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Nt1310 Unit 2 Research Papers

Decent Essays

There are those who are quick to get into the holiday spirit, and there are those who blog angrily about how they saw candy canes on the Wal-Mart shelves before Halloween. To satisfy those in the former group, radio stations have been jumping on the 24-hour holiday music train since the mid-1990s. To the disappointment of the latter, the trend is gaining momentum and starting earlier than ever this year.

“I have never seen a more successful, impactful and sustainable impact on ratings as all Christmas music,” said Dan Vallie, a consultant to New Jersey’s WEZW-FM and other stations across the country. This year, WEZW, also known as Easy 93.1, was the first radio station in the country to start airing 24-hour holiday tunes. They kicked off their nonstop broadcasting two weeks before Halloween. …show more content…

They also point out that “competition between broadcasters often leads to stations turning earlier and earlier.”

This year, Pandora is pushing over 35 holiday-themed channels, and Sirius XM boasts 8, with one that is nonstop year-round. But the iHeartRadio Network has been plotting their attack all year. President Darren Davis said their all-holiday preparation usually begins in August.

“It’s about more than just the songs,” said Davis. “When you walk into a Hallmark store around the holidays, everything is Christmas - the carpet is Christmas, the window decorations are Christmas, it smells like Christmas candles and cookies. That’s the environment we try to create with our Christmas radio station.”

While most radio stations are racing to be the first, one UK station hopes to be the last. Starting today, Birmingham’s Free Radio 80s aims to set a new record as the first FM radio station to broadcast nonstop holiday tunes for 33 days

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