500+ Stations Airing All-Christmas Formats

For a second consecutive year, the number of all-Christmas stations in the U.S. has exceeded 500.

528 stations are airing all-holiday tunes, according to Inside Radio’s PrecisionTrak.com database, one station less than 2014’s record-setting total of 529.

The number marks a decade of growth that has seen the all-Yule ranks swell by 75% since 2005. The total doesn’t include the growing number of stations programming a partial Christmas format or online-only and HD side channels.

Among persons aged 6+, ratings for all-Christmas ACs in Nielsen’s December survey are up a tick over last year (8.5-8.6) but the full extent of the format’s appeal in 2015 won’t be known until the Holiday survey is released in January.

AC radio’s equivalent of the Super Bowl, the format’s appeal transcends every demo and gender. 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.

According to InsideRadio, four markets have four all-Yule stations: Birmingham, Chicago, Grand Rapids, Rochester, NY and Wilkes Barre-Scranton, PA. Scores of cities have three and markets with two are increasingly common. Atlanta is the only market with no Santa stations.