Murphy, Sam, and Jodi kick off the "Countdown to Christmas" Friday morning at 9 for Labor Day weekend on WSPA-FM with all-Christmas for probably 4 days. I'm surprised they waited until September this year instead of their usual July unless it became painfully obvious it was hurting more than helping. Of course there's a sponsor for it which is why it's happening.
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Countdown to Christmas is on
- Thread starter 101tm
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I hadn’t even heard it advertised at all until I just causally flipped on this Sunday morning while out for a drive. Big mistake! 🤣🤣🤣
No they didn’t do a Christmas in July this year which was first for so many years. I suppose WSPA FM and Audacy are going be really on the lookout for a Christmas miracle this holiday season with those dwindling numbers.
No they didn’t do a Christmas in July this year which was first for so many years. I suppose WSPA FM and Audacy are going be really on the lookout for a Christmas miracle this holiday season with those dwindling numbers.
Of course they had several groups sponsoring it, I wonder if the sponsors saw the numbers from all of the terrible July attempts and wouldn’t sponsor it any earlier. They promoted it mainly on social media, advertisers front and center.
Maybe Christmas will be what gets listeners scanning around trying to find Christmas music since it isn’t on 98.9 and they realize Magic is still on the air?
Is there a thread for Christmas music in general?
The British online station Serenade Radio just played "Baby It's Cold Outside" and "It's a Marshmallow World". I'm sure the DJ will explain in a minute.
The British online station Serenade Radio just played "Baby It's Cold Outside" and "It's a Marshmallow World". I'm sure the DJ will explain in a minute.
I’m guessing Magic will switch to all-Christmas on 11/11 with a lower likelihood of 11/4. Considering they only played it on Labor Day weekend this year and no July, September previews, etc it seems like maybe they’re figuring out they can only take so many sponsors for Christmas music in exchange for the numbers being affected. It’d also make sense for them to stay in regular format for a solid month or so after Earth FM goes away just to try to scrape whatever they can up.
And they don’t need their numbers affected since they’re finally back at a 2 share almost…
And they don’t need their numbers affected since they’re finally back at a 2 share almost…
11/11 sounds a little late for a station that has flipped to Christmas immediately at 12:01 AM on 11/1 the last few years and deliberately gloated/trolled about it to the haters. 😂
Then again you have a point, and with Thanksgiving happening early this year on 11/23 that’s a long time to be playing Christmas music on a now very vulnerable station unless they have a flip in mind. Will be interesting to see how it goes this year for them.
I accidentally played a christmas tune during my lunch time show here two weeks ago.. introduced some classic rock group i knew, one of the biggies.. dont know who.. but i wasnt fmailiar with the song...... and quickly after starting it, i realize it was a christmas tune.. i let it play out but explained myself afterwards
Serenade Radio has already played "Little Altar Boy" by Andy Williams and a lively version of "My Favorite Things", which are usually thought of as Christmas songs, I guess.
And with the final day for Earth FM being confirmed as October 28, I would stay in the regular AC format for at least a couple weeks to try to grab some of those listeners (although I believe WMYI and WROQ will be the main beneficiaries there, WSPA-FM is probably third most possible).
No explanation came back then and there have been other songs that would be considered Christmas songs such as "Our Winter Love". But these are few and far between.
Apparently the SCBA likes Christmas music considering they awarded Magic 106.3 station of the year, among many other awards (including Sheri Taylor for personality of the year):
audacyinc.com
Audacy Greenville Celebrates Record 11 2023 State Television and Radio (STAR) Award Wins | Audacy Inc.
Audacy Greenville has been honored by the South Carolina Broadcasters Association (SCBA) with a record 11 2023 State Television and Radio (STAR) Awards,
audacyinc.com
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Isn't the president of the SCBA from Audacy?
www.scba.net
Staff & Board of Directors | South Carolina Broadcasters Association
The South Carolina Broadcasters Association serves broadcasters by educating and training members, posting jobs, and lobbying for the community.
www.scba.net
That’s the market manager - how the heck is that not a conflict of interest? Also I don’t see anything on there from iHeart or Cumulus, and it doesn’t appear they have anyone on the SCBA staff. Only staff members’ stations won.Isn't the president of the SCBA from Audacy?
Staff & Board of Directors | South Carolina Broadcasters Association
The South Carolina Broadcasters Association serves broadcasters by educating and training members, posting jobs, and lobbying for the community.
No, she hasn't ever been in radio to my knowledge. Dody spent most of her career in television sales as Sales Manager sometimes. Most recently she was at Spectrum.
didnt even take 5 seconds to click the link? The SCBA website lists the members and where they work
The SCBA STAR awards, at least when it comes to radio, have become less meaningful over the years like they use to be. The nominee list isn’t that long like it use to be; Charlie and Tara were the only nominees for their category so one got the Star and the other got Merit.
Pretty sure this is actually the first time WSPA has actually won the award for Station of the Year though. In the past it’s usually been perennial favorites like WTCB and WRHI. WYRD has won a few times and I know WHZT won a few years back.
Pretty sure this is actually the first time WSPA has actually won the award for Station of the Year though. In the past it’s usually been perennial favorites like WTCB and WRHI. WYRD has won a few times and I know WHZT won a few years back.
I believe the poster before me as well as myself were referring to Steve Sinicropi (who is listed as the president in the link posted above). He’s been the Audacy Greenville MM for a decade or so, he came from Summit/Cox prior to that.
So basically no iHeart station, for example, is going to be nominated or win anything because nobody that works there is part of SCBA - which sort of skews their “results” because iHeart has some pretty prominent stations in every market.
Tara then Charlie being acknowledged is all you need to know 🤣 As fun as it can be to pick on Magic 106.3 with their Christmas music and lousy ratings, I’d take them over WTCB which has slipped badly over the last decade any day. Station of the year is a stretch but it’s not a bad sounding station in regular format.
To be clear, I don't know that there was any wrong-doing on anyone's part just because the MM of the most award winners is also the SCBA president. As I understand, they use "out of state" judges for the voting; but I may be wrong.