Christmas Music Doubles Radio's Ratings? Bah!

[CoolBreeze]

This just goes to show how goofy Americans are. I mean, how can you POSSIBLY stand to listen to Christmas music around the clock for a month? Do record labels simply stop issuing new music in Dec because no one would hear it? And how heavy IS the rotation for 24 hours-30 days? I mean, how many Christmas songs are there anyway? 50 maybe? After that it's just different singers singing the same songs right? I personally will never turn on a station that plays all Christmas all the time... except for Christmas day itself. Bah! Humbug!


Tired of hearing "White Christmas" on holiday rotation? There's no escaping it, as more stations make the lucrative switch to the yuletide format.

This article appeared in the Dec. 9 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine.

More and more radio channels have been switching their formats to all Christmas, all the time -- a consistent winner for radio even during a brutal 2008-2009 revenue downturn, which ended last year when the U.S. radio industry took in $20.1 billion, up 8 percent from the previous year.

Arbitron says it's not unusual for ratings to double once a channel makes the temporary switch to Christmas music. KOST-FM in Los Angeles, for example, saw its share rise from 4.6 to 9.2 last year after it switched, and WLTW-FM in New York jumped from 6.0 to 12.3.

"There's no other programming tactic in radio history that consistently delivers ratings increases better than Christmas music," says Darren Davis, senior vp at Clear Channel, which is switching 100 of its 650 music stations to Christmas this year. And where there are ears, there are advertisers.

"If a station consistently does this year after year, it becomes an 'upfront' for advertisers looking to get holiday-minded customers in the final 30 days of Christmas," says Greg Strassell, senior vp programming at CBS Radio. While commercial count doesn't rise, ad rates increase, and sponsorship packages are created.



6 Most Popular Christmas Songs From Radio

1. John Lennon ... "Happy XMas (War Is Over)" (probably why he was shot)

2. Andy Williams..."It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" (sounds like a show tune)

3. Burl Ives..."Have a Holly Jolly Christmas" (the dead still bug me)

4. Mariah Carey..."All I Want For Christmas Is You (please kill me)

5. Nat King Cole...."The Christmas Song" (meh)

6. Jose Feliciano ... "Feliz Navidad" (who let this guy in the country?)

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/galler ... s-268462#2



Most-performed Christmas songs (USA)

According to the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers in 2006, the following are the Top 25 most-performed "holiday" songs written by ASCAP members, for the first five years of the 21st century: (tracking plays in the U.S. only, and in order of number of plays)

"The Christmas Song" (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire) – Mel Tormé, Robert Wells
"Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" – Ralph Blane, Hugh Martin
"Winter Wonderland" – Felix Bernard, Richard B. Smith
"Santa Claus Is Coming to Town" – J. Fred Coots, Haven Gillespie
"White Christmas" – Irving Berlin
"Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!" – Sammy Cahn, Jule Styne
"Jingle Bell Rock" – Joseph Carleton Beal, James Ross Boothe
"The Little Drummer Boy" – Katherine K. Davis, Henry V. Onorati, Harry Simeone
"Sleigh Ride" – Leroy Anderson, Mitchell Parish
"Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" – Johnny Marks
"It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" – Edward Pola, George Wyle
"I'll Be Home for Christmas" – Walter Kent, Kim Gannon, Buck Ram
"Silver Bells" – Jay Livingston, Ray Evans
"Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" – Johnny Marks
"Feliz Navidad" – José Feliciano
"Blue Christmas" – Billy Hayes, Jay W. Johnson
"Frosty the Snowman" – Steve Nelson, Walter E. Rollins
"A Holly Jolly Christmas" – Johnny Marks
"It's Beginning To Look a Lot Like Christmas" – Meredith Willson
"I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus" – Tommie Connor
"Here Comes Santa Claus" (Right Down Santa Claus Lane) – Gene Autry, Oakley Haldeman
"Carol of the Bells" – Peter J. Wilhousky, Mykola D. Leontovych
"Do They Know It's Christmas? (Feed the World) — Midge Ure, Bob Geldof
"(There's No Place Like) Home for the Holidays" – Bob Allen, Al Stillman
"Santa Baby" – Joan Ellen Javits, Philip Springer, Tony Springer, and Fred Ebb

[Bob Campbell]

It's all about cume baby. Especially in a PPM world. It also gives every business a totally harmless station to tune to. Which also works for the meter. Cume rules.
It drives those of us who program it nuts. But it's a slam dunk for ratings. Agencies are wise to it though and do take it into account when they look at a smaller markets big Fall ARB jump or a larger markets one to two month spike. But bodies are bodies. That's all that counts.

[EZ103.3FM]

We listen to the Christmas stations only while in the car. I usually flip back and forth between B97.1 and Magic 97.9 and pick the better song.

I've heard 'Sleigh Ride' more times this year so far than ever before. I'll never turn off of the Boston Pops version of the song. We played it in the Huntington High Band and I absolutely love the song. I saw one of the old Boston Pops PBS shows with Leroy Anderson (composer of 'Sleigh Ride') and they performed that song and also Anderson's 'The Synchopated Clock' and 'The Typewriter'. On one of those songs Anderson conducted and Arthur Fiedler moved into the percussion section. Anderson was a former member of the Boston Pops Orchestra.

I can't believe 'Do You Hear What I Hear' isn't on the list of most performed/played songs. I think I've heard it more than any other song this Christmas season.

[Scott Reppert]

A). I love Jesus, my Lord and Savior, more than anything in the world.

B). I HATE Christmas.

Besides, He was born in October. Hallmark forgot to tell you that, seein' as how they already had Halloween.

And besides, there's only one Christmas song...

[CoolBreeze]

It also gives every business a totally harmless station to tune to. .

Which is reason number two why I have not set foot in a local store in the last 5 years to do Christmas shopping. 85% of my shopping is done through Amazon. The rest through various other websites. No crowds, no incessant Christmas music, no checkout lines. I don't even have to get dressed, and the item is always cheaper, and usually delivered free to my door. One day, this will become the prominent shopping experience.

By the way... if I HAD to choose a favorite Christmas song, it would be this:

[Scott Reppert]

By the way... if I HAD to choose a favorite Christmas song, it would be this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIOUcSemeg8

HA!!! Shared it with five people since I watched it the first time!

[jag]

I've heard 'Sleigh Ride' more times this year so far than ever before. I'll never turn off of the Boston Pops version of the song. We played it in the Huntington High Band and I absolutely love the song. I saw one of the old Boston Pops PBS shows with Leroy Anderson (composer of 'Sleigh Ride') and they performed that song and also Anderson's 'The Synchopated Clock' and 'The Typewriter'. On one of those songs Anderson conducted and Arthur Fiedler moved into the percussion section. Anderson was a former member of the Boston Pops Orchestra.

Not to hijack the thread, but I, too, recall that particular Anderson appearance on "Evening at Pops." Fiedler played the gourd on "The Typewriter," purposely making hilarious mistakes, acting as if he were unable to read music. The performance also included "Holiday for Strings," "Bugler's Holiday" and "Fiddle Faddle," which, for the performance, was re-christened "Fiedler Faddle."

But, on topic, the Christmas music that gets most of the airplay (per CoolBreeze's list) is mind-numbing in its mediocrity. Make no mistake--new music is a must, and should be embraced to encourage continued creativity. But let's not confuse "new" with "good." The two are NOT interchangable. From what I hear, not enough thought goes into programming Christmas music. It seems that as long as it's Christmas, anything goes (and, yes, there are FAR more Christmas songs--GOOD ones--than ever see the light of day on the airwaves, for some reason). Thus, you have cranky announcers, and an audience that's already attention-span-challenged waiting for December 26. That's sad, because nobody would even THINK about programming a station in such a cavalier manner any other time of the year. Which brings me to another issue: WHY do so many stations stop their Christmas programming halfway through Christmas Day? Another few hours are not going to make a significant difference at that point.

As for me, well, I'll continue to enjoy the break. I can comfortably tolerate Mitch Miller's "Winter Wonderland" a lot in a month compared to (insert rock/pop-idol-of-the-week-doing-new-trend-that-shall-very-quickly-become-tiring-and-pass here) a lot in the remaining eleven.

[Dave Allen]

In the words of the immortal Jay Nunley......FUCK CHRISTMAS! Other than the 7:00 minute version of Elvis' "Merry Christmas Baby" (one of his better works) FUCK Christmas and FUCK Christmas music. Have a Holly Jolly FUCKING Christmas. Now if you don't mind I'm going back to count my money for going all Christmas.

[CoolBreeze]

A local Rabbi told me the following joke years ago:

There is a Jewish tradition that goes back centuries. On Christmas Eve, when the last store is closed, all the Jewish store owners in the town gather in one store. They form a circle around the cash register, hold hands, and sing the following song..... "What a friend we have in Jesus......"

[Scott Reppert]

A local Rabbi told me the following joke years ago:

There is a Jewish tradition that goes back centuries. On Christmas Eve, when the last store is closed, all the Jewish store owners in the town gather in one store. They form a circle around the cash register, hold hands, and sing the following song..... "What a friend we have in Jesus......"

I've been telling it all week under the storyline of a sixth grade teacher asking her class how each of their families spends Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. She asks Johnny Pugnotti and his family eats lots of food, goes to midnight mass, gets up in the morning, opens gifts, eats more food and some go to Christmas Day mass. She then asks Andy Carter how his family spends the days and he says they have a Christmas Eve family dinner, go to a little Pentecostal church where they have a Christmas Eve service with preaching and praise and worship, get up the next morning, open gifts and have another family meal on Christmas Day. Finally she asks Isaac Stern what his family does. That's when he tells them that on Christmas Eve they drive over to his dad's toy store, look at all the empty shelves, sing "What A Friend We Have In Jesus" and head for the Bahamas...