Posted on 11/01/2014 3:03:49 PM PDT by hoagy62
Just wondering if anyone's local radio stations are playing Christmas music yet.
We have a station up here in Seattle that changed their website format to Christmas at midnight last night. Their on-air music is still 'normal', but they have an online channel of nothing but Christmas music. If they follow tradition, they'll be switching their on-air format on Nov. 15th to all-Christmas...two Fridays before Thanksgiving.
Yes. Had one start up this past Monday or Tuesday. Quickly changed the channel.
Saturday at noon, WZTI-AM (1290) and WZTI-FM (100.3) became the first Milwaukee Wisconsin radio stations to switch to a Christmas music format
Yes, many iHeart Media (formerly Clear Channel) AC stations are, including Magic 93.7 (magic937.com) in Biloxi, MS.
No, thank God. We used to have two KC stations that competed each year to be the first to go all Christmas, and I think one year they did start on November 1st. But they went to an all-rock format a couple of years ago so now we’re spared the agony of hearing the same three dozen faux Christmas carols over and over and over again.
Wow!
Yep-lots of New Years and El Ai I DId music.
None around here, thank God.
All the Christmas stuff was out at Home Depot last weekend.
So soon? Well, I shouldn’t be that surprised. Some people like the idea of Christmas Spirit all year long. I have not been to the San Francisco Fisherman’s Wharf in over 15 years, b/c I don’t do as much walking on cobblestone as I used to, but I recall visiting a souvenir shop called The Christmas Store in the middle of July.
The store had mistletoe hanging, Jingle Bell Garlands hung from each window, Pine, Frankinscense and Nestle’s Hot Chocolate swirled in the air. The little store was filled with shoppers and those there just to see the displays. All manner of decorative ornaments and lights were shown to suit any Christmas Tree. I have no idea if it’s still there. I would be surprised if it had not been declared as “An Overlooked Oasis of Hate” and been shutdown or replaced by a Victoria Secrets or Massage Envy shop.
I hope not. Running secular Christmas into the ground for two months does nothing to promote the real reason for the season.
For me, Christmas music should start on the day after Thanksgiving.
I heard some Hallowe’en music yesterday.
Two stations in South Jersey started three weeks ago.
I have a friend who does set decorating for Macy's and I asked her why Christmas starts so early in the stores and she told me that it takes them a full month to prepare the store for the Christmas season. So, from Halloween to Thanksgiving they work all night long when people are not in the store, setting all the decorations. They have to do it in layers and the plan is to have it all ready for the day after Thanksgiving what is actually the beginning of Christmas season. That's how the real pros handle it.
Two Birmingham stations began playing Christmas music on the 24th of October, and one has begun billing itself as the city’s “original Christmas music station.”
Christmas songs are the radio equivalent of non-stop severe weather coverage in TV news—they really juice the ratings. In New York City, lite rock station WLTW-FM has been displaced at the top of the ratings heap by oldies-formatted WCBS-FM. Everyone expects WLTW to reclaim the top spot when they shift to all Christmas music in mid-November.
As a young DJ, I once had the misfortune to work Christmas Eve; the station manager was out-of-town and I knew the PD would be drunk by 7 o’clock, so I decided to run an informal countdown of the “worst Christmas songs of all time.” It was hard finding a tune worthy of that honor, but I finally came across a little ditty called “Stinky the Little Reindeer” by Dick and Richard. I ended the countdown promptly at midnite with “Stinky.” One of the great moments in American broadcast history.
I’ve never heard that song since that Christmas Eve so many years ago; I’m guessing that “Stinky” doesn’t make the playlist for all of those Christmas music stations.
Oh, Holy Night
What Child is This?
Oh Come Immanuel!
Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
JOY TO THE WORLD!
We have one that is tied to a local light show. It starts the week before Thanksgiving and goes until New Years. Not horrible.
We have 2 in Grand Rapids, Michigan that do it around Thanksgiving. Nothing has made me despise the secular Christmas more than incessant holiday music from those stations.
When they first did it because of 9/11, it was actually a nice surprise, but now it is just obnoxious.
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