Every programmer should have the experience of scheduling an all-Christmas format at least once. You will never make as many listeners as happy as you will at the holidays. You will never see as much of your market gathered in one place either. Whether you miss having programmed radio in the ‘70s and ‘80s or missed the chance to program in that time of double digit shares, it’s a chance to see one station unify the market again. Even knowing that listeners are responding to the holiday, more than your individual programming choices, it’s still very gratifying, even if your job is just to wrap the presents.
I had been scheduling other formats—Classic Hits, Adult Hits, Hot AC, Urban AC—for more than a decade before I edited my first yule log. I wondered if scheduling AC Christmas would be too proscribed. Would there be any need for programmer judgment? As programmers, we’ve known since the mid-‘00s what the holiday hits are. Around that time, we also realized there was indeed a wrong way to play Christmas music: a second or third station would pop up in the market and find that there was no upside to being newer or broader or more tempo-driven. Before long, programmers were comfortable with a relatively tight universe of holiday hits.
The AC Christmas template took hold in the mid-‘00s, a few years ahead of the advent of PPM measurement in the top 50 markets, but its success was part of what emboldened programming in the PPM era. By 2010, Christmas radio had shown that listeners cared more about hearing a favorite right now than about niceties of artist or song separation. The same impetus that led programmers to spin a Christmas favorite 50x a week (and a few to go even higher)—the “Top 40 approach to Christmas”—was the one that drove Top 40 ever upwards of 100x a week on its biggest powers.
By the late ‘10s, when I started scheduling holiday music, that sort of “overindulge the hits” approach was becoming an issue in other formats—Top 40’s issues were the most noticeable, but also the Hot AC and Country stations most built on a similar template. Broadcast radio was suddenly challenged from various sides for both instant gratification and variety. And COVID-19’s changes to listening habits seems to have most punished those formats built around nine-minute listening spans.
But when I began scheduling Christmas music, I found that I wanted to overindulge the hits, too. I was happy when it was time to reach for “A Holly Jolly Christmas” or “Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!” again. I didn’t want to put “Where Are You Christmas” next to another “new” song, even if that “new” song was the 25-year-old “All I Want For Christmas Is You.” I suddenly felt like I was making a holiday mixtape for each listener and each one had to have all the songs they expected.
That didn’t mean there was no room for programmer discretion. WLTW (Lite FM) New York spins its powers 44x a week, played some version of “Frosty the Snowman” 20x yesterday. CHFI Toronto successfully plays songs 27x a week and only cracked 10x a day on its most-spun title.
Scheduling Christmas has taught me that it was okay if the brush strokes are different. WBEB (B101) Philadelphia has successfully played songs over the years that aren’t on the safelist at WLTW and its iHeart sisters. Some stations still hold off on “O Holy Night,” “Away In A Manger,” and “O Come All Ye Faithful” until Christmas gets closer; some successful stations are playing those songs already. If that mixtape were actually a cassette, some stations would be able to get all the hits on a C-90. (I’ve seen one station that lets different versions of the same song play within the same clock hour.) The station I worked with was plenty successful itself using a C-120 to cover the big songs.
Some stations are comfortable overindulging the “sweater guys” of the MOR era. I tried to keep Andy Williams and Dean Martin at least a song apart from each other. Some PDs code for songs about Santa. Some, this year, are keeping an eye on songs about coming home for the holidays. Even the PDs most devoted to “just playing the hits” generally have their own guidelines—just not the same ones.
The sound that I found myself most having to keep an eye on, surprisingly, was “Spector.” Because of “All I Want For Christmas Is You,” the sound of “A Christmas Gift To You” (a/k/a the Phil Spector Christmas album) is now the sound of the few new holiday songs that get traction as well as new arrangements of some of the standards on major-artist albums.
As superstar holiday albums proliferate, so do variations in arrangements and thus judgment calls. If Michael Bublé does an uptempo “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” in the style of the Darlene Love/Spector version, is it okay to play him next to Dean Martin? If he does a lounge-flavored “All I Want For Christmas Is You,” is it okay to play it next to another relatively contemporary song? I’ve always tried to avoid “two-of-the-same” segues. But what about “one-and-a-half of the same” segues?
Within days of editing my first Christmas log, I’d come across plenty of those ironic scheduling juxtapositions that I often tweet out as #MomentsOfMusicSchedulingGrace: “Blue Christmas” into “White Christmas”; “This Christmas” into “Last Christmas”; “The Christmas Song” into “The Chanukah Song.” Finally, it happened: “The Christmas Shoes” into “Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer.” I changed that one.
I’ve often likened music scheduling to Sudoku—change one song and the others around it are now wrong. In some ways, Christmas is the easiest format to schedule because we know what the hits are, and the audience is forgiving of the details. It’s also the most difficult because of the relatively tight list of titles, artists, and styles. Some segues are more like Jenga—one change can upend an entire sweep. It’s okay to care about those details. The audience will be even happier to have the Christmas format in this difficult year. But people still notice a beautifully wrapped gift.
Sean Ross
Ross on Radio
rossonradio@comcast.net
98.5 KTIS strives to point people in the Twin Cities to Jesus on the air, online, and on the street. Through remarkable service projects, 98.5 KTIS listeners are the hands and feet of Jesus to multiply the KTIS impact in our community. The first Friday of each month was 98.5 KTIS Drive-thru Difference Day, as listeners shared God’s love by paying for the order of the person behind them in the drive-thru. Moms overcame health, financial, and family difficulties through 98.5 KTIS’ Heart of a Mom initiative; meeting needs for a kitchen update, fulfilling a missed honeymoon with a cruise to Alaska, securing a reliable vehicle, and more. 98.5 KTIS’ Christmas Blessing resulted in remarkable stories of goodwill in the community, meeting needs by blessing people battling cancer, overcoming miscarriage, and recovering from financial devastation. Collecting thousands of Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes filled with toys for kids around the world, the 98.5 KTIS Shoebox Showdown shared the hope of Jesus from the Twin Cities to children around the world. Listeners continued that generosity by working together to collect over 11,000 pencils for boys and girls in the Dominican Republic. 98.5 KTIS listeners ‘Shared the Warmth’ as a local business paid listener heating bills during the cold winter months, and listeners used those funds to bless their favorite Twin Cities nonprofits. 98.5 KTIS’ Ministry of the Month connected listener passions and talents to local ministries, highlighting the good being done in our community by these organizations on-air and online.
Through intentional, community focused service initiatives, Spirit 92.9 partners with listeners and businesses to help make their community better, together. The station’s first “Community Spirit” project in 2022 focused on showing God’s love to children entering foster care in the area after the ministry learned that there were more children than ever before in the system. During a weeklong collection drive, Spirit 92.9 listeners and business partners generously helped provide a new pair of pajamas and a stuffed animal for over 1,100 kids. Hoping to lead by example through serving, the Spirit 92.9 team helped prepare over 800 free meals for individuals and families in need for Easter, prepared and served a meal at the local homeless shelter, and helped clean up trash at an abandoned property near their studios. Hundreds of women in the community were served and uplifted in January at the station’s first Ladies’ Night Out-an opportunity to worship, laugh, receive support and prayer. In the fall, listeners and business partners joined together to help three local organizations provide free homemade, holiday meals to those in need. This ‘More Than A Meal’ on-air and online fundraiser helped feed over 3,000 in Central Minnesota. At the end of the year, Spirit 92.9’s “Share The Joy” promotion offered listeners the opportunity to nominate someone to receive a financial blessing. Single mothers, elderly homeowners, and the family of a father badly injured and hospitalized out of state were among the 12 people granted a $500-$1000 gift.
From entertaining the airwaves on KFRC-FM in San Francisco, to dancing away the late 90s on WKTU-FM in New York City, to encouraging and uplifting Atlanta on WFSH-The Fish every afternoon, Beth Bacall’s three decades on the air have had a lot to say. In 2003, she embraced CMB and the CCM sphere when she started working at Star 99.1 FM in NY/NJ. Since 2005, she has served on the Momentum Leadership Team while also offering mentorship to CMB’s Women in Radio community. Beth is a champion for others, taking a sincere stance of integrity and leading by example with her on air work, community engagement, and show prep. As a top talent coach, she equips multidisciplinary broadcasters and artists to embrace their authentic self, grow awareness, share stories effectively, and create meaningful Christ-centered content with all audiences. Beth specializes in moments that matter and is a driving force behind The Fish Christmas Wish Program and Fish Acts of Love. Working on all aspects of creating promotional, reward-based content, including research and execution, Beth is a dot connector that the Lord uses to bring joy and experiences into the lives of others. Even after these promotional seasons, she’s always looking for the next opportunity to be a blessing.
For over four decades, Rick Dunham has been at the forefront of marketing and fundraising for Christian nonprofits. In 2002, he founded Dunham+Company, which has become a global leader in providing multi-channel strategies across some of the world’s most influential sectors. Through radio and television, local churches and overseas missions, medical relief and philanthropic initiatives, Dunham+Company is multiplying the reach of the Gospel. The company currently serves nearly 100 clients in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand – whose collective effort is reaching nearly every corner of the globe. Rick is the author of Secure: Discovering True Financial Freedom and If God Will Provide, Why Do We Have to Ask for Money? He serves as a member of the board of The Giving Institute and is a former chair of the Giving USA Foundation, which publishes the most widely respected annual report on giving in the U.S. He has been published and quoted in the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Washington Post and more. From devotionals to blogs, webinars to books, Rick’s personal faith in Jesus and his Biblical training are the driving conviction of his communication.
Over the decades, Jacobs Media has become known for advising broadcasters on strategic planning and digital transformation, championing forward thinking of the in-car audio experience, developing its innovative Techsurveys, and driving research initiatives with some of the most influential companies in media. In partnership with Radio Ink, the Jacobs duo created the DASH Conferences in 2013-15, bringing together leadership from both automotive and radio broadcasting industries. Working with CMB, Jacobs Media launched the first of its annual tech surveys for Christian music radio in 2014. Working in collaboration with the NAB’s Connected Car Committee, they developed the original “Best Practices” report in 2017. Fred Jacobs, a 2018 Radio Hall of Fame inductee, is credited with the creation of the Classic Rock radio format in the mid-80’s. Paul Jacobs specializes in revenue generation for Jacobs Media’s clients including heading up jācapps – the industry’s first, and now largest, mobile application development company with more than 1,300 apps worldwide. In 2022, Fred and Paul were recipients of the National Radio Award, the highest honor from the National Association of Broadcasters. They were the first duo to receive the award as well as the first consultants.
Jim Leightenheimer has passionately pursued the mission of teaching, mentoring, and preparing college students to serve Christ in radio since 1982. A 30-year radio veteran, Jim implemented and developed a student radio station that started as an AM carrier current, transitioned to a low power FM, and is currently streaming as Resound Radio. Under his leadership, student radio has served to jump-start the careers of many current leaders in Christian radio stations and networks across the United States. His students, both past and present, credit Jim for being the catalyst in building their love for radio. Throughout his career, Jim has enlisted graduates and other professionals to serve as mentors to his student radio staff. He has introduced scores of students to CMB by bringing them to Momentum and, more recently, CMB University. Jim currently serves on the board of directors at WCVO (104.9 The River) in Columbus and continues to be a resource not only for his current students, but for those who are living out his legacy in radio.
Joe Paulo has served as the President and Chief Executive Officer of Hope Media Group since 2018. With an extensive background in media and leadership, he began at KSBJ (now Hope Media Group) as Vice-President of Operations in 2017 after serving at Educational Media Foundation (K-LOVE/Air1) as the Director of Donor Stewardship and Communications. Prior to that, he led a division of Columbia International University as Director of Broadcasting until 2014, overseeing the growth of successful radio stations in Charlotte, NC and Columbia, SC. Joe has also provided volunteer leadership at the board of directors and advisory levels for other nonprofits such as Youth Commission International, CMB, and Crime Stoppers of Houston. In addition to speaking on leadership, fundraising and media, Joe and Kelly, his wife, have spoken at marriage and parenting events to share their passion for marriage, parenting and adoption.