[glen]

According to a Los Angeles TV station KOST 103.5 is starting their all Christmas music in competition with the radio station “The Wave”.
So if anybody can load some Christmas jingle audio and share it alot of us would enjoy it.
Oh by the way rumor has it that the reason KOST started early was because the Program Director at the WAVE is no other than some guy names West used to work for KOST.

[LenGroat]

This is all just about “radio station politics” ~ and “programmer posturing” and has VERY little to do with the needs/ tastes of listeners…

I’d probably only want to hear the Maria Carey Xmas single ONCE in all December, and Ronettes ‘Sleigh Ride’ five times, so would not listen to EITHER ?

Does the ‘Wave’ have GOOD (seasonal) jingles ?

[DevawebMember]

It’s not to do with radio station politics at all – it’s about listener figures. It’s well proven that the station who “owns” the Christmas market in a US city will see a major ratings peak in late November and through December – there are years of Arbitron ratings to prove it.

Traditionally, Thanksgiving was the time to “flip”, but stations are now going earlier and earlier. It was always odd to be driving down I35 in Dallas in glorious sunshine while listening to “Let It Snow” on KVIL!

That’s also why the updating services that I helped produce would supply their Christmas jingles at the start of November… you can never be sure when a station is going to flip, especially in a market with more than one AC or Greatest Hits stations.

[IainJohnstonMember]

For UK JMers….read a bit more here…
http://www.musicradio77.com/wwwboard/messages/390338.html

…and even the deli counter at the local Tesco has bl&&dy “Merry Christmas” stickers all over it, and there’s a tree all up & decorated….why? Are we all so sad in our countries now that we HAVE to have 4 months of “Christmas” to “look forwards” to every year? That reminds me…I have to order my “Christmas Present To Myself!” ASAP!

[Barras]

And…some neighbour down the road from us has got a huge Santa Claus outside their house with Christmas lights lighting up that part of the road, like the sun, during the day….

[simon_t123Member]

and Tesco … and ASDA … even Poundland … BLOODY XMAS SONGS (and jingles !!!) lols, Nov 1st they started with the audio bombardment, sales of stock way before hand !!!

which makes me think of 2 things, there’s a lot of value to be had from JAM & TM’s Xmas grid cuts of cold, I think both companies offered a one sing but 4 separate Xmas melodies type deal ? I wonder if Mr Sean Martin knows if iJingles would supply all versions for the cost of 1 cut ? They seem to use one accapella to the 4 or so tracks …

and … re: KOST it’s always been a weirdy one in my mind that they should do a whole month of Xmas music, I mean even with internet radio how much is too much ? I get sick hearing the same old same old as a programmer & they’re a soft AC type station which is even more limiting, god no more Dean Martin !!! seriously mind, stations in Europe especially our friends in the Netherlands would create say a digital only platform for such, WDRC in Hartford have an HD-1 and HD-2 alternative service so surely KOST ‘could’ find allocation somewhere for KOST Xmas ??? having listenened via stream several years ago the output was shocking, I say that as an audio observer as it seemed (and maybe so) that the on-air staff had the whole month off !!! just the output sounded dis-jointed, Classic Gold-ish proportions, cut offs, bad edits, repeated VT’s it was like the holiday sound of KOST meant happy holidays to air staff & programmers from Dec 1st to after the occasion !!! no disrespect meant, I love the KOST sound it just seemed like the automation was on but no one was home lols …

I’m sounding all Scrooge-y now … bah humbug !!!!!!

[Good Time Oldie]

I seem to recall WHCR here in the UK used to flip for the whole of December, not sure it that’s still the case? – I know a sad old Radio anorak based in the city who should be able to confirm this

Is this unusual for a UK community radio station I wonder?

Personally, I used to do my Chrimbo imaging in early to mid November and you soon get fed up of hearing Noddy shouting “IT’S CHRISTMAS!!!” or adding “ho (bloody) oh” to things all the time, but hey, the customer is always right (not)

I am afraid the format flip doesn’t work for me, but then I’m a miserable old git – not quite as old as Wixy1360 though

[IainJohnstonMember]

Ah Mike! … when the cheeky banter usually kept out of sight in emails creeps into open Forum view…!!!

At least I’m old enough to remember when Christmas was 24/25/26th December, the radio only started playing Christmas hits 1 week before the “big day” (or a wee bit more if the 25th was a Monday or Tuesday), and anyone putting up a Christmas tree & decorations BEFORE the 12th (12 days of…) of December would be considered to be a nutter by their neighbours…and none of these 40-foot inflatable Santas or entire-house-fronts of glaring lights either… >:p

However, I digress….Mike – as one “old git” to another, how many of the items on my attached “SoundsOfTheSeventies” file can YOU name, never mind have actually COLLECTED them from the stations themselves back at the time?

http://soundcloud.com/wixy1360-1/wixy1360-1/s-X0FhI

(…and a big Thanks to TomObie for helping let these items be heard by (several) newer genrations of collectors!)

[glen]

Does WAVE the even have jingles?

[mjb1124Member]

http://947thewave.radio.com/the-famous-wave-jingle-ringtone/

You can download some of the Wave jingles in the link above. According to ASCAP, they were composed by Cody Francis. Not a traditional jingle sound, but they have a nice relaxing smooth jazz sound (which the station as a whole has been moving away from as of late). I listened briefly and it appears that jingles like this are still in use with the Christmas music.

By the way, it looks like our own Bryan Simmons has joined the airstaff of The Wave, as some had predicted. He’s just doing fill-ins for now, according to a post on Radio-Info.com.

[SeanMartin]

I wonder if Mr Sean Martin knows if iJingles would supply all versions for the cost of 1 cut ? They seem to use one accapella to the 4 or so tracks …

Hi Simon-

Today’s special is the cost of a single TM jingle ($250) and all the variants of The Holiday Jingle Package, plus a mince pie and glass of finest port whilst stocks last.

Just remember that it’s only the tag that can be relyriced and that they’re not for broadcast use.

Email me or PM for more details and please keep it to yourself

Cheers!

-Sean

[LenGroat]

“It’s not to do with radio station politics at all – it’s about listener figures. It’s well proven that the station who “owns” the Christmas market in a US city will see a major ratings peak in late November and through December – there are years of Arbitron ratings to prove it…… stations are now going earlier and earlier. . .”

I find your statement / logic above most confusing. IF a station ‘owns’ the ‘Christmas market’ naturally it WILL be the one with a ‘major ratings peak’ otherwise it will not ‘own the market’.

But are you actually suggesting that the FIRST station to flip (‘earlier and earlier’) will get the biggest audience? Unless listeners are tuning around daily HOW will they know another station has ‘flipped’?

What proof is there people WANT 6 weeks of Christmas music, and THAT was one of the points I was making. Plus the fact that in THIS case there is clealy rivalry between the men who run the stations prompting the switch, NOT the listeners needs. As I said, “radio station politics” ~ and “programmer posturing”.

[tomobie]

WQTL – Q106 – Tallahassee, FL began playing Christmas music this week. Seems a little early for me.

But in keeping with that tradition here’s a Christmas Sampler featuring PAMS ~ JAM ~ Roy Ross ~ R.H. Ullman ~ Heller Ferguson ~ S2Blue ~ Gwinsound and the genius of Stan Freberg.

http://snd.sc/s6miC7

[Good Time Oldie]

Our friends in America always seem to do more/better than us when it comes to sung Chrimbo (holiday) jingles.

TomObie – loved this montage – thank you for sharing.

[ratnobMember]

Tom: ditto – love the montage. Thank you!

[simon_t123Member]

*** Mr “Santa” Martin … ta for that, good to know, and mums the word lols

[IainJohnstonMember]

Nice selection Tom O’B – and some very “off-the-beaten-track” versions too

Ref “The Wave” – noticed no-one picked-up on the fact that small montage of mine posted a few posts back had a cut for the ORIGINAL “Wave” – not KTWV-FM Los Angeles as described above, but WAVE 970 kHz Louisville Kentucky…

[ratnobMember]

Christmas is coming
The goose is getting fat
I’m pleased to say I’ve just received
Nicky Schiller’s festive tat

[IainJohnstonMember]

Ha! You’ve just beat me to it Geoff!
It must now be “Officially” ( ) Christmas!

Some year, UK JMers must really get Nicky something “appropriate” in return for the many years of weird & wonderful cheap but cheerful “gubbinses” he has generously sent out!

[nostalgie]

I was actually stunned this year how early things started, even in Toronto.

CHFI 98.1 is 100% Christmas music for almost a week already… I don’t remember having such an early Holiday spirit here in the last few years. Usually, adult radio stations were starting with Christmas music over the weekend of Santa Claus parade, but only playing it from Friday 5:00pm until Sunday at midnight. Then, back to regular songs during the week (which was – in opinion – even more bizarre for the listeners). They were playing that funny game for a couple of weeks before taking on a full Christmas programming.

I must say that I find very early to have a programming 100% Christmas music before the first or second week of December; it sounds ridiculous for most people and it is clear that the decision is made for other reasons than what listeners really want.

By the way, it is shocking to have a radio station that comes back to real Light Favorites only for 4 to 6 weeks per year, then starts again to play Nickelback, Lady Gaga and all those names that I just can’t listen to…

Now, the only real adult programming featuring artists like Luther Vandross or James Taylor is on the air between the end of November and December 25. After that, too bad for the adult listeners who like them because these names disappear from the playlist ?%!

We live a very different era of the radio and I am not sure that it evolved to something better in the last 10 years.

[NickySMember]

Enjoyed the montage – thanks.
And glad the festive TAT has arrived safely … do shout if you’re not on the list and want some

[LenGroat]

We live a very different era of the radio and I am not sure that it evolved to something better in the last 10 years.

I agree fully with this.

There is now a Podcast on this whole topic with BBC and commercial viewpoints:

http://www.radioacademy.org/podcasts/

Listening to this, in Manchester, the local BBC only start 2 weeks before Christmas, whereas the commercial stations featured (Smooth and Key) have already started. The breakdown is that the commercial, music based/ background listening stations (with younger listeners) go EARLY, whereas the BBC where there is more speech (older listeners, who listen more intently), go LATER.

It seems this trend has s p r e a d from the American radio market to Britain, JUST BECAUSE. My ‘take’ on this is that THE problem is that ALL the commercial stations are programmed centrally, controlled by 85% LESS ‘music programmers’ than they were, so EVERYONE in commercial radio does the SAME thing, and ‘goes’ early with Christmas music.

Sadly, the VARIETY we achieved in British radio prevously when there was none of the ‘music testing’ , and most presenters had some free-choice oldies, is long gone…

This 62 year old probably should add ‘Bah – HumBug’ !

Len

“Christmas is Here, there’s light on the tree, but you mean more than the presents to me…”

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