As the calendar changed to November, multiple stations across the country have jumped the gun on switching to Christmas music.
The first move came on Halloween as Townsquare Media Hot AC “Zoey 103.9” WPBZ-FM Albany NY made the move for the first time under its current branding. The station is claiming it will return to its regular programming on January 4 with cluster Director of Content Matty Jeff stating, ““Some will say Halloween is way too early for Christmas music, but Zoey does what she wants. Honestly, once she ran out of Halloween candy Zoey wanted to play Mariah Carey ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You’ on repeat for the next 2 months, but we know folks can only handle so much sparkle. After a spirited discussion over some Stewart’s Egg Nog, Zoey agreed to put together Albany’s ultimate Christmas playlist with a joyous selection of non-stop holiday favorites.”
Albany quickly became the first market with not just two Christmas music stations, but three, as Pamal AC “B95.5” WYJB and iHeartMedia Classic Hits 98.3 WTRY-FM both followed suit on Sunday. Pamal also flipped AC 98.1 WJJR Rutland VT. Other parts of New York state received an early Christmas music gift as well with iHeart AC “Q92” WRNQ Poughkeepsie and Townsquare Media AC “The New 96.1” WTSS Buffalo also making the move.
Singing River Media Group AC “My 101.5” WMXV Florence AL also made the move on Halloween.
Louisville KY gained two Christmas outlets as SummitMedia AC “Mix 106.9” WVEZ and Connoisseur Media Soft AC “102.3 The Rose” WXMA both made the move.
SummitMedia also made the move on AC “Star 104.5” KSRZ Omaha and AC “Star 99.5” W258CB/WJMZ-HD3 Greenville SC. Pillar Media shifted two of its three Christian AC’s as “Star 93.3” WAKW Cincinnati made its usual early move along with “Star 101.5” KSRC Denver.
Other stations making the all-Christmas move are MOR Media’s “Jill 99.3” KTPG Jonesboro AR, Manning Media’s “Max Country 93.5/100.5” WWEG-HD3/W228AM Frederick/W263CR Hagerstown MD, “Sunny 106.1” WBBX Pocomoke City MD, Saga Classic Hits “Rewind 100.3” W262CO/WTMT-HD3 Asheville NC, and ADX Communications Variety Hits “Playlist 94.5” W233CM/WYCT-HD2 Pensacola FL as well as the previously announced “Oldies 94.1/102.7” WNBU New Bern NC.
Capital Broadcasting Soft AC “Coast 103.1” KLO-FM Salt Lake City kicked off the holiday music season with its very early move on September 28. 94.3 KPOP Hartshorne OK followed on October 5.
iHeartMedia will shift the majority of its stations that make the move to Christmas music on Friday, November 6 at 5pm local time with some others such as WLIT Chicago going earlier and others like WLTW New York waiting a little bit longer into November.
INSTANT INSIGHT: As stations have been making annual moves to Christmas music for two decades now, we do not consider it newsworthy for a station to make the same move it makes at nearly the same date/time it does every year. What we will consider newsworthy are stations making the move for the first time like WPBZ-FM and those dropping their branding in preparation of a post-Christmas format change. But for the rest at this point it is just part of their identity.
