Saturday, November 13, 2004
Cause there won't be snow in Africa this Christmas time. Wait, does it ever snow in Africa anyway?
Today I pose a question. A question that I'm actually answering by posing it. Is it too early to play Christmas music? The mentioning of this issue already dictates that it isn't too early to mention the idea of playing Christmas music, so you can see I am slightly biased on this matter. But like anything that I talk about, there is some history to it. And now the quick story of Philadelphia music stations.
Around junior year, the year you are allowed to bring a car on campus, (unless you lied like a fuck just to be "that person,") local radio stations actually became important. Up until that point you were a slave to what you knew in your home state, and to the hot new MP3 revolution that college Internet connections brought to you. It wasn't until you had to sit in the car, and put the radio on, that you became knowledgeable of local radio. My obsession with 80's music actually stemmed from this. 96.5 The Point was an all 80's channel. On Labor Day weekend, or the second weekend at school that year, they had a countdown of the top 300 80's songs. In other words it was a crash course through 80's music all weekend long. I was hooked. In the same field, previously that summer Nick Falco discovered Alice 104.5, the local everything 90's channel, went through a change. One day, entering the car, he put Alice on and heard the Beatles "Here comes the Sun." Cool, he said to himself. Returning to the car later, he proceeded to put on Alice again; the song was still playing. After realizing the Beatles did not record a two-hour version of the song, he came to the conclusion that Alice was going through a format change. They soon became Sunny 104.5: a family friendly station playing good-time music.
Fast-forward to November of that year. Being a young station, Sunny didn't have much of a playlist. To address this, it is my belief that they put on Christmas music early, to build a better playlist for after the holidays. But keep in mind that this was the beginning of November! It wasn't relatively near Thanksgiving at this point, which is the usual red flag to play Christmas music, and this new channel was already playing it. What seemed crazy at first, actually was a successful venture. Not only did I, and many others leave the channel on all season (two months of non-stop Christmas music), but also the channel remained on after the season. They successfully created a listener base as well as a new tradition all in one bullet.
Faster-forward to November of last year. Sunny was established, the Point unfortunately became a mix channel to replace Alice, and the expected onslaught of Christmas music was on the horizon. Surprisingly, a lesser channel, B101 started Christmas music first; just as early or earlier than Sunny the year before. Sunny soon followed, proclaiming itself the "original" holiday station. What about the Point? The Point played weird Christmas music for about one day, ceased to exist, and became Wired 96.5: a ghetto rap station with the tag line "ish loads of music." It was forever banished from my radio.
The real point? It's becoming generally acceptable to play Christmas music as early as the first weekend in November. A recent Daily News article in NY showed evidence that the channels that did play all Christmas music for the season not only saw a spike in listenership during it, but also post-season. And why not? There have been Christmas decorations up in NYC for about two weeks now. The tree just went up, which by the way isn't that big, so I don't see what the stink is about. Sunny 104.5 played Christmas music all last weekend and again this weekend, and possibly has changed over till Christmas already. Maybe this is a good sign? The sooner people feel like it's Christmas the sooner they get into the spirit. Yes, Christmas is commercialized, but listening to holiday music in your house or car is a pure and excellent way to get in the holiday mood. All without shopping or any other commercial bullshit.
QUICK NOTE: Tombstone is and forever will be one of the best movies ever made. Oh, and the New Kids on the Block were once on Showtime at the Apollo. Why?
Today I pose a question. A question that I'm actually answering by posing it. Is it too early to play Christmas music? The mentioning of this issue already dictates that it isn't too early to mention the idea of playing Christmas music, so you can see I am slightly biased on this matter. But like anything that I talk about, there is some history to it. And now the quick story of Philadelphia music stations.
Around junior year, the year you are allowed to bring a car on campus, (unless you lied like a fuck just to be "that person,") local radio stations actually became important. Up until that point you were a slave to what you knew in your home state, and to the hot new MP3 revolution that college Internet connections brought to you. It wasn't until you had to sit in the car, and put the radio on, that you became knowledgeable of local radio. My obsession with 80's music actually stemmed from this. 96.5 The Point was an all 80's channel. On Labor Day weekend, or the second weekend at school that year, they had a countdown of the top 300 80's songs. In other words it was a crash course through 80's music all weekend long. I was hooked. In the same field, previously that summer Nick Falco discovered Alice 104.5, the local everything 90's channel, went through a change. One day, entering the car, he put Alice on and heard the Beatles "Here comes the Sun." Cool, he said to himself. Returning to the car later, he proceeded to put on Alice again; the song was still playing. After realizing the Beatles did not record a two-hour version of the song, he came to the conclusion that Alice was going through a format change. They soon became Sunny 104.5: a family friendly station playing good-time music.
Fast-forward to November of that year. Being a young station, Sunny didn't have much of a playlist. To address this, it is my belief that they put on Christmas music early, to build a better playlist for after the holidays. But keep in mind that this was the beginning of November! It wasn't relatively near Thanksgiving at this point, which is the usual red flag to play Christmas music, and this new channel was already playing it. What seemed crazy at first, actually was a successful venture. Not only did I, and many others leave the channel on all season (two months of non-stop Christmas music), but also the channel remained on after the season. They successfully created a listener base as well as a new tradition all in one bullet.
Faster-forward to November of last year. Sunny was established, the Point unfortunately became a mix channel to replace Alice, and the expected onslaught of Christmas music was on the horizon. Surprisingly, a lesser channel, B101 started Christmas music first; just as early or earlier than Sunny the year before. Sunny soon followed, proclaiming itself the "original" holiday station. What about the Point? The Point played weird Christmas music for about one day, ceased to exist, and became Wired 96.5: a ghetto rap station with the tag line "ish loads of music." It was forever banished from my radio.
The real point? It's becoming generally acceptable to play Christmas music as early as the first weekend in November. A recent Daily News article in NY showed evidence that the channels that did play all Christmas music for the season not only saw a spike in listenership during it, but also post-season. And why not? There have been Christmas decorations up in NYC for about two weeks now. The tree just went up, which by the way isn't that big, so I don't see what the stink is about. Sunny 104.5 played Christmas music all last weekend and again this weekend, and possibly has changed over till Christmas already. Maybe this is a good sign? The sooner people feel like it's Christmas the sooner they get into the spirit. Yes, Christmas is commercialized, but listening to holiday music in your house or car is a pure and excellent way to get in the holiday mood. All without shopping or any other commercial bullshit.
QUICK NOTE: Tombstone is and forever will be one of the best movies ever made. Oh, and the New Kids on the Block were once on Showtime at the Apollo. Why?
// posted by Chester @ 12:06 AM 
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© 1999-2013 pazzesco.
© 1999-2013 pazzesco.