More and more, November 1 is becoming to unofficial start of the Christmas season and with it over a dozen stations have moved to all-Christmas music.
Following the October 19 switch at WMGA Huntington WV, the following stations began Christmas music on Halloween: iHeartMedia AC “Mix 94.5” WMXL Lexington KY, iHeartMedia 90s Hits “B107.3” K297AK Fort Collins CO, Salem Media Christian AC “104.1 The Fish” KFIS Portland OR, Eagle Radio Classic Hits “KG Prime 94.5” K233CF Salina KS, and Neuhoff Media Hot AC “Now 100.7” WWHX Bloomington IL.
They have been joined already today by ten more stations: Pillar Media Christian AC “Star 93.3” WAKW Cincinnati, Saga Communications “Pure Oldies 106.9” WRXS Milwaukee, Townsquare Media AC “The New 96.1” WTSS Buffalo, Audacy AC “Magic 106.3” WSPA-FM Greenville SC, Alpha Media Soft AC “102.3 The Rose” WXMA and SummitMedia AC “Mix 106.9” WVEZ Louisville, SummitMedia AC “Star 104.5” WSRZ Omaha, iHeartMedia AC “Star 105.7” WSRW Grand Rapids, Cumulus Media AC “Soft Rock 94.1” WMEZ Pensacola, Horizon Broadcast Group Hot AC “The Peak 104.1” KWPK Bend OR, and Vinco Media Classic Hits “B106.1” WBBX Pocomoke City MD.
Update 6:00pm: A few more additions have joined the fray today. Forever Media’s Hot AC “Happy 92.7” trimulcast of 92.7 WPPY Starview/York, 1280 WHVR/95.3 W237EN Hanover and 1320 WGET/93.7 W229DK Gettysburg have now blown up their brand for “Santa” yet again. Paskvan Media Classic Country “The Legends” 1300 KPMI/94.3 W232DS Bemidji MN is now “Christmas Legends“. And we have our first Canadian change as Kenner Media’s “Mix 107.9” CKFT-FM Fort Saskatchewan AB has made the move with the addition of longtime Edmonton personality Rob Christie as morning host.
They will be joined by the first major market move on Thursday, November 2 when iHeartMedia Soft AC “93.9 Lite-FM” WLIT Chicago joins the fray at 4pm.
INSTANT INSIGHT:While the number of stations moving up the start of Christmas music is slowly growing, this has become standard operating procedure for a number of years now. WRXS in particular was the one to move up the most as it made its move on November 18 in 2022 as one of three Milwaukee stations to go all-Christmas in a 24 hour period. The possibly bigger story to note is that all of these stations regularly make the move to all-Christmas and this year does not appear to yet have station(s) using Christmas music as a buffer before a post-Christmas format change.
Today's the day! YOUR Christmas Music Station is The New 96.1! #buffalo #Christmas pic.twitter.com/RQUm70rYFF
— The New 96.1 (@New961Buffalo) November 1, 2023
It’s the most wonderful time of the year! We are Chicago’s Christmas Station! Start celebrating the holidays with us TOMORROW at 4pm
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— 93.9 LITE FM (@LITEFMChicago) November 1, 2023
Tom Langmyer 
Ron Harrell 
Carolina Country 100.1 WFAY also flipped on 1 November.
The annual handwringing about when to drop in the holiday clocks and the 175 Christmas tunes with the same imaging, while the generic tracked midday talent reads the list of the nation’s favorite Christmas cookies…
It’s akin to Nero fiddling “It’s The Holiday Season,” while celebrating that large slice of an ever-shrinking slice mincemeat pie!
Sixty-one days of groundbreaking local radio innovation…
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The Nero reference. Laugh.Out.Loud.
RH
WMJJ “Magic 96.5” in Birmingham and “96.9 My TV FM” WACT 1420 in Tuscaloosa have both flipped as well. Both are iHeart properties.