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WSPA FM and Christmas…when is enough enough?
- Thread starter genius
- Start date
It’s ridiculous. I haven’t seen it on this level anywhere else. It seems like once they became the only station in the market to go all-Christmas they’ve been doing it more and more, which is just weird.
I've heard of Christmas in July but not Christmas in September.
They'll tell you "the demos are too old", as they cue up Bing Crosby, Brenda Lee, and Nat King Cole.
People in the money demos like those Christmas/cold weather songs because they remind them of past Christmases with their out-of-demo parents and grandparents. Run-of-the-mill soft hits from the years those songs came out remind them of nothing at all, and they generally don't like them,
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You mean no one hears "The Most Wonderful Time of the Year" and scans the Andy Williams catalog for "Canadian Sunset?
And arguably one of the best class C’s in the market if not better than 92.5 and 93.7.
Audacy doesn’t seem to be doing this on any of their other AC stations, even the ones that don’t appear to be performing that great. Considering they’ve been doing this for the past few years on WSPA-FM, I think this may be more to do with revenue (it’s always sponsored) than ratings.
And if it's sponsored, it means that some advertiser believes that enough potential customers appreciate hearing seasonal tunes in September to make that expenditure worthwhile. I assume WSPA carries its normal spot load from its regular advertisers in addition to the mentions given the sponsor, right?
I like that one but Hugo Winterhalter's is better.You mean no one hears "The Most Wonderful Time of the Year" and scans the Andy Williams catalog for "Canadian Sunset?
the money is controlling the programing versus the programming attracting the money.
The listeners driving around are reminded that WSPA-FM is the place for Christmas music, and they have a sponsor. Old white guys are clutching pearls over it.
The old white guys want Perry Como, Nat King Cole, Brenda Lee and The Carpenters all year round. I would have said Bing Crosby, but in recent years stations I like seem to have replaced him with David Crosby.
There are enough for iHeart and SiriusXM to do short-term Halloween channels
Radio stations never do anything different!
(radio station does something different)
Why did they do that?
There are actually plenty. Any song, even some more mainstream tunes that mention ghosts or spells, witches or superstition, mystery or black cats, etc. would work. Toss in a Halloween-themed parody or song from a horror movie here and there and you have enough Halloween content to pull it off. In the mid-90s I worked for a station that was an ABC affiliate. Every year they'd distribute a few hours of Halloween programming via satellite, and their affiliate stations could run tape and use as much of it as they wished. There were a few hours of Halloween-themed songs and parodies, celebrities from that time saying "Hi, this is XYZ from XYZ band or show, wishing you a happy Halloween!", and bits or quotes from various horror movies or Halloween-related TV shows or specials.
Comcast, Direct TV and a few other providers have several channels of MC Music Choice. One of those is "Sounds of the Seasons" which plays Christmas music around the holidays, patriotic stuff at the 4th of July, Irish ditties in the days leading up to St. Patrick's Day, etc. They air a few solid weeks of Halloween-themed programming 24/7 each year.
Problem with doing something like that on radio is that Christmas programming works as it's a major holiday, people decorate and bake and shop and celebrate at work sometimes for weeks leading up to it, and carols remind them of their childhoods, spending time with friends, loved ones and relatives maybe no longer with us, where Halloween programming isn't really sentimental at all and is mostly song parodies and frivolity. Not exactly the same.
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