There are 529 U.S. stations airing all-holiday tunes, an increase of 8.4% from a year ago when 488 stations adopted the format. Coming off a year when the number of all-Christmas stations dipped slightly, 2014’s final tally suggests radio’s appetite for all-Yule programming has yet to peak.
The total doesn’t include the growing number of stations programming a partial Christmas format or online-only and HD side channels.
During the past decade, the number of all-Christmas stations has more than doubled, according to the Inside Radio database.
Stations that have earned the position as their market’s go-to holiday music station are often able to charge advertisers a premium during December, when their ratings skyrocket. “We have a bunch of stations that are doing Christmas music and they are definitely having a strong December,” CBS Radio president of sales Michael Weiss says. “We’re able to go back and show advertisers that we had a pop last year or the year before, when we turned on our Christmas music.”
A total of 76 Christmas stations are owned by iHeartMedia, giving it the most all-Yule stations again this year. Other owners heavy on the holiday format include Cumulus Media (25 stations), Townsquare Media (19), Salem (12), Entercom (11), CBS Radio (10), and Saga (9). Noncommercial operator Family Life Radio had 21 all-Christmas stations, Radio Training Network had 19 holiday stations on the air, while WAY Media had 15.
InsideRadio reports Chicago is Christmastown USA this year, boasting six separate stations airing an all-holiday format. Last year the honor went to Detroit. Six markets have four all-Yule stations: Birmingham, Detroit, Grand Rapids, Los Angeles, Rochester, NY and Wilkes Barre-Scranton, PA. Nearly 20 cities have three and dozens of markets have two. A small number of cities don’t have any, including such major cities as Atlanta and Miami. The vast majority of all-holiday stations are on FM — just 43 AM stations made the switch this year.
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