🎄 Holidays! All Christmas Radio(Broadcast) 2005

[jimac51]

A novelty a few years ago, the "all Christmas music,all the time" radio format has become a textbook case of frustration with free radio. With the opportunities of playing artists of different eras and different genres and new material always fueling the fire,I really thought that this was one goofy pleasure that would kick free radio in the pants. It does still amaze me to hear "Oh,Tannenbaum" performed by Vince Guaraldi with those cool brushes on snare heads on commercial radio,but after Christmas there is always the return to the "same old same old" pablum to not offend the office workers out there who might buy a new car while listening in radio land. No occasional Nat Cole or Willie Nelson or even an instrumental. The charms of these genres that go against the grain of the specific format are lost unless they are about Santa.
And the Christmas format is as tight as any regular year round format. Unless they are playing the multiple different versions of Nat Cole's "Christmas Song"(instead of the one stereo version they always use),why repeat it hour after hour? And as much as I would find religious music offensive year round,I long for the mixture of all kinds of Christmas music,secular and sacred, in the mix. A selection like Sinatra's Columbia recording of "Adeste Fidelis"(aka "O,Come All Ye Faithful") would force me to pull over and pay attention to the radio again instead of button hopping. Void of its religious wrappings,it still is the sound of a soulful voice committed to its message.
Hum Bahbug.And a pox on Clear Channel- Mac

 

[Rudy]

A novelty a few years ago, the "all Christmas music,all the time" radio format has become a textbook case of frustration with free radio.

I know in Detroit, I've heard that one channel began this programming at the beginning of November; everyone's tired of the music now, and we aren't even out of November yet! And as is typical with terrestrial radio, the exact same songs are repeating every few hours.

Maybe that's why I avoid Xmas music altogether until about mid December. Overexposure! Even some stores started playing it right after Halloween.

On XM, at least I'll be able to pick from among five different Xmas themed channels. And while I'm sure things will repeat, at least it might be once daily rather than looping every three or four hours. The lineup this year:

103: Holly -- Christmas hits from the 40s through the present. IOW, popular Xmas hits.

104: Holiday Traditions -- The more traditional Xmas songs that we grew up with through the 40s and 60s.

105: Nashville Christmas -- Country Xmas recordings from the past and present.

106: A Classical Christmas -- Classical music.

107: Special X-Mas -- The funny, wacky and offbeat side of holiday music.

...and at least we do not have to endure commercials.

 

[Tim Neely]

Curiously, there's a station in Madison, Wisconsin, that I can't get from here (WRIT, 95.7 FM), but I've heard about it. At least before Thanksgiving, it was playing all holiday music, but specifically avoiding any songs about the birth of the Christ child!

In other words, no "O Come, All Ye Faithful" or "Angels We Have Heard on High" or "Silent Night" (the song that appears on more Christmas albums than any other) or even "Mary, Did You Know?"

I'm in no way an evangelical Christian, but I find this ridiculous.

Christmas has many meanings, from the profound to the profane, all of which have been celebrated in song the last few centuries. One of those meanings is that Christians celebrate the birth of the man they consider their savior. (It's unlikely he was actually born on December 25; his birth date is never mentioned in the Bible.) That just seems wrong to completely ignore such a large and important body of work in celebrating the season.

Ironically, 2005 is seeing the first new Christmas song to get a lot of airplay on top-40 rock radio in many, many years ("Better Days" by Goo Goo Dolls), and it's got obvious references to Christian belief about the Christ child, such as "Tonight's the night the world begins again."