Those of you who are keeping track of regular radio stations flipping to all-holiday formats before the traditional “day after Thanksgiving” start date, take note: two Boston stations have gone all-Christmas as of today, and I’m sure there are other stations around the country that have followed suit as well. (If you know of any in your neck of the woods, feel free to take to our comments section!) Meanwhile, the New York oldies station WCBS started sprinkling a few holiday surprises into its playlists all the way back in October, when it was trying to boost its listeners’ spirits with a Santa Song Of The Day. The lite-FM powerhouse WLTW decided that imitation was the best Christmas gift it could give to WCBS, so it too started playing its own Santa Songs, and that resulted in WCBS throwing a big fat lump of litigation down the waiting-room staple’s chimney:
WCBS-FM started playing a “Santa Song of the Day” on Oct. 1, using it for a station contest. It also is calling itself the city’s radio “Home for the Holidays.”
On Oct. 13, WLTW also started a “Santa Song of the Day” contest - which annoyed WCBS-FM enough that CBS lawyers served Lite with a “cease and desist” order.
So Lite is playing a “Stocking Stuffer Song of the Day.”
Meanwhile, the question remains: Isn’t going all-holiday-music a really good way to make people switch away from your station? Someone in the radio industry decided to commission a study and find out!
The trade mag Radio & Records recently reported on a study by Direct Marketing Results and Arbitron that breaks down the tradeoff from all-Christmas formats.
In past years, Lite lost half its primary listeners by going all-Christmas.
Wait, what?! That’s good news, right? Oh, wait:
But it picked up even more who don’t usually tune in, including a lot from urban stations, for a big net gain.
Sigh. But: I wonder if this little bit of news will result in more R&B and hip-hop stations turning to all-holiday-music formats this year?
Local Radio Stations Begin Playing Christmas Tunes [WBZ]
WLTW & WCBS are dueling over Christmas music [NYDN]
Hip-hop stations should just make sure to spin “Christmas In Hollis” once an hour.
One thing I used to miss about 92.3 K-Rock in NYC was their “twisted Christmas” they would do on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. It was pretty much the only time the station was ever interesting.
B-101 in Providence is now calling itself Christmas 101. Right now a completely sucky version of Sleigh Ride is on.
Lite 105, which will also go all-Christmas soon, is currently playing that ‘whenever i see your smiling face’ song by James Taylor.
I’m waiting for Magic 106 in Boston to make the switch, just to see what this guy has to say about it.
ghey :(
@bcapirigi: B101 has always sucked. Mostly for not playing “Happiest Days of Our Lives” before “Another Brick in the Wall” (on the off chance they do play a Pink Floyd song. That’s usually WHJY territory).
I’m waiting for WBRU to add Christmas songs into their rotation so I can hear “December Will Be Magic Again” by Kate Bush on the radio. That’s probably my favorite Christmas pop song ever (followed by “Christmas Day” by Squeeze, which almost never gets airplay due to its obscurity). WBRU doesn’t shove Christmas down the throats of its listeners like B101, Lite Rock 105 and 92 Pro FM (who go about 80% Christmas come December 1) do, because there’s not enough Christmas songs in WBRU’s AAA-leaning Alternative format (that I can think of anyway).
KOSY 106.5 and whatever B98.7 in SLC have both been playing Xmas tunes since Nov 1.
CAN YOU BELIEVE THIS!!!!
And these are just the ones I’ve heard of! There may be more! Frightful!!!!