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Should/will AC's go back to their regular format on 12/26...?

I wish they wouldn't stop. My family won't celebrate until Wednesday.

The spouses of my cousins have to spend the actual day with their families. Or at least I think that's how it works.
 
In my market of Grand Rapids, MI, one AC station (105.7/WSRW) flipped back to its regular programming sometime between midnight and 7 a.m. on 12/26 this year. Our other AC station (100.5/WTRV) has announced that they will let the Christmas music "linger" until Sunday, December 30. I'm really happy about that because I'm not ready for the Christmas music to end just because 12/26 arrives. I usually like to continue listening to it between Christmas and New Year's.

In 2010, when this thread was first started, Christmas Day fell on a Saturday. I remember that both AC stations in Grand Rapids continued Christmas music until the end of the weekend. (I think they both flipped back to their regular programming the morning of 12/27 that year.)

(As I type this, I'm streaming Christmas music on 100.5. ;D)
 
NYC's 106.7 Lite FM is still playing secular "winter" songs today, like "Let It Snow", "Winter Wonderland", "Sleigh Ride", and "Frosty the Snowman".
 
satech said:
NYC's 106.7 Lite FM is still playing secular "winter" songs today, like "Let It Snow", "Winter Wonderland", "Sleigh Ride", and "Frosty the Snowman".
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Sounds good to me.

Anything about The Magi is still legal to play until Epiphany.
 
WSB-FM/B98.5 Atlanta never went all-Christmas at all this year...not even for an hour. They were still playing their regular AC format with a few Christmas songs sprinkled in all day Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. The change to a currents-intensive format earlier in the year and the fact there are four CHRs (two mainstream, one rythmic and one "Top 20" currents) and a hot AC in Atlanta are the reasons. In the 6+ ratings B98.5 is the top rated of all seven stations. They couldn't risk losing listeners this year.

BTW one of those CHRs (Q100) and the hot AC (Star 94) went all-Christmas. Q100 for a few hours, and Star 94 for most of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
 
Doesn't 104.7 The Fish do all-Christmas in Atlanta still?

In Detroit, 100.3 WNIC (Fresh 100) switched back immediately at midnight on 12/26, and WMGC (Today's 105.1) waited until noon to switch back. 105.1 continues all-Christmas on its HD2 (which is normally an '80s hits format). 101.5 The River in Toledo, OH kept mixing in some Christmas songs with the regular music, but they appear to have dropped that.

Personally, I think any and all songs mentioning Santa Claus immediately become obsolete and irrelevant at midnight on 12/26, and I don't care to hear them again until the following year. I don't, however, mind hearing (as A.J. said earlier) general "wintertime" songs that don't mention Christmas in the lyrics (such as "Sleigh Ride," "Let it Snow," "Marshmallow World," or "Winter Wonderland") or religious Christmas carols after the 25th. From my experience, it's the contemporary Christian stations that do the best job of keeping the real feeling of Christmas going after the big day itself is over, because they tend to stick to the Christian carols and also non-carols by Christian artists who don't get played on secular radio. Although I did hear one CCM station play "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel" today - being an Advent song, I think that one has outlived its usefulness until next year.
 
I remember WLIT in Chicago always switching back to their regular format at midnight 12/26 for years. They were doing this way before CC took over WLIT.
 
ChrisInMI said:
Doesn't 104.7 The Fish do all-Christmas in Atlanta still?

In Detroit, 100.3 WNIC (Fresh 100) switched back immediately at midnight on 12/26, and WMGC (Today's 105.1) waited until noon to switch back. 105.1 continues all-Christmas on its HD2 (which is normally an '80s hits format). 101.5 The River in Toledo, OH kept mixing in some Christmas songs with the regular music, but they appear to have dropped that.

Personally, I think any and all songs mentioning Santa Claus immediately become obsolete and irrelevant at midnight on 12/26, and I don't care to hear them again until the following year. I don't, however, mind hearing (as A.J. said earlier) general "wintertime" songs that don't mention Christmas in the lyrics (such as "Sleigh Ride," "Let it Snow," "Marshmallow World," or "Winter Wonderland") or religious Christmas carols after the 25th. From my experience, it's the contemporary Christian stations that do the best job of keeping the real feeling of Christmas going after the big day itself is over, because they tend to stick to the Christian carols and also non-carols by Christian artists who don't get played on secular radio. Although I did hear one CCM station play "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel" today - being an Advent song, I think that one has outlived its usefulness until next year.
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BBN once aired Christmas music during all of December. I didn't try it this year. I was afraid to find out they were airing some non-musical program when I needed some music. During the times I normally check out BBN, they were playing music.
 
One place you have been able to hear Christmas music is commercials. Although the rock version of "Deck the Halls" for Belk was one song I did NOT want to see come back. They got more traditional with their music closer to the big day.

Belk is like Macy's, but in the South.
 
Just heard KQEZ 106.3 in Idaho Falls, ID airing "Same Old Lang Syne" Dan Fogelberg - on JULY 18TH!!! What the heck is that about?
I've also heard "Celebrate Me Home" Kenny Loggins in July - also mainly heard in Christmas formats.

-crainbebo
 
crainbebo said:
Just heard KQEZ 106.3 in Idaho Falls, ID airing "Same Old Lang Syne" Dan Fogelberg - on JULY 18TH!!! What the heck is that about?
I've also heard "Celebrate Me Home" Kenny Loggins in July - also mainly heard in Christmas formats.

-crainbebo
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That first one wasn't a Christmas song when it was popular.

You do have "Christmas in July", of course.
 
I checked the day after when I was in my car returning from my family's celebration. The way I understand it, everyone goes to the spouse's family on the big day. But it's still Christmas for us, and iHeart's WMAG Greensboro NC was still doing the good music. K-104.7 Charlotte was back to the garbage. I use that word because of the style of the "music" I heard at the time I checked.

Sunday, on "Delilah", at least, WMAG was STILL doing the good music.
 
I think, since Christmas fell on a Friday this year, that many kept going with the Christmas music through the weekend. In Detroit, WNIC generally flips back at the stroke of midnight on 12/26, but this year kept the seasonal music flowing until 12/28. I think many might appreciate it continuing until New Years. Some would undoubtedly complain, but since this format tops the charts in many markets during this period, a lot of people clearly appreciate the music.
 
The iHeart Christmas stations in Birmingham, Tuscaloosa, Mobile, Biloxi and Chicago stayed all-Christmas through Sunday. The classic hits station here in Jackson stayed all-Christmas Saturday morning until airing the Southern Miss football game. After the game, they went back to regular programming.

I'm not a fan of playing Christmas songs after Christmas, but I'd be okay with a sprinkling of songs here and there. As mentioned earlier, there are songs that are played only during Christmas that can be played throughout the winter, like "Winter Wonderland", "Baby, It's Cold Outside", and even "Frosty the Snowman". Christmas is almost at the very beginning of winter.
 
Orthodox Christmas is next week. And any songs that mention the Wise Men, such as "We Three Kings" would be legal simply because of Epiphany.

And of course we sing Christmas music in church. My pastor, at a former church, was asked why they don't sing Christmas music before Christmas and she said that's the time for Advent music. But we didn't limit ourselves to advent music.

BBN was still going on Saturday but had returned to regular Christian music by Sunday.
 
vchimpanzee said:
Orthodox Christmas is next week. And any songs that mention the Wise Men, such as "We Three Kings" would be legal simply because of Epiphany.
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You and about seven listeners nationwide would know that. The other 900,000 haven't a clue why the Christmas music was still on last weekend and probably called the station to ask (not that anyone was there to answer the phone, of course).
 
I was looking at the early returns on ratings for the Christmas season and it's a safe bet to believe that two months of all-Christmas will be with us for years to come. The question now will be who'll flip by Labor Day.
 
golden eagles97 said:
I was looking at the early returns on ratings for the Christmas season and it's a safe bet to believe that two months of all-Christmas will be with us for years to come. The question now will be who'll flip by Labor Day.
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I fully expect KOST in Los Angeles will flip before Thanksgiving in 2016.

The bet on all-Christmas ratings has been safe from the first year they started a month before Christmas.
 
I haven't checked today but I'm not optimistic. I'm not ready for it to be over. All I have for taking down my tree later this week is a Yule Log on TiVo.
 
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