Just curious, was 101.1 Easy or whatever they were called maybe WDVR back then the first station in the country to go all Christmas 24/7. I remember back in the mid 60s WIBG would have the Christmas wish contest they would grant a person their wish on the air then play a Christmas song every hour, two weeks before Christmas, that was it. Other Philly stations played a few songs until a day before, not much holiday music on the dial until a few days before then the dial was bombarded. The question, was 101.1 the prototype to full time Christmas music weeks before the actual holiday. If not who was the originator.
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was 101.1 the first station to go christmas 24/7?
- Thread starter wibgradio99
- Start date
That's what once made those "36 hour" (or similar) Christmas music specials unique. Just about everyone who did Christmas music of any sort would mix them in to the format in whatever methodology they used. Then in Philly it was the 36 hour non-stop special on 101 (and yes, on 99.5 if you picked them up). Even some stations that didn't go all-in that way for the 36 hours might still spend a good chunk of time on Christmas day doing all holiday music. Sometimes with their personalities (like WIP back in the day; I also remember amusing things like WSTW on Christmas morning talking about doing a 360 minute music sweep of holiday music (vs the gimmicky 60 minute music sweep or whatever they used normally).
Since the dawn of the 2000s when all Christmas became much more widespread, the only meaningful difference is the lack of commercials and air personalities...and even then, there are sponsorship plugs that come thisclose close to being commercials, but whatever.
Since the dawn of the 2000s when all Christmas became much more widespread, the only meaningful difference is the lack of commercials and air personalities...and even then, there are sponsorship plugs that come thisclose close to being commercials, but whatever.
I recall back in the 60s, WDVR would take out a full page ad in the Evening Bulletin with a list of their 36 hours of Christmas Music, song by song. It was both a bonus for the audience and a great way for the station to give their staff off and just hire a tech to babysit some tapes.
By 1968, WFIL-FM got in on the action too, with a several days around Christmas of all Christmas music. I remember getting a new tuner/amp for Christmas and couldn't wait for the regular format to return to WFIL-FM so I could hear "my songs" on the new radio/amp.
By 1968, WFIL-FM got in on the action too, with a several days around Christmas of all Christmas music. I remember getting a new tuner/amp for Christmas and couldn't wait for the regular format to return to WFIL-FM so I could hear "my songs" on the new radio/amp.
Let’s take it back some more back in the 90s the first station in Philly on Christmas Eve was always 950 WPEN they’d start at 6am on the dot fm stations like kiss 100 and b101 would start at 12 noon but my favorite was Christmas morning Q102 they played Christmas songs till 12 noon Christmas Day
The modern era of all Christmas stations from mid-November through Christmas night started in smaller markets in 2001 with the thought it would help the mood of the country after 9-11-2001. I was in Williamsburg, Va. early December and there were all Christmas stations in Richmond, Norfolk & Williamsburg but none yet from here to there. I believe in 2001 rimshot WIFI 1460 in Florence, NJ was all Christian-leaning Christmas music all December. But the first major FM to go all-Christmas for 6 weeks or so was WSNI Sunny 104.5, with a variety of songs & a few carols & special jingles & bumpers (“no, you can’t re-wrap last year’s cheese log! Sunny 104.5”). They would also play the Christmas music the 26th and even did an extra few hours for Christmas parties on the next Saturday night one year. In 2002, 101 did their usual 36 hours, then switched to all Christmas in 2003. sometime after that WJBR Wilmington and WLEV Easton joined in too.
KEZ in Phoenix went 24/7 Christmas from Thanksgiving on under manager Jerry Ryan in 1992.
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In the 1970’s WWSH Wish 106 also did the 36 hours of beautiful Christmas music as did WFMZ Allentown which reached most of the northern Philadelphia region. Also WBUX & WNPV in the suburbs both had a ‘Christmas Caravan of Music’with local school choirs mixed in with Christmas records non-commercial Dec. 24-26 except back then they were daytimers on 7:15 am to 4:30 pm only in December!
For anyone younger reading this, note that the Christmas music on FM beautiful music stations back in the 1960’s through 80’s was nothing like the 24/7 ‘Holiday Music’ stations now. It was primarily lush orchestra versions of traditional songs and carols, with a few soft vocals by Nat ‘King’ Cole, Perry Como, Andy Williams, etc. The few modern pop Christmas songs like Jingle Bell Rock or Rockin Around the Christmas Tree would be toned- down instrumentals. WIP would play the Christmas songs by the original recordings, like Little Drummer Boy only by the Harry Simione Chorale, no remakes.
My apologies about my post above
I didn't mean to come "down hard". Sorry. Jerry is a good friend going back several decades, and the Internet is full of mistaken or erroneous dates, so it is hard to find the accurate date!
Many stations did a day or two of Christmas music right ahead of the 25th, but the idea of doing a month of season songs came out of beautiful snow-filled and wintery Phoenix, famous for sleigh rides and ice-cycles.
Q102 surprisingly considering the format, had a great all Christmas format for 18hrs it would play all Christmas music. Use to always listen to them. I guess they stopped when sister station Sunny adopted it as a seasonal format.
Yes I liked Q102's Christmas format which they have not done in quite some time!
But when they did it, back then it's not as if you could stream from *insert music service here* either.
The old KSRC 102.1 in Kansas City went all Christmas its first year in existence in 1999. A month of Christmas music wasn’t that uncommon back then, though not every market had a station that did that.
2001 was when we started seeing stations go Christmas before Thanksgiving.
the two songs that knocked my socks off never heard them before or since were The Hat I Got for Christmas is too Beeg - Mel Blanc and AUGIE RIOS - Donde Esta Santa Claus, thats what made Sunny the best ever...
Also Vince Gill - Let There Be Peace On Earth and Kenny Rogers - Mary Did You Know
Wibbage 94.3 has a phenomenal Christmas format, they only do it on Christmas Eve and Christmas. Heard it a couple years ago when I was in Atlantic City on Christmas. I streamed it online last year and this year.
They pull out all the stops and have a very deep library of classic Christmas music. No garbage from Taylor Swift, Justin Bieber, Kelly Clarkson, etc.
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