If you’re a fan of the Harry Simeon Chorale, Burl Ives or Bing Crosby - or just a faithful listener of “O Come All Ye Faithful” - you’ve got to be excited about all the Christmas music now available on Peoria radio.
This year we’ve got stations at both ends of the dial that have been playing nothing but holiday tunes since Thanksgiving and will continue to do so through Christmas: WSWT-FM 106.9 and WCIC-FM 91.5.
You also have WBNH-FM 88.5, a religious station playing vast quantities of Christmas music, as well as WOAM 1350, the adult standard station, that’s going with continuous Christmas music for each weekend in December up until the big day.
Starting Dec. 14, WOAM goes into all-holiday music mode, and by Dec. 19, WBNH will do the same, providing the Peoria market with four stations exclusively pumping out sounds of the season during the week prior to Christmas.
Scott Wheeler, part of the WCIC morning broadcast team, said the holiday music makes sense for the Christian station.
“It’s a unique opportunity for WCIC to bring people to this radio station who do not otherwise listen,” he said.
Wheeler noted that the mix of music on WCIC would favor Christian artists but “sprinkle in” secular recordings such as “Jingle Bell Rock” and holiday songs by artists like Frank Sinatra and Nat King Cole.
While WCIC favors the traditional approach, WSWT serves up holiday music in a more contemporary vein. Over at WBNH, the Pekin-based religious station, “most of the music we play now will be Christmas music,” said operations manager Kevin Matthewson.
The station also will air holiday specials throughout December, such as Handel’s “Messiah,” heard at 3 p.m. today.
Radio stations that pick up listeners over the holidays tend to earn better audience numbers year-round, said Sean Ross, a radio analyst with New Jersey-based Edison Media Research.
“As was the case in previous years, going all-Christmas was indeed more potent for mainstream and soft adult contemporary stations than any other form,” noted Ross after reviewing past ratings numbers in a variety of markets.
There’s also plenty of Christmas music online. One outlet, AccuHolidays, bills itself as “the world’s leading multichannel all-Christmas music radio station featuring over two dozen channels of traditional and contemporary holiday tunes.”
We’re talking hard-core holiday music such as devoting a channel strictly to Mel Torme’s “Christmas Song” with different versions by Cole, Sinatra and the like.
Other channels single out favorites like “Let it Snow,” “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” and “Silent Night” with multiple versions.
Drive time
The number of people who listen to broadcast radio in the car is 76 percent, according to Glendale, Calif.-based Bridge Ratings. That’s down from 89 percent just six years ago.
Bridge president Dave Van Dyke said that radio’s mission in 2007 is to get out in front of a changing marketplace.
“Contrary to some belief, traditional radio has not been derailed. It has more competition, which is using technology as its primary weapon,” he said.
With: www.pjstar.com
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