Syracuse Radio: HollyFM Gets The Jump On Christmas

Central New York listeners can now hear holiday music on W237AY 95.3 FM in Syracuse and WVOA 103.9 FM in Oswego thanks to a format switch and lineup shuffle over the weekend, more than 11 weeks before Christmas, according to Syracuse.com.

New website HollyFM.com includes a picture of mistletoe, videos from movies like "Elf," "A Christmas Story" and "How the Grinch Stole Christmas.”

Love Radio, which previously broadcasted at 95.3 in Syracuse and 103.9 in Oswego, has moved to 87.7 on the FM dial due to the switch. The Christian radio station's new frequency is technically the audio carrier on television channel 6.

Traditionally, local radio stations have begun playing holiday music in November. In recent years Syracuse's WZUN Sunny 102.1 and Utica-Rome's WUMX Mix 102.5 switched on November 1, followed by Syracuse's WYYY Y94FM and Utica-Rome's WLZW Lite 98.7 a week or two before Thanksgiving.

But Holly-FM beat its competitors to the punch by starting to deck the halls in the first week of October. Station manager and "chief elf" Sam Furco pointed to this year's earlier holiday shopping season that began for some retailers in mid-September as a reason for the early start.

"After noticing retail trends that begin the holiday shopping season, WOLF Radio announces Holly-FM where retailers and consumers can tune in to modern and traditional holiday songs as a soundtrack to enhance the holiday experience," Furco said in a statement.

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