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Post by Deleted on Oct 8, 2018 9:26:54 GMT -5
I shudder to think we will be hearing Christmas music very soon. In some cases in a few weeks. The same overplayed songs that have been played over and over, year after year. Mariah Carey, Band Aid, Jose whats-his-face, Bing Crosby etc..Call me crazy and I know some stations do this but how about and hear me out, Christmas music gets played...wait for it a few weeks before Christmas instead of the day after Halloween in some cases. Why do we need two months of Christmas music? I don’t get it. I get that I’m in the minority here but it’s still annoying. Maybe because I want to believe it’s still Summer, even though we’re into October and it’s now Fall, I don’t want to think about Winter and freezing cold and wearing jackets, gloves and hats. Ok rant over. On Directv, there are quite a few music channels. One, channel 858, has Christmas music year round. Seems pretty extreme. I work retail and two years ago, our store started playing Christmas music after Thanksgiving, even then it made us wish we were at the top of the clock tower with a sniper rifle (made us crazy). Last year, the store spared us by only playing Christmas music on Christmas Eve.
In all fairness, I don’t count a service with many different niches and genres having an all holiday station “overkill.” That’s what those kind of services should be doing. They should be super serving their audience that may want that. SXM has an online holiday station that runs all year round. They move it to the main satellites November-December. Now all of that aside, I cannot imagine working somewhere where I had no choice but to listen to this all the time. I listen for 2-3 days and I think that’s overkill. Yes Pete, I am old enough at 41 to remember what you are talking about and how at noon Christmas Eve the local CHR station would switch to playing Christmas music until noon Christmas Day. I thought THAT was overkill!
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Post by Michael1973 on Oct 11, 2018 9:41:14 GMT -5
I shudder to think we will be hearing Christmas music very soon. In some cases in a few weeks. The same overplayed songs that have been played over and over, year after year. Mariah Carey, Band Aid, Jose whats-his-face, Bing Crosby etc..Call me crazy and I know some stations do this but how about and hear me out, Christmas music gets played...wait for it a few weeks before Christmas instead of the day after Halloween in some cases. Why do we need two months of Christmas music? I don’t get it. I get that I’m in the minority here but it’s still annoying. Maybe because I want to believe it’s still Summer, even though we’re into October and it’s now Fall, I don’t want to think about Winter and freezing cold and wearing jackets, gloves and hats. Ok rant over. Unfortunately, it's all about ratings. Somehow, despite the fact that I've never met anyone who agrees with this practice, stations see huge boosts in ratings when they do this, and that leads to higher profits, and that's all they care about.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 11, 2018 15:31:08 GMT -5
I’ve met 1. But just one.
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Post by BrettVW on Oct 11, 2018 18:40:08 GMT -5
I shudder to think we will be hearing Christmas music very soon. In some cases in a few weeks. The same overplayed songs that have been played over and over, year after year. Mariah Carey, Band Aid, Jose whats-his-face, Bing Crosby etc..Call me crazy and I know some stations do this but how about and hear me out, Christmas music gets played...wait for it a few weeks before Christmas instead of the day after Halloween in some cases. Why do we need two months of Christmas music? I don’t get it. I get that I’m in the minority here but it’s still annoying. Maybe because I want to believe it’s still Summer, even though we’re into October and it’s now Fall, I don’t want to think about Winter and freezing cold and wearing jackets, gloves and hats. Ok rant over. Unfortunately, it's all about ratings. Somehow, despite the fact that I've never met anyone who agrees with this practice, stations see huge boosts in ratings when they do this, and that leads to higher profits, and that's all they care about. Well, yeah. If you are a station manager, PD, GM, etc, profits and ratings are pretty much all that matter. Why wouldn't you do what brings the money in? It's not like these PDs and jocks are itchin' to hear Christmas for 5-6 weeks a year. But you do what makes money and gets the ratings. It's silly to think you would do anything else.
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Post by bobbo428 on Oct 11, 2018 19:56:28 GMT -5
I shudder to think we will be hearing Christmas music very soon. In some cases in a few weeks. The same overplayed songs that have been played over and over, year after year. Mariah Carey, Band Aid, Jose whats-his-face, Bing Crosby etc..Call me crazy and I know some stations do this but how about and hear me out, Christmas music gets played...wait for it a few weeks before Christmas instead of the day after Halloween in some cases. Why do we need two months of Christmas music? I don’t get it. I get that I’m in the minority here but it’s still annoying. Maybe because I want to believe it’s still Summer, even though we’re into October and it’s now Fall, I don’t want to think about Winter and freezing cold and wearing jackets, gloves and hats. Ok rant over. I heard a cover version of the song "River" this past weekend. It is a quasi-holiday song, I guess. I enjoy Christmas music, but like you, the same old songs drive me crazy. I never liked Mariah's song--even in 1994, when it came out. I wish they would play a better mix--there are some Yule songs from my childhood that I haven't heard on the radio since 1968. And there are others I have heard 50 times a year, every year since then. I'd like a more diverse playlist.
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Post by bobbo428 on Oct 11, 2018 20:03:59 GMT -5
I shudder to think we will be hearing Christmas music very soon. In some cases in a few weeks. The same overplayed songs that have been played over and over, year after year. Mariah Carey, Band Aid, Jose whats-his-face, Bing Crosby etc..Call me crazy and I know some stations do this but how about and hear me out, Christmas music gets played...wait for it a few weeks before Christmas instead of the day after Halloween in some cases. Why do we need two months of Christmas music? I don’t get it. I get that I’m in the minority here but it’s still annoying. Maybe because I want to believe it’s still Summer, even though we’re into October and it’s now Fall, I don’t want to think about Winter and freezing cold and wearing jackets, gloves and hats. Ok rant over. On Directv, there are quite a few music channels. One, channel 858, has Christmas music year round. Seems pretty extreme. I work retail and two years ago, our store started playing Christmas music after Thanksgiving, even then it made us wish we were at the top of the clock tower with a sniper rifle (made us crazy). Last year, the store spared us by only playing Christmas music on Christmas Eve.
I enjoyed the way they did it back then--mixing in holiday favorites with the then-current chart hits. These days we have one extreme (Contemporary hit radio playing almost no Christmas songs--even around Christmas) or all-Christmas (Adult contemporary). A good aspect is that some artists that are too old-fashioned for today's AC (Diamond, Manilow, Mathis, et al) can release a new holiday song and have it make the AC chart. However, if you are an AC artist who releases a non-Christmas song to that format in October, don't expect to hear it much on the radio until Dec. 26.
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Post by slf on Oct 11, 2018 20:26:19 GMT -5
I shudder to think we will be hearing Christmas music very soon. In some cases in a few weeks. The same overplayed songs that have been played over and over, year after year. Mariah Carey, Band Aid, Jose whats-his-face, Bing Crosby etc..Call me crazy and I know some stations do this but how about and hear me out, Christmas music gets played...wait for it a few weeks before Christmas instead of the day after Halloween in some cases. Why do we need two months of Christmas music? I don’t get it. I get that I’m in the minority here but it’s still annoying. Maybe because I want to believe it’s still Summer, even though we’re into October and it’s now Fall, I don’t want to think about Winter and freezing cold and wearing jackets, gloves and hats. Ok rant over. I heard a cover version of the song "River" this past weekend. It is a quasi-holiday song, I guess. I enjoy Christmas music, but like you, the same old songs drive me crazy. I never liked Mariah's song--even in 1994, when it came out. I wish they would play a better mix--there are some Yule songs from my childhood that I haven't heard on the radio since 1968. And there are others I have heard 50 times a year, every year since then. I'd like a more diverse playlist. Great point about the old forgotten Christmas music. Although I like some contemporary and rock-based holiday songs (even Mariah Carey's signature song), IMHO nothing beats the old, pre-rock and adult-themed music that was ubiquitous in the '60's and the '70's, when I was a kid. Classics by Bing Crosby, Andy Williams, the Percy Faith Orchestra, Burt Bacharach, Herb Alpert, Les Brown, Leroy Anderson, Perry Como, The New Christie Minstrels, and many others. That's the Christmas music that does it for me.
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Post by Michael1973 on Oct 12, 2018 12:54:06 GMT -5
Well, yeah. If you are a station manager, PD, GM, etc, profits and ratings are pretty much all that matter. Why wouldn't you do what brings the money in? It's not like these PDs and jocks are itchin' to hear Christmas for 5-6 weeks a year. But you do what makes money and gets the ratings. It's silly to think you would do anything else. Very true. I guess the point I was trying to make was that I've never encountered one person who thought that all-Christmas for two months was a good idea, so feels like a contradiction to me that it causes such a ratings skyrocket. Obviously this format brings listeners out of the woodwork, but who are they?! I heard a cover version of the song "River" this past weekend. It is a quasi-holiday song, I guess. I enjoy Christmas music, but like you, the same old songs drive me crazy. I never liked Mariah's song--even in 1994, when it came out. I wish they would play a better mix--there are some Yule songs from my childhood that I haven't heard on the radio since 1968. And there are others I have heard 50 times a year, every year since then. I'd like a more diverse playlist. I completely agree with this, and not just with Christmas music but for radio in general. I've never understood the mindset that the average radio listener will be driven away if the station plays even one song that's not on the standard playlist. Like you, I remember a bunch of Christmas songs from years gone by that now get ignored so we can hear Bing Crosby and Nat King Cole 15 times a day for eight weeks.
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Post by mkarns on Oct 12, 2018 12:58:17 GMT -5
Well, yeah. If you are a station manager, PD, GM, etc, profits and ratings are pretty much all that matter. Why wouldn't you do what brings the money in? It's not like these PDs and jocks are itchin' to hear Christmas for 5-6 weeks a year. But you do what makes money and gets the ratings. It's silly to think you would do anything else. Very true. I guess the point I was trying to make was that I've never encountered one person who thought that all-Christmas for two months was a good idea, so feels like a contradiction to me that it causes such a ratings skyrocket. Obviously this format brings listeners out of the woodwork, but who are they?! I heard a cover version of the song "River" this past weekend. It is a quasi-holiday song, I guess. I enjoy Christmas music, but like you, the same old songs drive me crazy. I never liked Mariah's song--even in 1994, when it came out. I wish they would play a better mix--there are some Yule songs from my childhood that I haven't heard on the radio since 1968. And there are others I have heard 50 times a year, every year since then. I'd like a more diverse playlist. I completely agree with this, and not just with Christmas music but for radio in general. I've never understood the mindset that the average radio listener will be driven away if the station plays even one song that's not on the standard playlist. Like you, I remember a bunch of Christmas songs from years gone by that now get ignored so we can hear Bing Crosby and Nat King Cole 15 times a day for eight weeks. This is why one of the few Christmas radio presentations I make an effort to hear are the Casey countdowns when Premiere runs them. A lot of now-largely forgotten songs in there along with the ones that are still run into the ground each year. More recent holiday songs I usually can stumble across randomly on radio, or in stores or elsewhere in public.
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Post by artsmusic on Oct 12, 2018 13:51:56 GMT -5
I shudder to think we will be hearing Christmas music very soon. In some cases in a few weeks. The same overplayed songs that have been played over and over, year after year. Mariah Carey, Band Aid, Jose whats-his-face, Bing Crosby etc..Call me crazy and I know some stations do this but how about and hear me out, Christmas music gets played...wait for it a few weeks before Christmas instead of the day after Halloween in some cases. Why do we need two months of Christmas music? I don’t get it. I get that I’m in the minority here but it’s still annoying. Maybe because I want to believe it’s still Summer, even though we’re into October and it’s now Fall, I don’t want to think about Winter and freezing cold and wearing jackets, gloves and hats. Ok rant over. Unfortunately, it's all about ratings. Somehow, despite the fact that I've never met anyone who agrees with this practice, stations see huge boosts in ratings when they do this, and that leads to higher profits, and that's all they care about. It's not just ratings, although that is certainly part of it. It's that advertisers know the station will be super-serving the customer getting "into the mood" by spending money in their store! The same songs get played because they're banking on more people sampling the station instead of listening for hours on end. Here's an interesting short article: "Last fall, radio station WLIT-FM 93.9 was around the 10th most popular in Chicago. Then it flipped the Christmas music switch and rocketed to No. 1." www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/music/ct-holiday-radio-ratings-htmlstory.html
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Post by Deleted on Oct 12, 2018 16:40:37 GMT -5
Well, yeah. If you are a station manager, PD, GM, etc, profits and ratings are pretty much all that matter. Why wouldn't you do what brings the money in? It's not like these PDs and jocks are itchin' to hear Christmas for 5-6 weeks a year. But you do what makes money and gets the ratings. It's silly to think you would do anything else. Very true. I guess the point I was trying to make was that I've never encountered one person who thought that all-Christmas for two months was a good idea, so feels like a contradiction to me that it causes such a ratings skyrocket. Obviously this format brings listeners out of the woodwork, but who are they?! I heard a cover version of the song "River" this past weekend. It is a quasi-holiday song, I guess. I enjoy Christmas music, but like you, the same old songs drive me crazy. I never liked Mariah's song--even in 1994, when it came out. I wish they would play a better mix--there are some Yule songs from my childhood that I haven't heard on the radio since 1968. And there are others I have heard 50 times a year, every year since then. I'd like a more diverse playlist. I completely agree with this, and not just with Christmas music but for radio in general. I've never understood the mindset that the average radio listener will be driven away if the station plays even one song that's not on the standard playlist. Like you, I remember a bunch of Christmas songs from years gone by that now get ignored so we can hear Bing Crosby and Nat King Cole 15 times a day for eight weeks. It’s the listeners of AC radio stations, they are the ones that flip: primarily older women. I’ve yet to see a CHR station flip to this format because their listeners would turn it off in droves.
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Post by BrettVW on Oct 13, 2018 5:46:16 GMT -5
I luvvvv holiday tunes. I just don't wanna hear them...until the holidays! If I programmed a station, I'd sprinkle in a few starting TGiving day, gradually increasing until the weekend before Xmas, when I'd go 24/7 through New Year's Day. Then at 12:01am Jan 2nd, back to regular programming. Staying all Christmas until New Years would be ratings suicide. Folks may be ready for Christmas when taking the Halloween decorations down on November 1st, but there is zero interest in the format on December 26th. The only time this rule typically is deviated is if a format flip is planned for after the all Christmas. If I programmed Classic Hits or AC, I would flip by the second weekend in November and be out at 12am Dec 26. Any other format, I wouldn't even consider flipping.
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Post by mkarns on Oct 13, 2018 8:51:48 GMT -5
Staying all Christmas until New Years would be ratings suicide. Folks may be ready for Christmas when taking the Halloween decorations down on November 1st, but there is zero interest in the format on December 26th. The only time this rule typically is deviated is if a format flip is planned for after the all Christmas. If I programmed Classic Hits or AC, I would flip by the second weekend in November and be out at 12am Dec 26. Any other format, I wouldn't even consider flipping. Not sure I agree with this. Houses keep their Xmas lights lit after the 25th. Hallmark Channel is running holiday movies through at least 12/29. Retailers have their Xmas clearance sales. I think folks are still in the mood at lot more than when they haven't finished eating their Halloween candy yet. Personally if I programmed a format, again likely classic hits or Adult Contemporary, that played a fair amount of Christmas music I probably wouldn't air it at all until after Thanksgiving, then gradually increase it to the point of being all-holiday a few days before Christmas, then wind it down over the next week (when people are spending their gift cards and stuff), and nothing after New Year's Eve. Other formats often mix some holiday music in even if they don't go all-Christmas. Even CHR's do at least close to the holiday, and I can think of at least one Mariah Carey song that gets played in frequent regular rotation at many CHR's in late November and December.
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Post by Jessica on Oct 13, 2018 9:40:48 GMT -5
One complaint I have is I don’t hear the Mariah Carey song that shall remain nameless enough. Boy, I can’t get enough of that song. I look forward to November just to hear that song.
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Post by 80sat40fan on Oct 13, 2018 10:59:03 GMT -5
Link to Billboards holiday music chart... presently frozen from January 3, 2018: www.billboard.com/charts/hot-holiday-songsLike some have said here previously, I would phase in Christmas music over time rather than having 100% Christmas music for 6 or 7 weeks. I get the ratings thing but I can get tired of some of the Holiday Hot 100 songs rather quickly! If my math is right, there are only five songs from the 1980s on the Holiday Hot 100. Radio stations should incorporate many more 80s tunes into their mix. Some songs programmers could mix into their Christmas library which didn't make the latest Holiday Hot 100: * "Christmas Wrapping" by The Waitresses * "Christmas Is The Time To Say I Love You" by Billy Squier * "Thank God It's Christmas" by Queen * "2000 Miles" or "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas" by The Pretenders * "Peace On Earth/Little Drummer Boy" by David Bowie & Bing Crosby * "Winter Wonderland" by Eurthymics * "Do You Hear What I Hear" by Whitney Houston * "Silent Night" by Stevie Nicks * "Merry Christmas Baby" by Bruce Springsteen * "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus" by John Mellencamp * "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" by U2 * "The Little Drummer Boy" by Bob Seger I am sure there are others. Next year, programmers should throw in some from the 90s... and that would keep the music mix fresh.
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