I'm offended that your offended about my being offended by your offensiveness of my being offended about endless offensive repeats of the same 40 Christmas songs.
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Late 2023 Christmas Music and Format Watch
- Thread starter tblanks
- Start date
Like most things in the entertainment industry, some decisions seem natural and logical to the consumer, and others are based on "hidden facts" like "historical attendance in movie theaters on the first weekend in May" that are used to determine when new movies are launched.
In the case of Christmas music, a lot depends on station management's decision of when both national accounts and local businesses are ready to buy for the season. I've heard discussions of how the climate (Miami vs. Minneapolis) or the ethnicity (San Antonio vs. Nashville) or even the average age (Scranton vs. Las Vegas) can affect the ratings and timing of Christmas music programming.
In the end, it's a very subjective decision made by the station with one thing in mind: revenue. Ratings are sold based on the prior year or years because the very first of the current season numbers won't be out until about a week before Christmas when all the seasonal buys were long ago determined.
As you say, national ad spending being what it is, down and seeming to get worse, stations are looking for anything considered NTR. That includes selling 'packages' like Christmas music. But like anything media-related, some stations or groups will try to get the jump on their Christmas package competitor by launching incrementally earlier. Ultimately Christmas music on radio will become a joke, with more stations duking it out for the same local direct dollar, and advertisers will lose interest in buying Christmas packages because consumer feedback will go negative due to the earlier start and eventual burn-out. The bottom of the concept will fall out precipitously and the only Christmas music will be on Aunt Jenny's CD collection or streaming.
What gets me is that WMJI went all-Christmas at the same time last year, two weeks before Thanksgiving. In fact, they’ve done this at the same exact time every year for nearly the past decade.
They get high ratings every time (and high ratings and revenue throughout the year, small playlists and minimal local presence be darned) so why mess with anything?
They get high ratings every time (and high ratings and revenue throughout the year, small playlists and minimal local presence be darned) so why mess with anything?
Because in Q4 national ad revenue is at it's lowest, so some stations offer aforementioned Christmas packages to local advertisers which wouldn't usually advertise on the radio. It also allows talent to take year end vacations while the holiday hits roll.
Seems like this was the case with an iHeart Radio station in every market. WHOF Canton and WMXY Youngstown both flipped at about the same time as WMJI.
WDOK is likely to flip any day now, with WAKR flipping within the next week or so.
A post in this or one of the other hundred Christmas flip threads mentioned that iHeart flipped something like 85 stations to ho-ho music simultaneously.
The interesting thing is that the Christmas music stations do very well in the Nielsens during the time that they are 100% Christmas, but the January numbers are generally less than the November numbers. I am sure that they lose some of their P1s during this period who don't want to hear 100% Christmas music.
WDOK went today at 7:00 AM. Shoot, I told a co-worker I’d help her decorate the break room once 102.1 starts Kringle mode.
A few years ago, I put together a couple Christmas CDs. One is traditional stuff - Bing Crosby, Perry Como, Nat King Cole, etc. The other is rock - Beach Boys, Ronettes and yeah, even Mariah Carey. If I want to hear Christmas music, I just play one of the CDs, but usually not until a couple days before Christmas.
Yes, noticed that this morning when I went out. Playlist is about 50% similar compared to the iHeart stations. The other half are a mix of older and modern songs prior to the 2010's that most of the other stations used to play. Overall, a better variety, and I'll probably be sticking with them throughout the season.
Also, saw this link on WAKR's website an for a moment I thought Media-Com was back in the TV business with a much more modern setup.
95.5 The Fish is now all-Christmas
It was just for the long Thanksgiving weekend. They will be back to their regular programming Monday.
Now that Christmas music is underway, which station do you think has the best approach right now?
WAKR
WFHM
WHOF
WDOK
WMJI
WAKR
WFHM
WHOF
WDOK
WMJI
Was in the Cleveland area this weekend and I would say The Fish 95.5 has the best mix.