How Much Christmas is TOO much Christmas?

[beejus]

I think I'm only going to listen to my iPod when I roll home to Philadelphia for the Christmas Holidays. As now Philadelphia has not ONE, not TWO, not THREE, not FOUR... but FIVE ALL-CHRISTMAS STATIONS.

Last year only one station (B101) made the flip, and they pulled in a 17 share in the ratings... so we expected someone else to grab a slice of the pie. BUT 5?

Drive through Philly... you'll hear X-Mas music on 97.5, 98.1, 99.5 (Technically from Wilmington, DE... but their signal covers Philly), 101.1 and 1340AM.

How much is too much? The ratings were great for B101 last year... but will listeners REALLY like this much Christmas music?

Any other markets have this many stations playing the Yuletide greetings?

[Slinky]

It is way too much for me, but I have a feeling all of those stations (except 1340) will be successful with it.

97.5 will get listeners by virtue of being the first one to do it. B101 always does it and gets huge ratings (will probably be #1 again), and WOGL is doing an older-targeted Christmas format that's somewhat different from the other two.

I think all 3 of them will be top 10 in the Fall PPMs, with B101 on top with around an 11 share.

The Wilmington station does come in well in the Philadelphia market, but doesn't ever get big ratings there. They probably will be #1 in Wilmington though.

1340 never gets ratings, and I don't think anyone will really be listening to Christmas on AM if there are 3 stations doing it on FM, especially if 1340 is playing the same "classics" as WOGL is.

[Marv]

And the call letters and format of that station @ 97.5 would happen to be....?

[beejus]

Nov 28, 2008 1:25:11 GMT -5 Marv said:

And the call letters and format of that station @ 97.5 would happen to be....?

Now 97.5 WNUW.

They were smooth Jazz until a few months ago... and flipped to AC to compete with B101 (WBEB).

[EvanJ]

AC is very popular in my area near New York City and at some point I expect I could get Christmas music on 96.7, 97.5, 98.3, 99.1, 99.9, 100.7, 101.1, 102.7, 106.7, and 107.9. 99.1 is Christian AC WAWZ, 101.1 is WCBS-FM, and the rest are AC stations that don't all come from the same place.

[Marv]

81 of R&Rs 110 A/C reporters are now in all-holiday programming mode, according to their newest issue.

[tico]

That's way too many stations in Philadelphia to play Christmas music. In fact, I would stop listening to any station that's all Christmas until the day after Christmas.

[atlantaboy]

Dec 5, 2008 11:04:11 GMT -5 Marv said:

81 of R&Rs 110 A/C reporters are now in all-holiday programming mode, according to their newest issue.

Wow seems like it never used to be like that...IMO they should freeze the AC chart then for the month

Also not sure what Q100 (a CHR) is doin playin Christmas music, unless they're thinkin of flippin to HAC (they did pretty bad in the ATL ratings last time around I think)

[shocker]

It's definitely too much the way it is. One station playing all-holiday music is plenty - even in the large markets. What's even more ridiculous is spinning these songs in October & November. It used to be that these stations would wait until December, or at least until black Friday to start their all-Christmas format.

It's all about commercialism, which is really what Christmas is all about anymore! These radio stations are corporate-owned, and they know that all-holiday formats are high in the ratings this time of year. That's why more stations are flipping to this format - not keeping in mind that many radio markets are already saturated with holiday music!