• by Frank Saxe , December 2, 2002

Call it radio’s equivalent to Survivor, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, or the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show. In the final weeks of its critical fall ratings period, dozens of radio stations across the country have turned their airwaves over to Christmas, airing nothing but holiday music. It’s a ratings-grabber that each year is proving to be more successful.

According to the M Street Journal, more than 100 radio stations are airing an all-Christmas format – many flipping the switch over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. In some markets, like Dallas and Norfolk, Virginia, there are more than one station airing nothing but. With such a big number, it’s a format bigger than alternative rock, urban oldies, or classical. “Last year, stations that went all Christmas had a very good response. Most of them had a ratings spike, and many stations had a significant increase,” says radio programming consultant Dan Vallie – one of the radio’s Father Christmases. Vallie has been recommending stations air Frosty, Rudolph, and St. Nick since the early 1990’s.

“I don’t know there will be as big a spike this year,” says Vallie. There is no doubt the mood was different last year, to say the least, yet he thinks stations would be well served by it nonetheless. “This year, the mood was not what it was immediately after September 11, but we’re still in a situation where we’re fighting a war on terrorism and it’s top of mind with people, a possible war on Iraq, the economy, so I think there’s still a lot of uneasiness in the world.”

So many AC stations that carry the popular nighttime blend of music and advice that is the Delilah show have flipped to an all-Christmas format, that Jones Radio Networks this year began offering an alternate feed of the program to affiliates featuring nothing but holiday content. “We’ve developed the infrastructure to feed dual satellite channels with regular programming and a simultaneous Christmas version of each show,” says Jones VP Jim LaMarca.

As listeners go, so go the ratings – and not far behind are advertisers. For many, the holiday programming seems to be a good fit for their holiday messages of spend, spend, spend. Anecdotally, broadcasters say many retailers are airing their all-Christmas stations in their stores, and that gives ad buyers a chance to catch people right before they make their Christmas gift choice. By and large, buyers see the format as an opportune place to put their ads. In fact, some stations say the right to sponsor the Christmas Eve block can get downright competitive. “There is a real competition for that,” says KOIT-FM operations manager Bill Conway, whose San Francisco station doesn’t go all Christmas until right before the holiday.

Yet some buyers say they don’t like to be caught off guard by such a sudden, radical shift in programming. “They didn’t tell me when they were flipping,” says Laurie Evans, broadcast negotiating supervisor at The Richards Group in Dallas. The problem, says Evans, is that the media buy was for a station with another format, such as adult contemporary, not an all-Christmas station. “I would like to be told by a station that it’s going to change, so I can possibly adjust a buy,” she says, adding that any revisions to a campaign might mean the all-Christmas station would be dropped.

In San Francisco, an oldies station was forced to drop its all-Christmas plans last year after multiple advertiser complaints. But Vallie believes that is more of an exception, and he predicts buyers will warm to the idea. “The more of the track record this has, the advertising community will know it’s a place to put their advertising. So far it doesn’t seem to be creating any problems, if anything it generates more revenue for the stations because if it hurt revenue for the stations they wouldn’t be doing it.”

For a radio station near the top of the ratings, the decision to replace its successful programming with what amounts to a stunt, is a difficult one. New York’s WLTW “Lite FM” is leaving the decision to listeners, allowing them to vote online when the station should replace its adult contemporary format with Christmas music. Across the country, Conway’s KOIT-FM is in the same place. “I’m concerned that there’s too much to lose,” says Conway. “There are only so many versions of these songs, and it’s the repetition that I’m concerned about. God knows I don’t want them to find an alternative.”

Yet empirical research seems to indicate few tune out all-Christmas stations despite the repetition. Arbitron analysis of December 2001 ratings found just three radio stations saw a ratings decline, with increases for the rest – some tripling their audience. “Many of those stations also carried that momentum over into January,” says Vallie, pointing out their January listening was bigger than February and March. A study by Vallie/Richards Consulting in 1996, 45% of respondents said they would like to hear Christmas music begin the day after Thanksgiving – although the question of whether they’d mind an all-Christmas format was not put to them. “For those that don’t want to hear that much Christmas music, it is unlikely they’ll do a reset on their car radio. They’ll probably just not punch up a station until after the Christmas programming is over.”

Considering the numbers, both ratings and revenue, it appears the all-Christmas format is here to stay, says Vallie. “This year’s the spike may not be as big, but people aren’t going to stop it. It’s more likely that this will become standard, traditional programming for radio stations for years to come.”