Unbelievably stupid. Why would a radio station known city-wide for their non-stop Christmas music late November and throughout December every year be switched to a different non-Christmas music format exactly 1 week before Christmas Day?
Lite 94.9 FM, a station with the same format for the last 15+ years, suddenly made the swap to COUNTRY???? music this past Sunday. Seriously, I listen to this station only one time during the year - Christmas - and I'm sure I'm not alone in that regard. The music the rest of the year is an unbearable mix of Michael Bolton, Rod Stewart and similar. Only at Christmas do they manage to attract such a sizable listening audience.
Nat King Cole. Carpenters. Even the ridiculous sounds of Mannheim Steamroller are acceptable listening during Christmas time. This station had it right. Now, they are called "The Bull" or something like that. Ha - lame!
Soooooo...anyway, the million dollar question is this: why not wait til the day after Christmas to switch formats? Maybe they figured if they were going to convert an audience they needed to do it when they knew people were listening, maybe they just didn't care. Still, when your money comes from advertisers as it does in radio, you need an audience. Is a country station going to draw more of an audience than easy listening - or Christmas music during CHRISTMAS? Pop quiz...you're in a doctor's/dentist's office either waiting for your appointment or getting worked on. Do you hear easy listening on the speakers or do you hear country music?
Anyway, that's my rant. There are two other stations in Atlanta that play Christmas music this time of year...104.7 The Fish and B98.5. The Fish plays too much new stuff (well, really just the same old songs poorly "remixed" by otherwise good Christian rock bands) and B98.5 doesn't play nearly enough of the old-old-old stuff (Bing, Nat, etc). I've got a sizeable MP3 collection of songs, that'll have to pull me through.
Thanks Clear Channel! First 96 Rock and the Regular Guys, now Christmas. Bah-humbug.
Outside of that, looks to be a fun Christmas this year. Family in town, wassail, cookies and new socks. Shazzaam!
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