KING FM is a weird example. Most classical music stations, especially non-commercial ones, see big rating swings. Christmas is typically a good time of the year, where Summer months less. Then add in the periods where the station runs fundraising where you can see peaks and valleys.
-
Get involved.
We want your input!
Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.
After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.
After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/
Thanks in advance and have fun!
RadioDiscussions Administrators
Numbers Numbers Numbers, who's on 3rd
- Thread starter xmtrland
- Start date
- Status
KING FM is a weird example. Most classical music stations, especially non-commercial ones, see big rating swings. Christmas is typically a good time of the year, where Summer months less. Then add in the periods where the station runs fundraising where you can see peaks and valleys.
I have a lot of years under my belt with Christmas programming. Doesn't make me an expert, but I do understand what works.
As mentioned by a couple of posters, you need that core library category of anywhere from 40-60 "musts". This # can be variable, but I think you get the picture. After that, you have another 40 titles that are just outside this core. When I was programming this, I treated the core like a top40 station, with a tight rotation. The titles outside the core would be considered "recurrents", and would rotate slightly slower. Frankly after that, you are not going to win or lose. They just don't matter. Yes, there might be some "oh wows" in there, but this will not make or break you.
I just realized this thread isn't really about Christmas music, but we seem to have veered off there. Oh well, the first Christmas stations are probably just weeks or days away!
As mentioned by a couple of posters, you need that core library category of anywhere from 40-60 "musts". This # can be variable, but I think you get the picture. After that, you have another 40 titles that are just outside this core. When I was programming this, I treated the core like a top40 station, with a tight rotation. The titles outside the core would be considered "recurrents", and would rotate slightly slower. Frankly after that, you are not going to win or lose. They just don't matter. Yes, there might be some "oh wows" in there, but this will not make or break you.
I just realized this thread isn't really about Christmas music, but we seem to have veered off there. Oh well, the first Christmas stations are probably just weeks or days away!
G
Goi
Guest
Warm needs to go all XMAS NOW if they want to even have a chance.... everybody, stop, hey what's that SOUND - is that sleigh bells I hear coming down on 94.1?
I doubt KSWD will flip to Xmas, and I'm in the minority, but here's why: KRWM owns Xmas. KPLZ takes some of the ratings away from KRWM, along with KCMS. What was The Sound airing on 12/25 last year? Soft rock music! There's got to be some people who don't want to hear All-Christmas All the Time in December! Thus, KSWD shouldn't flip, to the applause of office workers who are sick of hearing Andy Williams 'It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year' for the 2,564,168th time, or Mariah Carey 'All I Want for Christmas is You' for the 3,705,608th time. Leave the holiday music to WARM like every year.
That nice big ratings spike is awfully tempting.
We've had a few years with an also-ran Holiday competitor to KRWM (KPLZ, KJR-FM, the perennial KCMS.) And usually the stations get some kind of residual spike as an alternative to the empire at 106.9 MHz.
You might have a point. But if Entercom REALLY wants to take this pillow fight to the next level....
Here's one thing I've noticed, why hasn't KCMS spiked in the holiday book the last few years? Oddly, they didn't go fully Christmas except for evenings until Christmas eve and day last year, but most years they have, yet I think 2015 was the last time I saw them with a significant bump.
Just wait till one of the Seattle stations flip their HD2 or HD3 to all Christmas 24/7 year round, like that station in Phoenix. You folks are going implode.
Not surprising considering how this board is moderated. Every thread goes OT.
Every broadcast forum I have been on, going back to the Broadcast Professionals on CIS and the BBS boards has prospered due to the branching of threads into interesting and unexpected new areas.
I’m not going to play thread police save in the most egregious of departures from the subject... like with good radio, I prefer a bit of the unpredictable and an occasional surprise.
KMPS' highest 6+ share in the PPM era (since April 2009) was a 5.0 in both May and June 2009.
In the diary era, KMPS peaked with a 8.4 in Spring 1993, but had a 7.4 share as recently as Spring 2005. KMPS was #1 12+ for a total of 28 books, mostly in two distinct time frames - during the "Garth boom" of 1992-94 and again during 2004-08.
Preach. I programmed all Christmas in the early 90s for a couple of years... then just when I thought I escaped, I took a job at the AC station and on my first day was handed Christmas jingles to dub. That station is responsible for everyone doing the annual flip.
My problem was being at a nostalgia station (remember those?) and wanting to keep some continuity with the regular format. Tempo can be a real issue; there aren't that many Christmas titles and many are soft... and trying to stay somewhat true to standards artists it was hard to keep the music from dragging.
At the AC station, they did a better job programming than I did, probably because they didn't have to worry about getting too modern!
Anyway, as we've all had a few more years under our belt hauling the sleigh, it boils down to exactly what you describe: about 30 core titles that you pound over and over for a month and a half with a handful of titles you spike in for variety. Yes, artists are now putting out Christmas records to get airplay, but unless they're covering a standard, most new Christmas releases suck. So yes, everyone will power Andy Williams and Mariah Carey this year because people who don't program Christmas music love those songs. You have to watch title separation more than artist separation and code for tempo. Every year there will be one or two new songs that cut through the clutter and get added to the core for next year, but people don't listen to all Christmas to discover new Christmas songs. You have to give them what they know. For every song that endures, there's 10 versions of the same song that are forgotten for good reason.
But I still have nightmares about being chewed out by the station owner because the tempo mix was too slow...
I watched tempo bigtime in Selector with Christmas music. Also did a lot of classic/newer separation in Selector. Too much of either, especially in a row, is a deathnell. But due to the success of that classic core, it can be difficult. Shoud be about 2 out of 3, classic to newer.
I KNEW IT! Here it comes...At last....Lite AC-B/EZ-Smooth Jazz radio. With Robin & Maynard in the morning. Be listening for Vacation of The Day song "Kokomo" by the Beach Boys.
Is it going to be some kind of network? I often pondered that model for HD subchannels. We could use something like The Current to help patch in the holes KEXP misses in their deity-like hipness (I swear to be played on KEXP these days, your band must have at least one guy under 40 with a big beard. No beard, no KEXP airplay. So there.)
Judy Garland's depressing original 1944 version of "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" is enough drag on a Holiday format to keep the USS Ronald Reagan securely in place. It's hard to rebound after it. NOTHING sounds right.
Johndavis' reply about Christmas format programming is why I stick away from major-market stations for my holiday music mix. I take examples from '95.7 the Xmas Mix' in Valdosta, KQZB 'Hits 100' in Pullman, and Sunny 107 down in Klamath Falls - a few of the big favorites but a lot of 'oh wow's. I heard KQZB last year playing 'Getting Ready for Christmas Day' by Paul Simon. Wonderful song, just one example. I like a bit of R&B in my holiday mix too, and Boyz II Men's 'Let it Snow' (not related to the usual 'weather outside is so frightful' tune) really fits the season. That song is played by WQPW and the others. But sadly in the major-markets these songs are missing, only 'the hits' are played. Sure, Bobby Helms' Jingle Bell Rock is a classic. But do I really have to hear that 12 times a day? There's some awesome instrumental and new-age Xmas songs that I hear on some of these stations, including Mannheim Steamroller songs that rarely get aired.
Most Mannheim Steamroller songs rarely get aire-d.
Major radio market researchers have tested Mannheim Steamroller songs recently and discovered they trigger horrifying PTSD-like flashbacks in many people over 48 of the Linda Evans books and dietary, healing crystal, chakra and feng shui correctness their spacey cubicle partner (ol' whats-their-butt, the one with the double-hyphenated last name) blabbed endlessly about back in 1987. But worst of all, those damn tapes he/she played. Similar reactions were observed with tests of Andreas Vollenwieder, Kitaro, George Winston, Enya, William Ackermann and other '80s New Age material. They stopped the tests under the threat of a UN Human Rights hearing.
This is why Mannheim Steamroller is not an option even on the most instrumental friendly streaming '80s "at-work" format. Because there was always someone like that in nearly every office back then. And people are still in therapy.
Interesting note about WQPW. I've heard them once in regular format, but never at Christmas. Actually this will be the first Christmas since I've heard them. I believe they're sisters, but I've really taken a liking to WLOV in Daytona Beach, both at Christmas and the rest of the year.
- Status