Colorado Media Newsroom
December 20th, 2024, 01:13 PM
From Radio Insight:
https://i0.wp.com/radioinsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/ktis.jpg?resize=200%2C200&ssl=1If you program Christmas music, the first e-mail comes in relatively quickly after the holiday changeover. Inevitably, a listener asks why there isn?t more spiritually oriented holiday music. It?s an e-mail I?ve gotten both in years when my station was playing ?O Holy Night? in November and when they were waiting to get closer to Christmas Day to play it.
Over the years, some programmers, particularly holiday music pioneer Dan Vallie, have suggested there?s no need to save ?Silent Night? or ?Hark! The Herald Angels Sing? until mid-December Also, a few songs, like ?The Little Drummer Boy? or ?Do You Hear What I Hear? seem to get an earlier start than others.*
But last week, researcher Matt Bailey pointed out (https://www.graphsaboutsongs.com/p/its-the-most-nostalgic-time-of-the) that only one song out of Spotify?s 40 most-played Christmas songs (Nat King Cole?s ?Joy to the World?) is religious. Among Mediabase?s all-format Top 100 most-played holiday songs last week, only four are religious in some form:
14 ? Gene Autry, ?Here Comes Santa Claus,? a Santa song with a religious component
28 ? Ray Conniff, ?Ring Christmas Bells?
75 ? Martina McBride, ?Do You Hear What I Hear??a song whose strength is obscured slightly by the number of different versions played. Carrie Underwood?s version comes in at No. 101
88 ? Kelly Clarkson, ?O Holy Night?
As radio approaches the two-week mark to the holiday, we took a look at two-hour stretch of a number of AC stations running Christmas formats, encompassing a variety of owners. Between 2-4 p.m. on December 9, most stations played somewhere between two and five holiday songs about the birth of Christ or with some spiritual aspect.
I did count instrumentals of songs whose lyrics about the nativity are familiar to most people of my generation. Just as AC programmers seem to be leaning in more heavily on the pre-rock-era crooners in recent years, there?s also more from the Easy Listening era on holiday radio these days. Increasingly, the songs of faith are from Percy Faith (or Ray Conniff).
Here?s a sampling of major holiday outlets over a two-hour period:
CHFI Toronto (https://www.chfi.com/)
CHFI is one of North America?s most successful Christmas stations. During COVID, I noticed them starting religious Christmas titles right away. This year, the two titles that showed up in the stretch monitored were Canadian, allowing the station to fill its 35% quota with a familiar song, rather than an original/recent title.
Ali & Theo, ?Do You Hear What I Hear (2024)?
Johnny Reid, ?Little Drummer Boy?
KODA (Sunny 99.1) Houston (https://sunny99.iheart.com/)
Mariah Carey, ?O Holy Night?
Ray Conniff, ?Little Drummer Boy?
Percy Faith, ?Joy to the World??instrumental
KOIT San Francisco (https://koit.com/)
Martina McBride, ?Do You Hear What I Hear??
Pentatonix, ?Joy to the World?
KSFI (FM100) Salt Lake City (https://fm100.com/)
Peter Breinolt, ?Wake Up Little Child??a local artist whose song is mostly about Christmas now, but alludes to the nativity
Karla Bonoff, ?The First Noel?
Nat King Cole, ?The First Noel?
Nat King Cole, ?Hark! The Herald Angels Sing?
Whitney Houston, ?Do You Hear What I Hear?
WBEB (B101) Philadelphia (https://www.audacy.com/b101philly)
Martina Mc Bride, ?O Holy Night?
Lindsey Stirling, ?Joy to the World??instrumental
WLEV Allentown, Pa. (https://www.wlevradio.com/)
Elvis Presley, ?Here Comes Santa Claus?*
Harry Simone Chorale, ?Little Drummer Boy?
WLTW (Lite FM) New York (https://litefm.iheart.com/)
Kelly Clarkson, ?O Holy Night?
Ray Conniff, ?Here Comes Santa Claus?
Amy Grant, ?Hark! The Herald Angels Sing?
Percy Faith, ?Hark! The Herald Angels Sing??instrumental
Frank Sinatra, ?Silent Night?
WMGQ (Magic 98) New Brunswick, N.J. (https://magic983.com/)
Nat King Cole, ?Joy to the World?
Andy Williams, ?Do You Hear What I Hear??
WRRM (Warm 98) Cincinnati (https://www.warm98.com/)
Barenaked Ladies f/Sarah McLachlan, ?God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen?
Amy Grant, ?Hark! The Herald Angels Sing?
Secular vs. spiritual is an issue for the Christian stations that go all-Christmas as well with two outlets taking a different tack. For purposes of comparison, here?s Christian AC WAWZ New Brunswick from 2-4 p.m.:
Francesca Battistelli, ?Messiah?
Casting Crowns, ?I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day?
Lauren Daigle, ?Light of the World?
Newsboys, ?O Holy Night?
Mark Maher, ?Hark! The Herald Angels Sing?
Third Day, ?Angels We Have Heard on High?
Josh Wilson, ?Angels We Have Heard on High?
And here?s the very successful KTIS Minneapolis (https://www.myktis.com/) in the 2 p.m. hour alone, where spiritual titles outnumber secular ones:
Big Daddy Weave, ?Go Tell It on the Mountain?
Jim Brickman, ?Joy to the World?
Jeremy Camp, ?O Come All Ye Faithful?
Casting Crowns, ?Joyful, Joyful?
Nat King Cole, ?God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen?
For King + Country, ?Angels We Have Heard on High?
Mac Powell & the Family Reunion, ?Away in a Manger/Joy to the World?
Naomi Raine & Todd Galberth, ?Joy to the World/Joy of the Lord?
Mark Schultz, ?The First Noel?
Third Day, ?What Child is This??
more (https://radioinsight.com/blogs/289132/how-christmas-radio-handles-religious-songs-in-2024/)
https://i0.wp.com/radioinsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/ktis.jpg?resize=200%2C200&ssl=1If you program Christmas music, the first e-mail comes in relatively quickly after the holiday changeover. Inevitably, a listener asks why there isn?t more spiritually oriented holiday music. It?s an e-mail I?ve gotten both in years when my station was playing ?O Holy Night? in November and when they were waiting to get closer to Christmas Day to play it.
Over the years, some programmers, particularly holiday music pioneer Dan Vallie, have suggested there?s no need to save ?Silent Night? or ?Hark! The Herald Angels Sing? until mid-December Also, a few songs, like ?The Little Drummer Boy? or ?Do You Hear What I Hear? seem to get an earlier start than others.*
But last week, researcher Matt Bailey pointed out (https://www.graphsaboutsongs.com/p/its-the-most-nostalgic-time-of-the) that only one song out of Spotify?s 40 most-played Christmas songs (Nat King Cole?s ?Joy to the World?) is religious. Among Mediabase?s all-format Top 100 most-played holiday songs last week, only four are religious in some form:
14 ? Gene Autry, ?Here Comes Santa Claus,? a Santa song with a religious component
28 ? Ray Conniff, ?Ring Christmas Bells?
75 ? Martina McBride, ?Do You Hear What I Hear??a song whose strength is obscured slightly by the number of different versions played. Carrie Underwood?s version comes in at No. 101
88 ? Kelly Clarkson, ?O Holy Night?
As radio approaches the two-week mark to the holiday, we took a look at two-hour stretch of a number of AC stations running Christmas formats, encompassing a variety of owners. Between 2-4 p.m. on December 9, most stations played somewhere between two and five holiday songs about the birth of Christ or with some spiritual aspect.
I did count instrumentals of songs whose lyrics about the nativity are familiar to most people of my generation. Just as AC programmers seem to be leaning in more heavily on the pre-rock-era crooners in recent years, there?s also more from the Easy Listening era on holiday radio these days. Increasingly, the songs of faith are from Percy Faith (or Ray Conniff).
Here?s a sampling of major holiday outlets over a two-hour period:
CHFI Toronto (https://www.chfi.com/)
CHFI is one of North America?s most successful Christmas stations. During COVID, I noticed them starting religious Christmas titles right away. This year, the two titles that showed up in the stretch monitored were Canadian, allowing the station to fill its 35% quota with a familiar song, rather than an original/recent title.
Ali & Theo, ?Do You Hear What I Hear (2024)?
Johnny Reid, ?Little Drummer Boy?
KODA (Sunny 99.1) Houston (https://sunny99.iheart.com/)
Mariah Carey, ?O Holy Night?
Ray Conniff, ?Little Drummer Boy?
Percy Faith, ?Joy to the World??instrumental
KOIT San Francisco (https://koit.com/)
Martina McBride, ?Do You Hear What I Hear??
Pentatonix, ?Joy to the World?
KSFI (FM100) Salt Lake City (https://fm100.com/)
Peter Breinolt, ?Wake Up Little Child??a local artist whose song is mostly about Christmas now, but alludes to the nativity
Karla Bonoff, ?The First Noel?
Nat King Cole, ?The First Noel?
Nat King Cole, ?Hark! The Herald Angels Sing?
Whitney Houston, ?Do You Hear What I Hear?
WBEB (B101) Philadelphia (https://www.audacy.com/b101philly)
Martina Mc Bride, ?O Holy Night?
Lindsey Stirling, ?Joy to the World??instrumental
WLEV Allentown, Pa. (https://www.wlevradio.com/)
Elvis Presley, ?Here Comes Santa Claus?*
Harry Simone Chorale, ?Little Drummer Boy?
WLTW (Lite FM) New York (https://litefm.iheart.com/)
Kelly Clarkson, ?O Holy Night?
Ray Conniff, ?Here Comes Santa Claus?
Amy Grant, ?Hark! The Herald Angels Sing?
Percy Faith, ?Hark! The Herald Angels Sing??instrumental
Frank Sinatra, ?Silent Night?
WMGQ (Magic 98) New Brunswick, N.J. (https://magic983.com/)
Nat King Cole, ?Joy to the World?
Andy Williams, ?Do You Hear What I Hear??
WRRM (Warm 98) Cincinnati (https://www.warm98.com/)
Barenaked Ladies f/Sarah McLachlan, ?God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen?
Amy Grant, ?Hark! The Herald Angels Sing?
Secular vs. spiritual is an issue for the Christian stations that go all-Christmas as well with two outlets taking a different tack. For purposes of comparison, here?s Christian AC WAWZ New Brunswick from 2-4 p.m.:
Francesca Battistelli, ?Messiah?
Casting Crowns, ?I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day?
Lauren Daigle, ?Light of the World?
Newsboys, ?O Holy Night?
Mark Maher, ?Hark! The Herald Angels Sing?
Third Day, ?Angels We Have Heard on High?
Josh Wilson, ?Angels We Have Heard on High?
And here?s the very successful KTIS Minneapolis (https://www.myktis.com/) in the 2 p.m. hour alone, where spiritual titles outnumber secular ones:
Big Daddy Weave, ?Go Tell It on the Mountain?
Jim Brickman, ?Joy to the World?
Jeremy Camp, ?O Come All Ye Faithful?
Casting Crowns, ?Joyful, Joyful?
Nat King Cole, ?God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen?
For King + Country, ?Angels We Have Heard on High?
Mac Powell & the Family Reunion, ?Away in a Manger/Joy to the World?
Naomi Raine & Todd Galberth, ?Joy to the World/Joy of the Lord?
Mark Schultz, ?The First Noel?
Third Day, ?What Child is This??
more (https://radioinsight.com/blogs/289132/how-christmas-radio-handles-religious-songs-in-2024/)