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With each passing day, the list of All-Christmas music stations grows—a long-proven ratings winner, typically for the first station in the market to flip.
If you are not the All-Christmas station, what is the best strategy to keep your cume from migrating for the holiday season?
I asked consultants and programmers for advice on how to program against the All-Christmas stations and tactics to be part of the holiday season without totally disrupting your formats.
Mike McVay of McVay Media, “If you’re in the same format arena as “the All Christmas Station” and you’re not going to play 100% Christmas Music … I suggest the partial plan for the holidays. That is that you play All Christmas music Black Friday, and that, Saturday & Sunday. Following that, you air The Christmas Shoppers Lunch M-F 12:00 pm-1:00 pm and promote that it’s “music to shop by.” Evenings 9:00 pm-12:00 am is “The Christmas Wrapping Wrap-up to the Day.”
“The purpose behind the Christmas Shoppers Lunch is that listening levels dip in that hour, the audience often goes out for lunch to do some holiday shopping, and it enables you to promote your commitment to Christmas music. Regarding evenings, if you’re a parent you are wrapping the gifts for the kids so that they don’t find them before Christmas. Music to wrap by is practical and takes advantage of listener activities.”
“It is critical that you keep your station’s name and frequency connected to what you’re airing, as confusion in a diary market could benefit your competitor. Easier to execute in a PPM market with less fear of listener confusion. The bottom line is that working a partial plan enables you to continue to be seen as aware of and involved in Christmas.
Reach Mike McVay here.
Bob Lawrence, GM/Market Manager Seven Mountains Media Parkersburg, WV/Marietta, OH., “With so many stations playing Christmas music, this becomes a complicated choice. If you don’t have any Christmas music stations in town, I would recommend doing it! It’s a great opportunity to not only drive revenue through sponsorships but also to promote your regular format to people who may otherwise not listen. It is also great to own the position in the community. There is also very often a good increase in ratings over the holidays.”
“That said, if you do have an established Christmas Music station(s), I would avoid any Christmas music until a week or two before Christmas day. Those who want Christmas music know where to find it and obviously don’t want that steady diet. After Thanksgiving, you may choose to play one song an hour, and then a week or two prior to the holiday, add another with one or two an hour – and those MUST be classic, powers only. On Christmas Eve, you may decide to increase that to four or five songs an hour. From this point of view, I suggest that how much you play on Christmas Day depends on your format. I’m not a fan of all Christmas on any type of Rock station, but for others – I would let revenue and whether you can find a good sponsor dictate your choice.”
John Lund, President of Lund Media Group, “When playing a few Christmas songs every hour and competing with an All-Christmas music station, here are three rules to follow:”
1-Play the hits. Limit your Christmas playlist to the most popular, best-researched Christmas songs.
2-Play them often. Play the top Holiday favorites people want to hear.
3-Talk up Christmas. Embrace the holiday spirit, seize the spirit of your community, have creative Holiday liners, and engage listeners.
Our researched Christmas list totals 250 songs. The Top 11 are Super Powers and should be played very often. The next 83 are Powers, and the remaining 156 are Secondaries. We don’t recommend playing Secondaries until the last week before Christmas. We’ve divided our Christmas playlist into three eras: 1942-1969, 1970-1999, and 2000+. In addition to rotating Super Powers and Powers, rotate eras.
When the All-Christmas station plays obscure, secondary songs that are not very familiar, the competing station that plays a few Christmas songs an hour should concentrate on the biggest Christmas hits introduced by fun liners.
The Lund Christmas Music Advisory lists the best-researched Christmas songs, Holiday music formatics, and scheduling.
Reach Lund here.
Gary Berkowitz President Berkowitz Broadcast Consultants,
- Start including Christmas music on the Friday before Thanksgiving. Start with one -two songs per hour, and then increase as Christmas gets closer. Only play the monster hits. No need for secondaries when you’re not all Christmas.
- Create a very warm, comfortable feeling on the station. Be all about Christmas and the “feel good” it gives most listeners. Dress up your air sound to “feel like the season.”
- Always use Christmas imaging in front of Christmas music.
- Do quality Christmas promotions. Get involved with local Christmas events. Every town has these. Tree lightings, craft fairs, etc.
- Give all social media a “holiday look.” Websites, Facebook page, etc.
Reach Berkowitz here.
Kevin Robinson, Robinson Media The market-leading Christmas station will triple its ratings if it truly ‘owns’ the position. Your brand can do little to stop that, but there are tactics you can use to mitigate their position.
- Tighten your list – when the Christmas cume gets burned on Christmas Music, they will be seeking a place to hear other music. When they come to your brand, make sure it’s a hit you’re airing. This is not a time to break new music, and record companies slow down or stop new releases until January. There are only about 30 Christmas Hits with various versions. If the Christmas Music provider has a loose list or the programmer ‘gets bored’ and attempts to add an unfamiliar Christmas product, this will scatter their cume. Use this to your advantage by only air monster hits for your format during the season.
- Christmas Blocks – if you make the decision to ‘sprinkle in’ Christmas Music, dropping them in without proper packaging might be a jolt to your cume. Consider airing Christmas Blocks (name them Ice Blocks) where you play three HUGE Christmas songs in a row at specific times throughout the day, with Christmas imaging in the front, middle, and end of the blocks. Sell opening and closing sponsor for the Blocks. Advertisers love this and put their product on an ‘audio island.’
- Christmas Imaging – if you decide NOT to play any Christmas product, dress up your imaging with Christmas sounds inside your music sweeps. Like a store that doesn’t sell all Christmas decorations, they don’t ignore the season. Make your non-Christmas product sound like the season. The listener is in the Christmas mood even if they don’t want all Christmas Music.
Reach Robinson here.
Kenny Jay Consulting Partner Albright & O’Malley & Brenner
Because it’s a short holiday season, play a small amount of hits and play them a lot. Don’t play four versions of the same song – pick the best one or two.
In Country, playing Christmas powers 3-4 times a week doesn’t cut it anymore. Needs to more like 2-4 times per day.
A sweeper that says “happy holidays’ is cold and lifeless. Holiday up your station with imaging that’s nostalgic for the demo and the market. Holiday up your socials with fun things families can do. (Bonus points if they are low cost or free.)
Deliver tickets to winners whenever possible, especially this time of year, with a handwritten thank you.
Jeff Lynn serves as Editor of Barrett Media’s Music Radio coverage. Prior to joining Barrett Media, Jeff spent time programming in Milwaukee, Omaha, Cleveland, Des Moines, and Madison for multiple radio groups, including iHeartMedia, Townsquare Media, NRG Media, and Entercom (now Audacy). He also worked as a Country Format Editor for All Access until the outlet shut down in August 2023.
To get in touch with Jeff by email, reach him at Jeff@BarrettMedia.com.
