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Countdown to Christmas is on

I doubt 98.9 even has listeners in Asheville (news/talk isn’t my cup of tea, but WWNC is much better than the nuttiness on WYRD) but these political ad campaigns don’t care.

The bigger 98.9 signal will probably offset what I would expect will be lower political ad spending in the next election year (isn’t every year an election year now though, or every month, or every day? Listening to 98.9 sounds like it 🤣). There aren’t any big competitive SC or GA races, NC has a gubernatorial race that will be competitive though. The candidates and campaigns that are involved in the presidential primary running against the former president probably don’t have the $$$ to spend like in past primary years because they’re not going to keep getting tons of donations they can spend everywhere like drunken sailors when they’re all polling in the single digits and have zero chance of winning anything.
 
AMRocks said:
Although I'm disappointed about the switch from 98.9 to 106.3 for Magic (and the Christmas music,) the new News/Talk format on the big 98.9 signal is going to CLEAN UP.
1) it's an election year coming up. Political ads $$$$
2) WGTK is gone so there's no other competition in town
3) the bigger signal gets WYRD-FM into Asheville territory (so see #1 again, as they will get more political ad revenue for that area.) They don't even have to buy "the book" for Asheville to get that money.
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WYRD FM will get little if any many for Asheville political reasons or because of coverage of asheville for regional/national political reasons
 
WTCB in Columbia flipped to all Christmas starting last Thursday November 16. Still way too early for my liking, but with various cities and the Statehouse on Sundays already lighting up their big Christmas trees and such I guess it’s on.

Thanksgiving next year isn’t until the very end of the month, I don’t know if that would make all this the more obnoxious or not.
 
genius said:
WTCB in Columbia flipped to all Christmas starting last Thursday November 16. Still way too early for my liking, but with various cities and the Statehouse on Sundays already lighting up their big Christmas trees and such I guess it’s on.

Thanksgiving next year isn’t until the very end of the month, I don’t know if that would make all this the more obnoxious or not.
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WBBQ in Augusta flipped around the same time last week. While not great, it's more than acceptable vs November 1st. The only other stations anywhere around that flipped to Christmas VERY early were WKQC and WLKO in Charlotte, which is a bit different because it's a 2-way race to flip first. I think they flipped a few days later than WSPA-FM.

All Christmas does not do well for WSPA-FM. They may get sponsors but I can't help but wonder if the 2+ months of Christmas music every year has dragged their ratings down year round which will eventually affect revenue. I've never seen a station in a market this size or larger so almost desperate for Christmas music, no other Audacy stations for sure. If they showed half the effort in the AC format as they do with Christmas, they might crack a 2 share during the other 10 months of the year.
 
I've never seen a Christmas flip negatively affect a station afterward for more than a month, and January is such a dismal month for advertising that stations affected by P1s drifting off to other stations to avoid Jose Feliciano and Brenda Lee don't really miss those listeners.
 
CTListener said:
I've never seen a Christmas flip negatively affect a station afterward for more than a month, and January is such a dismal month for advertising that stations affected by P1s drifting off to other stations to avoid Jose Feliciano and Brenda Lee don't really miss those listeners.
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I personally go in search of Brenda Lee in January. She had hits unrelated to Christmas. Jose also did a Doors song.
 
It sounds like they plan on running all-Christmas through January 2nd again this year as it’s being advertised as “through New Year’s Day.” Has to be one of if not the longest running stretches of all-Christmas music on FM outside of stations stunting.
 
CTListener said:
I've never seen a Christmas flip negatively affect a station afterward for more than a month,
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It took WSPA a couple months to recover back in 2021 in addition to taking a loss/no bounce from playing Christmas music.

101tm said:
It sounds like they plan on running all-Christmas through January 2nd again this year as it’s being advertised as “through New Year’s Day.” Has to be one of if not the longest running stretches of all-Christmas music on FM outside of stations stunting.
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It’ll be interesting to see how this pans out for them. The move to 106.3 has been a disaster so far.
 
genius said:
It’ll be interesting to see how this pans out for them. The move to 106.3 has been a disaster so far.
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Honestly, with the limited to no notice or promotion of the move from 98.9, the numbers on 106.3 are almost impressive. All they cared about was keeping the WORD audience. It seems like whoever’s running the show is deliberately trying to kill Magic. The Block is just on 3 translators and beats them. Sad.
 
WLFJ did their regular 24/7 Christmas music flip at Thanksgiving, playing secular as well as CCM artists giving the upstate 2 Christmas stations.

K-LOVE is running a similar mix for Thanksgiving weekend but won’t be going all Christmas, back to regular programming with the occasional Christmas song Monday. Looks like 106.3 isn’t the only option.
 
Stations reaching for the bottom of the barrel again quickly:

On 11/30, The Lake in Charlotte played an Anne Murray Christmas song

On 12/1, WTCB in Columbia played The Carpenters at least 3 times.

Finally on 12/3, WSPA played a rendition of O Little Town of Bethlehem by Cristy Lane
 
I believe Cristy Lane takes the cake. I’ve noticed Magic has gotten very active on Facebook since starting Christmas music with local posts and not just the Audacy-fed stuff. Would be nice if they put this effort in to the AC format…
 
Looking at HIS Radio’s Christmas playlist, I wonder how much of the all Christmas crowd goes there? I’d imagine the regular 89.3 listeners stay there, and there may be some that don’t listen but don’t mind the religious aspect of the station and enjoy it. They have a nice blend between secular artists / songs and mostly covers by CCM artists. They’ve been going all-Christmas for a number of years now. A CCM station in Atlanta has been the all-Christmas station in that market for quite a while, and it does well for them.

Recently Played | HIS Radio

HIS Radio recently played is more than a playlist. Listen again to your favorite songs and artists, view the song lyrics and watch the music videos.
www.hisradio.com www.hisradio.com

94.5 is also playing Christmas music every weekend.
 
Another WSPA lowlight this Tuesday evening when they played Barbara Mandrell’s lost hit Christmas at Our House. Major yikes!

I haven’t heard a Barbara Mandrell song on the radio in like 15-20 years to be honest until tonight 😆
 
WLNK Mix 107.9 went all Christmas this weekend. Enjoying their selection. Heard Whitney Houston's version of "Do You Hear What I Hear?" which for some reason I dont hear very much any more. It is my favorite version of this song.
 
tylerSC said:
WLNK Mix 107.9 went all Christmas this weekend. Enjoying their selection. Heard Whitney Houston's version of "Do You Hear What I Hear?" which for some reason I dont hear very much any more. It is my favorite version of this song.
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You’ll hear lots of Christmas music on our station you probably haven’t heard elsewhere or in awhile!
 
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