are too deep or too esoteric. We knew and recognized the KOST songs, but many of the satellite ones were unfamiliar and did not have the right spirit. Of course, this family is ethnically or culturally Hispanic, so lots of those more obscure or novel songs just would not have been in our "world" ever.

 

[blackgold]

Don't forget all the Christmas stations streaming on the internet like the Sounds of Christmas, which plays the largest amount of Christmas music in the world. Or the AccuRadio AccuHolidays streams. They are superior to the all-Christmas stations, as well as the offerings on Music Choice online and the podcasts.

 

[davideduardo]

Don't forget all the Christmas stations streaming on the internet like the Sounds of Christmas, which plays the largest amount of Christmas music in the world. Or the AccuRadio AccuHolidays streams. They are superior to the all-Christmas stations, as well as the offerings on Music Choice online and the podcasts.

If you are deeply rooted in the cultural groups that have long traditions of Christmas music, that may be true. However, there are many communities that are not part of that musical experience... starting with Latino immigrants... who find that music totally unfamiliar and unrelated to their culture.

 

[kevtronics]

So ironically Jewish and non-religious people may be more inclined to listen to Christmas music than Latinos who are deeply religious Christians.

 

[Weiserguy]

So ironically Jewish and non-religious people may be more inclined to listen to Christmas music than Latinos who are deeply religious Christians.

I'm in the first group. I punch the preset for the local All-Christmas purveyor, KOIT, a few times, for a few brief listens scattered throughout December, though rarely longer than a quarter hour. (If I hear a song that's too overtly religious, I'm gone immediately.) It is nice to hear some of those old songs that go back to childhood, but in really small doses.

Christmas Eve, though, I pull out a couple of discs of cantorial classics instead of any of the holiday "oldies".