Christian radio leaders are finding fresh ways to make the most of the holidays, whether it’s turning Halloween into family fun and outreach, sparking generosity on Giving Tuesday, flipping to Christmas music to welcome new listeners, or using New Year’s to set a hopeful tone. The methods may vary, but the mission is the same: seizing every opportunity to connect people to Jesus.

How do you approach Halloween on air?

Dave Cruse PD / MD / Morning Show • The Joy FM – Over the last 40 years in Christian radio, I’ve seen a variety of approaches and a change in the attitudes among believers as well. I grew up with trick or treating and costumes, then in the 80’s and 90’s there was a real pushback and a heightened awareness of the occult and a strong anti-Halloween movement. In recent years I think some of the strongest anti-Halloween voices have died down and some ministries like Focus on the Family calling for more redemption of the day, it’s become a little less of a land mine for Christian radio. While we don’t all out embrace Halloween, we also don’t avoid all mention. We will promote fall festivals and trunk or treat events and our street teams may be out at events. We may also have discussions on The Morning Cruise about different ways to look at the issue and talk about ways we handled it when our kids were young vs the way they approach it now with their kids.

Ted Gocke PD • J103 (WBDX) – As a Christian media ministry, everything we do aims to honor God. This means we avoid highlighting the occult, fear, or anything that might confuse our listeners and obscure the truth of God’s hope, light, encouragement, and joy. However, we also strive to be relevant in today’s society, as Paul teaches us to “become all things to all people so that we may win some” (1 Corinthians 9:22-23). We focus on the fun and safe activities families can enjoy together during Halloween. It’s a time for families to make memories by dressing up, exercising their imaginations, and enjoying treats. Churches often use this period to promote outreach events, knowing that families are thinking about Halloween-related activities. We want to be relevant and encourage Christian families to use this time to connect with their friends and neighbors. In short, terms like “Halloween” and “Trick or Treat” are not “bad words” on our station.

Jessica Hart PD & Morning Show • Spirit 92.9 (KKJM) – We mention things like weather updates for candy-collecting, fun costume ideas and kid stories, and local family activities, but we avoid discussing ‘Halloween’ directly or in depth.

John Lawhon Director, Programming & Content / Morning Show • Bright FM (WRBS) – We try to reflect where our listeners are, and that’s a mixed bag. We even lean into that mixed bad feeling. Culture has shifted a lot – for many families. It’s more about outreach opportunities, safe fun, and bringing neighbors together. We see a lot of churches leaning into that as well, and there’s real value in simply being present in your community and connecting with people. On air, we don’t program anything specifically around Halloween, but we do reflect it in our content – sharing lighthearted stories, candy debates, or family traditions. It’s less about the holiday itself and more about the opportunity to talk about connection, fun, and community.

Melony McKaye PD & Morning Show • Life 88.5 (KJNW) – We typically do not address it. There really isn’t a huge need in KC because Fall Festivals, Sunflower fields, You pick farms and THE CHIEFS all over shadow it.

Giving Tuesday – what is your strategy? Any creative ways you drive engagement, listener action, or community impact?

Dave – As a listener supported ministry, this one can sometimes feels a little tricky. We don’t want to sound self serving but we feel like we have lots of opportunities for listeners to give or get involved with different aspects of our ministry. So we will point to opportunities to serve on our prayer line, our street teams, supporting the station, all as legit ways to participate in Giving Tuesday. That said, we also partner with Convoy of Hope throughout the year, so we will spotlight them. We are involved with several pregnancy centers, we’ve spotlighted ministries who deal with homelessness and human trafficking and others, so we point people toward those organizations as well as encouraging our listeners to find ways to volunteer and shine a light in our communities. Feels like a long answer just to say we will encourage people to participate on the day but also to find ways to take it beyond that one day.

Ted Gocke  – We align our Giving Tuesday strategy with the common holiday schedule: “Black Friday,” “Small Business/Local Saturday,” “Cyber Monday,” and then “Giving Tuesday.” We try to schedule our “Year End Countdown” two-day fundraiser during that week. We avoid holding the main fundraiser on Tuesday itself, as that would put the finale on Wednesday, which we’ve found to be the least effective evening for fundraising (perhaps due to church conflicts). This year, our “Year End Countdown” on-air fundraiser will be on Wednesday, December 3rd, and Thursday, December 4th. Our digital department will also have promos and ads focused on spotlighting the opportunity for people to participate on the official “Day of Giving” by supporting God’s work through our Partners for Christian Media Ministry.

Jessica Hart – While we talk about it and encourage giving to Spirit 92.9 in the days leading up to it and on the day itself, we save our bigger appeals for days when everyone else in their inbox or on their social feeds isn’t also asking for their financial support.

John Lawhon – For the past two years, we’ve focused our Giving Tuesday efforts on raising funds on the air for River Valley Ranch, our camping ministry. We’ve had a specific, tangible ask: sending kids to camp in the summer. That has really resonated, because people love knowing their gift is opening the door to an experience that can change a child’s life.

Melony McKaye – We actually use Giving Tuesday as a kick off mini 3 day End of Year giving drive. As a station that does not go all Christmas, this has felt like the most comfortable time to invite giving during the Holiday season.

When it comes to Christmas music, how do you decide when to flip the switch, and how do you avoid listener fatigue while maximizing holiday impact?

Dave – I think that the most important thing is to first settle the “why” of flipping to Christmas music. Have a clear goal and a strategy to accomplish that goal. We’ve seen success through the years at attracting new listeners who tune in for the Christmas music and retaining a healthy portion of them after the holidays. Once you decide if and how you will use Christmas music, then you look at how the trend over the last few years seems to be going all Christmas earlier and earlier. Everybody wants to be first. Meanwhile we all complain about retailers skipping right over Thanksgiving and putting all the Christmas stuff out too early. We flip the switch the day after Thanksgiving. We like it for a couple reasons

1: It lets us celebrate Thanksgiving 

2: It feels right. The Macys Thanksgiving Parade always ends with the arrival of Santa, marking the beginning of the Christmas season. 

As for avoiding listener fatigue, starting after Thanksgiving, I think that helps. At that point you’re only looking at 5 weeks max. The earliest you can ever start in this scenario is Nov 23rd. There will always be people who think 4 or 5 weeks is too long, but I would venture to say those same people would also think 3 weeks is too long. It’s not really their cup of Christmas blend and that’s fine.

Ted Gocke  – We have learned over the years that we were not realistic in thinking that we “owned Christmas” here in the TN Valley. Without a huge outdoor advertising (billboard) or marketing budget people outside our normal J103 listening family didn’t have a clue we were playing great Christmas Music and all of their favorites.  Once we realized that we focused on giving our listeners what they wanted (based on local research). Our listeners do want Christmas Music-just not all the time.  With the accessibility of digital music everywhere (including our own JRadio Music Streaming Platform), if they want 100% Christmas-they can get it any day of the year. We learned from our research that our listeners want that “Christmas Spirit” mainly the weekend after Thanksgiving and then the week of Christmas-so that’s what we give them. Beginning on midnight Black Friday we are 100% Christmas through Sunday night at midnight. Beginning then we are about 20% Christmas until the week of Christmas where we go back to 100%. This year that will be Saturday, December 20-Saturday December 27. (We do give our listeners full Christmas music on the 26th because we know that many families are not done celebrating yet and have “other side of the family” events and dinners etc). On December 27 we are back to 100% normal daily J103 programming. People come to us for Hope and Encouragement and while we do offer that in all of our Christmas music-they want te be encouraged and spoken to through our regular programming and don’t want to be missing it for an entire month. As far as “selection,” we play Christian and non-Christian artists. Christmas is a time where there are so many memories and traditions. Our philosophy at this time of the year is to include all of the Christmas classics and favorites to (like Halloween) continue to be relevant to our society. December gives us the opportunity to be more “outsider friendly.”  When they know they are going to hear their favorite, endearing Christmas song that evokes those memories of their childhood from Bing Crosby, Mariah Carey, Bruce Springsteen, Nat King Cole it lets them know that our “Christian” radio station is a “safe non-judgmental place” for them.

Jessica Hart – We have always flipped to Christmas music at midnight on Thanksgiving. It’s a tradition and we do a fun countdown on air and social media around it. There’s a lot of different opinions on this but because our mission in switching is about outreach, we let our listeners know in advance why we do it, when it’s happening, and ask them to be praying for those who will find the station during the season. We do a massive billboard and social media campaign to get the word out. We’re intentional during that time to create relationships with new listeners and invite them to keep listening and experience the hope of Christmas all year long. We play a mix of Christmas classics (by the original artists and covers by our artists) and mix in some originals from our artists that celebrate Jesus’ birth. We sound familiar but different enough that we ease them into listening. Our streaming numbers tend to see a big jump during the Christmas season. We know it’s not for everyone but believe each station should do what they feel is right for their listeners and community. We’re also working to create an alternative listening option for those regular listeners who don’t want Christmas music or want a break from it via our app.

John Lawhon – Honestly, it’s a “feel” thing year to year. When the mood is heavy culturally, I’ve noticed that people are ready for Christmas music sooner. Nostalgia solves a lot of problems in everyday life especially during the holidays, and we lean into it vs. playing new and unfamiliar songs for versions. Here in Baltimore, there’s already a major Christmas station, so we’ve had to think strategically. A few years ago, I realized we didn’t have to just hand the season away – because we play significantly fewer commercials, we can be competitive for listeners during Christmas. So, we ramp up faster or slower depending on the feel of the season. Early on, you’ll hear more lighthearted favorites like Holly Jolly Christmas and classics everyone knows. As we get closer, we introduce more reverent music – the hymns, the carols, and even keep the long-standing tradition of airing Handel’s Messiah in its entirety on Christmas Eve into Christmas Day. It’s a way to honor the seriousness, depth and beauty of the season while still being fresh and engaging.

Melony McKaye – When Life 88.5 came into the KC market there were already 3 mainstream stations (we’re down to 2 now) in a huge battle for the title of Christmas Station. They ran billboards and Guess The Date We’ll Flip To Win A Trip contests, advertised etc. We knew we did not have the resources to join that fight. Our strategy is to be THE Christmas Music station to our P1 and not lose her to the others. We have dug into perceptual data to discern specifically how much Christmas she wants and when she wants. Also, what KIND of music she considers Christmas music. She’s given us some pretty clear answers on most fronts.

How do you ring in the New Year on air? Do you use countdowns, special playlists, live events, or something more unique to leave a lasting impression?

Dave – Honestly we don’t really do much with New Year’s Day. We don’t create any countdowns or special programming. We may do some end of year reminiscing on our shows, grab some favorite moments to replay, JAYAR may play his favorite artist chats from the year in the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day, but other than that we don’t do much other than use our family calendar on our website to point people to events they might be interested in their communities.

Ted Gocke – Currently on J103 we just kind of let New Year’s Eve happen without too much fanfare.  We definitely encourage our talent to focus on the “New Year’s Eve” type show content (asking our listening family to focus and reflect on all the great things God has done for them through the year and to look ahead at what He wants to accomplish in their lives in the coming year.  We also promote the last couple of weeks in December and then kick off our 30 Day Challenge January 1st.  We are currently researching and thinking about a more brief challenge.  We have had so many testimonies of how this Challenge to listen to nothing but J103 for 30 days when listening to music has really turned their lives around and given them an awesome start to the new year.

Jessica Hart – This is honestly not something we’ve focused heavily on other than talking lots about it on the air, and we have created and scheduled a “Happy New Year!” imaging piece to air at midnight and into the week after.

John Lawhon – We don’t do anything big on-air for New Year’s – our focus the past few years has been more on year-end giving and finishing strong in that area. That said, we do lean into content that reflects the season: looking back with gratitude, sharing encouragement for what’s ahead, and keeping our music upbeat and hopeful.

Melony McKaye – Outside of specific content on individual shows, we have not typically done a lot for New Year’s. We will host a countdown of the Top 20 songs in KC from the past, but our company graciously gives all staff the week between Christmas and New Year’s off. As a station with a small staff that is hard core on the streets with between 110-115 appearances every year, this week allows my team a chance to refill and refresh to come out on fire in the New Year.