Christmas on 104.7

[Rick Rose 2.0]

Once again The Fish has moved to Christmas music until December 26th. But this year the regular Fish music lives on 104.7 HD2 and online. As a listener to contemporary CHristian radio I just cant stand most Christmas music. K Love appears to not be going all Christmas like 104.7 and 93.3 so that's a plus. My favorite station on 93.3 HD3 should be sticking to normal music but sometimes the HD signal is challenging to pick up for me.

 

[kf4rca]

The client$ get them to do that, to get the customer$ in the Christmas shopping mood early, so they'll have a good 4th quarter.

 

[DavidEduardo]

The client$ get them to do that, to get the customer$ in the Christmas shopping mood early, so they'll have a good 4th quarter.

It's the other way around. Stations look for a way to outperform in the Christmas season. The listeners that they attract are prime adult women potential shoppers.

The original all-Christmas station, KEZ in Phoenix, made the move to set itself apart from competitors and to have a strong sales story to tell. That station was already high rated and very successful, but they wanted to do something special at the holiday season.

KEZ (it's "name" and not is call letters) was not driven to make the change due to advertiser pressure, influence or suggestion. It did it to do the most appropriate thing for its listeners at a time of the year when people's routines change; they correctly guessed that the seasonal mood required a total revision of normal programming practices.

And advertisers don't, unfortunately, pay enough attention to radio to be concerned about the songs each station plays at any time of the year; they care about the size and responsiveness of the audiences we deliver.

 

[Gregg.]

Commercial CCM stations seem to wait longer to go All-Christmas than secular stations. When did WFSH flip? On Thanksgiving or just before? And you say WVFJ flips as well, a non-commercial CCM station.

Atlanta really is an unusual market. A commercial CCM station plus four non-commercial stations, 106.7 K-Love WAKL and 93.3 The Joy WVFJ, along with some lower powered suburban stations such as WMVV 90.7 and WWEV 91.5. Despite the competition, WFSH does remarkably well in the ratings all year even though it's the only one that plays commercials. But maybe that's better in the long run than pledge drives.

And I still can't figure why WSB-FM doesn't go all-Christmas. Among big market AC stations, it's the only hold-out now that WLYF Miami does it regularly. When Cox sees WFSH go to #1 in the holiday book, I can't understand why they don't want to do it themselves with a mostly secular Christmas playlist.

 

[RoddyFreeman]

Commercial CCM stations seem to wait longer to go All-Christmas than secular stations. When did WFSH flip? On Thanksgiving or just before? And you say WVFJ flips as well, a non-commercial CCM station.

Atlanta really is an unusual market. A commercial CCM station plus four non-commercial stations, 106.7 K-Love WAKL and 93.3 The Joy WVFJ, along with some lower powered suburban stations such as WMVV 90.7 and WWEV 91.5. Despite the competition, WFSH does remarkably well in the ratings all year even though it's the only one that plays commercials. But maybe that's better in the long run than pledge drives.

And I still can't figure why WSB-FM doesn't go all-Christmas. Among big market AC stations, it's the only hold-out now that WLYF Miami does it regularly. When Cox sees WFSH go to #1 in the holiday book, I can't understand why they don't want to do it themselves with a mostly secular Christmas playlist.

That's not quite right. WVFJ (The Joy FM) plays 30-second commercials. But they must conform to the FCC's non-commercial rules, such as no call to action.

WSB-FM (B98.5) used to go all-Christmas, and their ratings went sky high. But while a lot of new listeners came, others left, and they weren't all coming back in January. So B98.5 decided to do something they could get away with only because there was no direct AC competitor: They went to a partial Christmas format. The thinking was there's no other place for people to hear pop Christmas music...and there's no other place for people to hear AC. If an AC competitor was playing all pop Christmas music, B98.5 could not have gotten away with it.

Fast forward to this Christmas season. The Fish used to play a more religious brand of Christmas music, but last year and this year they seem to have moved to a more secular playlist, presumably to try to pull listeners away from B98.5. I thought B98.5 might be forced to react to the Fish by playing all Christmas music this year, but they didn't. We'll see how the ratings look this year.

 

[RadioDoogie]

I think B98.5 is sounding better than ever. Their playlist is constantly changing up. Each time I turn it on, I rarely hear any repeated songs. They typically play the top 5 off the current AC chart then play a very wide variety of hits from the 80s to today. Extremely rare with other stations who tend to have a very tight playlist (except for TOSOTR). I guess you are right, they don’t want to mess with a good thing and don’t have another AC competitor to worry about.

 

[Lotologist492]

Additionally, while B98.5 is considered an AC station, they are fighting for hot-AC listeners as well. Yet they have the 'Listen at Work' title.

I still wonder why a market this size does not carry either the John Tesh Radio Show OR the Delilah Show. My only guess is there are no station(s) in this market with the correct format fit for those shows, that being a true-AC / soft rock / variety hits format. I noticed the Fish PM DJ sounds sort of like Delilah in style.

For the past several years, the Atlanta market has been an enigma as far as AC (and Christmas music) goes. The set of circumstances in play seem to be blocking any inroads of a true soft rock station.

 

[DavidEduardo]

I still wonder why a market this size does not carry either the John Tesh Radio Show OR the Delilah Show. My only guess is there are no station(s) in this market with the correct format fit for those shows, that being a true-AC / soft rock / variety hits format. I noticed the Fish PM DJ sounds sort of like Delilah in style.

Remember that those shows are delivered in workparts, and stations can play their own music list, inserting the content within a local execution. In other words, just like many other shows such as Seacrest.

 

[secondchoice]

Additionally, while B98.5 is considered an AC station, they are fighting for hot-AC listeners as well. Yet they have the 'Listen at Work' title.

I still wonder why a market this size does not carry either the John Tesh Radio Show OR the Delilah Show. My only guess is there are no station(s) in this market with the correct format fit for those shows, that being a true-AC / soft rock / variety hits format. I noticed the Fish PM DJ sounds sort of like Delilah in style.

For the past several years, the Atlanta market has been an enigma as far as AC (and Christmas music) goes. The set of circumstances in play seem to be blocking any inroads of a true soft rock station.

Delilah has been on two stations in Atlanta. She was on the old Peach / Lite 94.9 until it was flipped to the Bull, then the show was on 98.5. I don't know why it didn't succeed, but Cox let her show go.

 

[jabba17]

Delilah has been on two stations in Atlanta. She was on the old Peach / Lite 94.9 until it was flipped to the Bull, then the show was on 98.5. I don't know why it didn't succeed, but Cox let her show go.

I always thought it was because Delilah's show was considered too "soft" for where B98.5 wanted to be positioned.

 

[Alex_0490]

Additionally, while B98.5 is considered an AC station, they are fighting for hot-AC listeners as well. Yet they have the 'Listen at Work' title.

I still wonder why a market this size does not carry either the John Tesh Radio Show OR the Delilah Show. My only guess is there are no station(s) in this market with the correct format fit for those shows, that being a true-AC / soft rock / variety hits format. I noticed the Fish PM DJ sounds sort of like Delilah in style.

For the past several years, the Atlanta market has been an enigma as far as AC (and Christmas music) goes. The set of circumstances in play seem to be blocking any inroads of a true soft rock station.

Yep that is why they should put the Breeze on 105.7and/or 105.3!

 

[secondchoice]

Yep that is why they should put the Breeze on 105.7and/or 105.3!

Both 105.3 and 105.7 get the majority of the national buys for their respective formats due to having no real competition. A couple of years ago CC/iHeart was not afraid to spin the format wheel but after the Bankruptcy safe revenue is their game. For some reason Atlanta (at this time) is not into "soft" formats. Smooth Jazz 101.1 / 100.1 has not made any inroads in the (6+) ratings.

 

[jabba17]

What year was it where Cumulus put Warm 98.9 on one of the translators with all-Christmas and then teased about soft AC in the new year before putting on 99X after the holidays?

As a side note, I wonder how much streaming has dented the appeal of an all-Christmas terrestrial station...?

 

[RadioDoogie]

What year was it where Cumulus put Warm 98.9 on one of the translators with all-Christmas and then teased about soft AC in the new year before putting on 99X after the holidays?

As a side note, I wonder how much streaming has dented the appeal of an all-Christmas terrestrial station...?

Christmas 2015 then flipped back to 99X on New Years Eve.

 

[RadioDoogie]

Delilah has been on two stations in Atlanta. She was on the old Peach / Lite 94.9 until it was flipped to the Bull, then the show was on 98.5. I don't know why it didn't succeed, but Cox let her show go.

Delilah tends to play on iHeart AC stations nationwide. It only broadcasts on the iHeart radio app. Since we don’t have an iHeart AC station in the Atlanta market, we don’t have Delilah. Similar to if Power 96.1 went away, Q99.7 most likely wouldn’t pick up AT40 or On-Air with Ryan Seacrest. There are a few exceptions. Z93.7 in Macon plays her and that is a Cumulus station. But if you look at her station list, 95% of the AC stations are owned by iHeart. Star 94-1 had AT40 up until 2012, then as soon as iHeart Power 96.1 came into play, AT40 was handed off to Power 96.1.

 

[jabba17]

Delilah tends to play on iHeart AC stations nationwide. It only broadcasts on the iHeart radio app. Since we don’t have an iHeart AC station in the Atlanta market, we don’t have Delilah. Similar to if Power 96.1 went away, Q99.7 most likely wouldn’t pick up AT40 or On-Air with Ryan Seacrest. There are a few exceptions. Z93.7 in Macon plays her and that is a Cumulus station. But if you look at her station list, 95% of the AC stations are owned by iHeart. Star 94-1 had AT40 up until 2012, then as soon as iHeart Power 96.1 came into play, AT40 was handed off to Power 96.1.

I don't think Premiere would object to a competing radio station in-format picking up Delilah, as long as iHeart didn't have one that would be an obvious first pick. Hell, WSB and not WGST has Rush and Hannity.

 

[secondchoice]

I don't think Premiere would object to a competing radio station in-format picking up Delilah, as long as iHeart didn't have one that would be an obvious first pick. Hell, WSB and not WGST has Rush and Hannity.

I was kind of surprised when iHeart rebooted WGST that they didn't pull back Rush and Hannity back from Cox and put them on their own station (WGST). IIRC they bought WOR 710 in NYC to insure clearance of Rush and Hannity. I can only guess that Cox is paying more than they could make running Premiere on WGST. I wonder if they put WGST back on 105.7 would they have a viable operation. 105.7 has a good signal in the GOP leaning areas north of the perimeter.

 

[TheBigA]

I don't think Premiere would object to a competing radio station in-format picking up Delilah, as long as iHeart didn't have one that would be an obvious first pick. Hell, WSB and not WGST has Rush and Hannity.

In point of fact, Premiere has a deal with Entercom for Delilah in her home market of Seattle.

 

[DavidEduardo]

I was kind of surprised when iHeart rebooted WGST that they didn't pull back Rush and Hannity back from Cox and put them on their own station (WGST). IIRC they bought WOR 710 in NYC to insure clearance of Rush and Hannity. I can only guess that Cox is paying more than they could make running Premiere on WGST. I wonder if they put WGST back on 105.7 would they have a viable operation. 105.7 has a good signal in the GOP leaning areas north of the perimeter.

Premiere is getting a much better rate with WSB and its huge audience than it would with WGST, which, despite a good daytime signal, is AM only and not a real factor.

Premiere makes most of its money from barter, not any fees a station might pay.

 

[secondchoice]

Premiere is getting a much better rate with WSB and its huge audience than it would with WGST, which, despite a good daytime signal, is AM only and not a real factor.

Premiere makes most of its money from barter, not any fees a station might pay.

IMHO: WGST really does not have as good of a signal in reality as the FCC charts show. I have not done any signal strength studies but just driving around the north end of the Atlanta market it not as good as 680 or 750. WGST was viable when it was on 105.7. Not to get political but Rush does better outside and north of Atlanta. I get 95.5's the move ITP increased the number of listeners (and value) in the 60 db but I doubt the improved signal added that many P1 folks. I guess the next ratings with in town tower will tell if it really helped. It should help the building penetration in office buildings.