Sacramento Radio: SoftAC Returns On KBEB The Breeze

iHeartMedia Sacramento announced today the launch of KBEB 92.5 The Breeze, Sacramento’s #1 For Relaxing Favorites at Work.

92.5 The Breeze will launch Monday, November 12th at 3 p.m. by playing 10,000 commercial-free songs in a row. The new station will broadcast a soothing blend of music from artists such as Celine Dion, Rod Stewart, Whitney Houston, Michael Bolton, Vanessa Williams and more. The full talent line-up for 92.5 The Breeze will be announced in the upcoming weeks.

“The timing is perfect to bring 92.5 The Breeze to our iHeartMedia Sacramento market,” said Sara McClure, Market President for iHeartMedia Sacramento. “We’re taking our powerful 50,000-watt signal back to when it was a powerful adult contemporary station playing familiar favorites for today’s listeners.”

“No doubt many in Sacramento will remember the station 92.5 for its decades- long heritage as an Adult Contemporary station and one of the top stations in the market,” said Curtiss Johnson, Senior Vice President of Programming for iHeartMedia Sacramento. “I’m happy to say we’re bringing that format back to Adult Contemporary. 92.5 The Breeze is the perfect station for relaxing to favorites while you work, unwinding after a long day or just for getting into that weekend frame of mind.”

KBEB 92.5 FM (50 Kw) Red=54dBu Coverage Area

As a part of this move, programming on 92.5 The Bull and The Bobby Bones Show will be moving to iHeartMedia Sacramento’s K296GB 107.1 FM. And, beginning today, Sacramento’s Smooth Jazz Network will now air exclusively on the iHeartRadio app.

CNN's Jim Acosta Banned From TWH TFN

President Trump took the exceedingly rare step of suspending the White House credentials of Jim Acosta, the chief White House correspondent for CNN, on Wednesday after an intense verbal clash at a news conference earlier in the day, reports The NYTimes.

During a testy session with reporters, Trump recognized Mr. Acosta for a question. Their exchange grew heated when Acosta repeatedly challenged the president’s characterization of a Central American migrant caravan as an invasion. Trump responded by lashing out at Mr. Acosta, saying, “Honestly, I think you should let me run the country — you run CNN.”

Mr. Acosta, who was in the front row just feet from the president, refused several times to sit down or to return a microphone to a White House intern who sought to retrieve it. When he finally did give up the microphone, Mr. Trump said that Mr. Acosta was “a rude, terrible person.”

“You shouldn’t be working for CNN,” the president said.

When Mr. Acosta tried to re-enter the White House on Wednesday evening for a live shot for his network, a Secret Service officer asked him to hand over his “hard pass,” which grants journalists access to the compound. Mr. Acosta captured the episode in a grainy video on his cellphone and posted it to Twitter.

Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, who has also repeatedly clashed with Mr. Acosta during televised briefings at the White House, announced the decision, claiming falsely that Mr. Acosta had placed “his hands on a young woman” who was responsible for giving the microphone to reporters asking questions.

“The fact that CNN is proud of the way their employee behaved is not only disgusting, it is an example of their outrageous disregard for everyone, including young women, who work in this administration,” Sanders said.

➤ALSO READ: Jim Acosta violated one of the oldest rules of journalism, Click Here.

The confrontation with the president came during a fractious encounter with reporters, only the third formal solo news conference held by Trump at the White House. In addition to clashing with Acosta, he scolded several other reporters he deemed offensive, including Peter Alexander of NBC, April D. Ryan of American Urban Radio Networks and Yamiche Alcindor of PBS.



The decision to yank Acosta’s credentials, effectively denying him access to the White House and the president’s staff, was a nuclear-level response by the president and the administration’s communications staff after more than two years of escalating tensions between the CNN correspondent, the president and the president’s aides.

NYC Radio: Craig Carton Facing Up-To-45 Years In Prison

Craig Carton

A Manhattan federal jury has convicted sports radio personality Craig Carton of fraud — setting the fallen “Boomer and Carton” co-host up for some hard prison time when he is sentenced next year.

After less than a day of deliberations, a jury of three men and nine women found Carton guilty on all three counts against him, including securities fraud, wire fraud and conspiracy to commit fraud.

According to The NYPost, Carton looked straight ahead as the guilty verdicts were read while his wife, who was sitting in the courtroom with other supporters, held back tears.

His lawyer, Robert Gottlieb, said he will appeal the verdict.

Carton, 49, was released on bail but ordered to return for sentencing on Feb. 27. He faces as much as 45 years in prison based on the sentencing guidelines but will likely get far less.

Carton was one of the biggest names in sports radio when he was arrested last year and charged with defrauding investors of a bulk ticket business he had been running with Michael Wright, who has pleaded guilty.

“As a unanimous Manhattan jury has found, Carton was all talk,” Manhattan US Attorney Geoffrey Berman said. “Carton fabricated contracts for blocks of tickets and spent the almost $7 million he collected from investors on gambling and personal expenses,” Berman added.

At trial, the feds called a hedge fund executive who said his firm gave Carton more than $5 million at various points in 2016 to invest in tickets to Metallica and Barbara Streisand concerts.

In order to win the money, Carton fabricated contracts and emails, including one email presented at trial that was doctored by Carton to look like it had come from Fred Mangione, chief of staff of Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment, which owns the Barclays Center and the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, the evidence showed.

At the time of the fraud, Carton was spending big bucks at casinos — even borrowing money from loan sharks to fund his casino trips, according to witness testimony.

Carton resigned from WFAN’s top-rated “Boomer and Carton” radio program a week after his arrest and has repeatedly asserted his innocence up until trial, including in chats with the press and on his new radio show on the FNTSY Sports Network called “Carton & Friends.”

S-F Radio: Lee Hammer Named PD At KGO, KFSO

Lee Hammer

• Jack Swanson Segues To Consultant Role

Cumulus Media announces that it has appointed veteran Bay Area radio programming professional Lee Hammer as Program Director of powerhouse San Francisco Talk Radio stations KGO 810 AM and KSFO 560 AM.

Hammer served KGO and KSFO as Interim Program Director in 2015, when he was also the Program Director at KNBR 680 and KNBR 1050 (KTCT), positions he held for 12 years and over 19 years, respectively.

Hammer was promoted last year to Operations Manager for the Cumulus cluster in San Francisco and Vice President of Play-by-Play Programming for KNBR. He assumes the additional role of KGO and KSFO Program Director from recently appointed Program Director Jack Swanson, who will now serve as programming consultant for KGO and KSFO.

Doug Harvill, Vice President and Market Manager, Cumulus Media-San Francisco, said: "Lee Hammer did an excellent job while handling the programming for KGO and KSFO. It's an easy choice to hand Lee the keys to these two legendary radio stations."

Jackson Swanson

Harvill added: “Jack Swanson has decided he’s happiest spending his days playing on the beach rather than sitting behind a desk. We’re pleased he’ll continue to share his vision about the future of KGO and KSFO as he continues to serve the stations as a programming consultant.”

Hammer said: “I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to work with the talented professionals at KGO and KSFO. I want to thank Doug Harvill for his confidence in me, and for the opportunity to consult with Jack Swanson, who is without a doubt, one of the top talk radio programmers in the country.”

Swanson said: “I realize my decision to return to the beach is sudden. I quickly fell in love all over again with these wonderful stations and their talented people, but ultimately, my change of heart comes from my desire to fully enjoy a future of unlimited fun, travel and adventure. And making this move complete, through the unbelievable graciousness of Doug Harvill, Lee Hammer and the entire Cumulus Corporate team, I’ll still have the opportunity to contribute my ideas for the future of these amazing radio stations.”

Entercom Stock Regains Some Ground

Entercom Communications Corp. stock on Wednesday regained some of the ground it lost after a Wall Street battering over third-quarter earnings, according to philly.com.

Stock in the Philadelphia-based radio giant jumped 7.6 percent to $7.37 a share Wednesday. The Entercom stock had plunged 13.8 percent on Tuesday, to $6.85, on news that third-quarter revenues fell 4 percent.

David Field

Entercom chief executive David Field told analysts Tuesday that he still believed that "a radio renaissance is a real possibility" and repeated previous statements that the nation's No. 2 radio group is expected to boost revenues 4 percent in the fourth quarter, reversing recent declines.

Entercom's 235 radio stations reach more than 100 million listeners a week.

Entercom has struggled with a weak local advertising market and competition for advertising dollars from digital platforms such as Facebook and Google. Its stock price is down more than 30 percent since it announced the deal for CBS Radio.

This year, Field has moved on several fronts to cut costs at the merged Entercom/CBS Radio operation, reformat radio stations for broader audiences, expand its sports rights for radio broadcasts, add podcasts, and launch a national radio network with the Entercom/CBS Radio stations in major cities.

The radio company also has extricated itself from a disastrous partnership with United States Traffic Network. United States Traffic Network provided traffic updates for former CBS Radio stations and sold advertisements around those updates, funneling some of the ad revenue back to Entercom/CBS Radio. But the traffic network stopped making those payments this year because of financial trouble, and Entercom broke off the partnership, saying it would do its own traffic updates and handle the advertising itself.

Fox News' Tucker Targeted

A self-described left-wing Antifa group posted videos of a mob outside the Washington, D.C., home of Fox News’ Tucker Carlson Wednesday evening, chanting, “Tucker Carlson, we will fight. We know where you sleep at night.”

According to Fox News, the now-deleted video was posted on social media by Smash Racism, D.C. The same group made headlines in September after activists confronted Sen.Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and his wife inside a restaurant during Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court confirmation hearings.

The group posted on Facebook that Carlson spreads "fear into our homes," and said it wanted to even the score.

Tucker Carlson

"Each night you remind us that we are not safe. Tonight, we remind you that you are not safe either," the group posted. They also chanted, "Racist s---bag, leave town."  The post was later removed.

Carlson, host of "Tucker Carlson Tonight," was not home at the time. He said his wife, Susie, was home alone and heard the commotion from the kitchen. She called the police and locked herself into a pantry, he said. His brother -- who lives close by -- arrived about the same time as law enforcement.

The host said activists rang his doorbell, broke his oak door and one protester was apparently caught on security video mentioning a pipe bomb.

Carlson said he was at the Fox News office in Washington working on his opening monologue when neighbors texted him about the commotion outside his home. His wife of 22 years did not contact him because she didn’t want to distract him before he went on air, he said.

The group eventually scattered. It was unclear if there were any arrests.

Carlson said he is used to being confronted in public and has no interest in playing the role of victim, but he said his wife and his four children should not have to be exposed to the aggression while at home.

Brit Hume, a Fox News commentator, took to Twitter to denounce the protest as “revolting, and frightening.”

Quarterly Profit Jumps At News Corp

News Corp, controlled by media mogul Rupert Murdoch, reported a 49 percent jump in quarterly profit on Wednesday, benefiting from growth in its newly acquired TV network business and subscription price hikes.

The owner of the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post said its circulation and subscription revenue jumped about 59 percent to $1.03 billion.

According to Reuters, the company’s subscription video services unit, which includes Australian pay TV company Foxtel that was acquired by News Corp earlier this year, contributed $565 million to its overall revenue.

Revenue at the company’s news business rose about 1 percent to $1.25 billion.

Net income available to shareholders rose to $101 million, or 17 cents per share, in the first quarter ended Sept. 30 from $68 million, or 12 cents per share, a year earlier.

Total revenue rose to $2.52 billion, but missed analysts’ estimates of $2.54 billion.

Election Returns TV Ratings: Fox Beats All Others

According to Nielsen, a total of 36.1 million people watched prime time coverage of the midterms across 11 Nielsen-measured broadcast and cable networks. That of course doesn’t include streaming platforms. The 36.1 million tentative total is more than 2014, 2010, 2006 and 2002.

Co-anchored by Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum, Fox News Channel was the most-watched network — on broadcast and on cable — during coverage of the 2018 midterm elections. Not only was No. 1 in total viewers for 2018, but the network delivered the most-watched midterm coverage in cable news history, according to early data from Nielsen.

Looking at primetime coverage, between the hours of 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. ET when so many races were called, a total 36.3 million viewers were watching across the six major networks carrying breaking news. Among the lot, which included Fox News Channel, CNN, MSNBC and broadcasters ABC, NBC and CBS, Fox News performed the best among total viewers. CNN managed a narrow win among adults 25-54, topping even the broadcast networks in its showing among the news demo.

Press materials for NBC News are claiming a victory on Wednesday morning for its shared coverage on two networks, MSNBC and NBC, but Fox News was the outright victor among single networks with its average 7.8 million viewers for the three-hour primetime block. NBC was the closest individual to trail, though by more than 2 million viewers.

See how all the networks ranked below

1. FNC: 7.8 million viewers; 2.4 million adults 25-54
2. NBC: 5.7 million viewers; 2.3 million adults 25-54
3. ABC: 5.3 million viewers; 1.9 million adults 25-54
4. CNN: 5.1 million viewers; 2.5 million adults 25-54
5. MSNBC: 4.7 million viewers; 1.4 million adults 25-54
6. CBS: 3.9 million viewers; 1.3 million adults 25-54

Comparing Tuesday’s numbers to the most recent election would be misleading, given the fevered interest in every presidential showdown, but the total audience across traditional TV reflects a significant boost from typical off-year elections, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Nielsen Auto Cloud Signs Westwood One

Nielsen has announced that Westwood One and Panoply Media have selected the Nielsen Auto Cloud fueled by J.D. Power to transform their auto marketing and measurement capabilities.

Auto marketers can now target car buyers across radio, streaming audio and podcast media using the most recent, detailed and accurate car shopping and purchase data available. The Nielsen Auto Cloud—launched earlier this year—is helping auto brands and their agency and media partners improve marketing performance at every stage in the auto path to purchase.

With the Nielsen Auto Cloud, Westwood One and Panoply will offer their auto clients actionable insights including car shopping behavior, make, model and feature preferences, lease expiration, brand affinities, as well as media engagement and geo-location. This fundamental enhancement helps improve auto marketing outcomes across brand building, purchase intent and sales metrics.

“We are thrilled that Westwood One and Panoply chose the Nielsen Auto Cloud to make data-driven, outcomes-based auto marketing in audio a reality,” said Damian Garbaccio, EVP, Nielsen. “Their auto clients can now take full advantage of each audio channel in a way that better serves the car buying journey. From mass-brand building with over-the-air radio to more targeted customer acquisition in podcasts and streaming, the Nielsen Auto Cloud helps marketers quickly adapt to changes in car shopping behavior and improve sales results.”

“We’re the first mass reach media company to sign on to the Nielsen Auto Cloud for our industry-leading Westwood One ROI Guarantee audio insights platform,” said Suzanne Grimes, EVP, Corporate Marketing, Cumulus Media and President, Westwood One. “Westwood One can now match AM/FM radio, streaming, and podcast audience insights from our weekly audience of a quarter of a billion listeners with J.D. Power’s car shopping and auto ownership data. We can create a powerful roadmap for Tier One auto to reach the right consumer at the top of the purchase funnel. This targeting at scale makes AM/FM radio a powerful advertising environment to build auto brands and drive unaided awareness."

“Podcasting’s highly engaged listeners makes it the ideal medium to reach motivated car buyers,” said Brendan Monaghan, CEO of Panoply. “Adding Nielsen Auto Cloud data to our podcast audience-targeting technology lets auto advertisers act on incredible shopping and purchase insights. It also allows us to better serve our publishing clients by filling their ad inventory with more interesting and relevant messages.”

The Nielsen Auto Cloud matches listeners of all types with exclusive J.D. Power and Nielsen car shopping, purchase and audience data. This includes brand affinities, car types, lease expiration, feature preferences, shopping behavior, and ownership penetration by radio and podcast format.  Insights from the Nielsen Auto Cloud will better help Westwood One and Panoply showcase where in the path to purchase stage prospective audio consumers are.

Tucson Radio: KVOI 1030 AM Goes Local Talk

Amador Bustos, owner of Bustos Media, bought KVOI 1030 AM recently and on Nov. 1 turned it into an all-local-talk, all-day format. Previously, the station had local talk for certain periods of the day, interspersed with nationally syndicated hosts such as Dennis Prager and Michael Medved.

“KVOI has been a news-talk station for many years,” Bustos told Tom Steller at TucsonLocal.com this week. “It had a certain amount of established following. I didn’t want to change the format from news talk, but I wanted to make it a lot more local instead.”

The station will feature local hosts from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m., but not just the conservative political hosts that dominate most talk radio. Then, Bloomberg radio will play overnight.

Bustos, who has been in the radio business for decades in California and Oregon, is making a broader play in Tucson-area radio. He also bought KTGV 106.3-FM when Scripps sold its local stations to Lotus Communications but Lotus needed to spin off two stations to stay within regulatory limits. And he is considering an additional radio-station purchase.

The KVOI purchase was one of five sales made this summer by Doug and Mary Martin and their business, Good News Communications, as they got out of the radio business and pivoted to marketing and public relations.

Bustos was born in Michoacan, Mexico, and moved with his family to California when he was 12. He got a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from the University of California, Berkeley and a master’s degree in the sociology of education. He was working on a doctorate when he veered off into the radio business.

He built a Spanish-language radio network, Z Spanish Radio Media, and sold it to Entravision for $350 million in 2000. Then he started a new radio business that crashed in the 2008 recession. Then he started again with Bustos Media in 2011.

KVOI 1030 AM (10 Kw-D, 1 Kw-N, DA2) Daytime 2 mV/m contour

Now, Bustos has bought a home in Tucson and plans to spend much of the winter here while living much of the rest of the year in Portland. Ironically, his stations in the Pacific Northwest tend to be Spanish-language broadcasters, while the Tucson stations will be in English. Some of the stations in Oregon even broadcast Russian-language programming to the emigre population there.

Jason Aldean To Be CRS 2019 Featured Speaker

Jason Aldean

This year’s three-time CMA nominee Jason Aldean will appear as a featured speaker at Country Radio Seminar (CRS) 2019. Sponsored by BMI, Jason Aldean: “Overcoming Obstacles” at CRS 2019 will take place on Friday, Feb. 15 at 3 p.m. CT.

Led by RJ Curtis (CRB/CRS) and Beverlee Brannigan (SummitMedia), the 45-minute discussion will feature the multi-Platinum entertainer recalling the path paved by his sure-footed approach that has defined the genre’s 21st century.

Leading with his wide-open sound that has spawned more than 17 million total album sales, 21 career No. One hits and eight record-breaking studio albums, Aldean will share his story of resilience, illustrating that victories often come with challenges. He will reflect on the highs as well as the heartaches of childhood dreams that grew into selling out the nation's largest stadiums and will also elaborate on his longstanding Broken Bow Records deal that put him on the map in 2005, and continued over the years with countless recognition from the GRAMMYs, ACMs, CMAs, BBMAs, People’s Choice Awards and more. His unwavering connection to fans has been the long-standing constant throughout his career, which was tested by the horrific events on Oct. 1, 2017 in Las Vegas and ultimately shed light on the strength of the music community to persevere despite tragedy.

In spite of the challenges he has endured, his passion, determination and courage have not only pulled him through, making him a stronger person, but his career has also withstood the tribulations and remained constant.

The appearance marks one of Aldean’s many appearances at CRS over the years including being one of 2006’s New Faces of Country Music Show® to headlining The Amazon Music & CRS Monday Night Showcase in 2018 where his set included a special encore performance with Garth Brooks.

The three-time and reigning ACM "Entertainer of the Year" is only the second Country act in history to score four consecutive chart-toppers on the all-genre Billboard 200 albums chart with his current GOLD certified album REARVIEW TOWN, which follows six previous LPs that achieved PLATINUM certification or better.

Following his 21st career No. One and multi-week chart topper "Drowns the Whiskey" featuring Miranda Lambert, Aldean recently released his follow-up single to Country radio "Girl Like You," serving as the album’s third single.

RMLC Spars With GMR In Court

There’s a new courthouse skirmish pitting the Radio Music License Committee against Global Music Rights, and this one isn’t directly related to how much stations pay GMR for using music in its repertoire, reports musiclinkup.com.

Instead, GMR is pushing back against a subpoena it’s been handed as part of the RMLC’s ongoing rate court proceeding with Broadcast Music Inc. (BMI). After they were unable to reach an agreement on their own, the RMLC and BMI moved into the federal rate court process in May, where a federal judge will decide how much radio stations pay for the Jan. 2017 to Dec. 2021 term.

In a filing in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, GMR attorneys said they were served a subpoena last week seeking copies of their agreements with songwriters, and all documents and communications regarding the negotiations of those deals. RMLC also subpoenaed copies of GMR’s agreements with any radio company, including any documents it has related to station efforts to avoid playing music in its catalog.

GMR attorney Daniel Petrocelli argues the requested documents “have no relevance to its rate court proceeding” with BMI. “These documents are relevant to issues in this action and the RMLC’s action against GMR in Pennsylvania. RMLC’s subpoena is thus a thinly veiled attempt to obtain early and one-sided discovery from GMR while this case remains stayed,” Petrocelli wrote in a monthly update with the L.A. court.

That allegation points to the nearly two year-old court battle between the RMLC and GMR. The radio trade group filed an antitrust lawsuit in federal court in Philadelphia in Nov. 2016, alleging GMR violated federal law when it allegedly created an “artificial monopoly” to squeeze higher rates from stations. Two weeks later GMR replied with an antitrust lawsuit of its own, filed in Los Angeles, which contended the RMLC is essentially an “illegal cartel.” Both cases are in limbo while a federal judge in Philadelphia weighs whether to accept the findings of his appointed magistrate. She recommended the Pennsylvania case be dismissed in order to allow the L.A. case to proceed.

But while GMR is questioning the RMLC’s motives, the radio group is pushing back against the characterizations, arguing what GMR has told the court is “inaccurate and misleading.” The radio industry group says it won’t be able to determine “reasonable rates” with BMI without the documents.

Cord Cutting Not Slowing

Cable and satellite TV providers lost about 1.1 million subscribers during the July to September period, the largest quarterly loss ever – and the first time the industry lost more than 1 million subscribers in a quarter, according to USAToday citing date from media and telecommunications research firm MoffettNathanson.

After Dish Network reported its third-quarter earnings Wednesday, the New York-headquartered research firm tallied up the publicly reported subscriber losses to arrive at the finding.

Rich Greenfield

Dish lost 341,000 subscribers in the third quarter, compared to adding 16,000 in the same period a year ago. Overall, Dish lost 367,000 satellite subscribers but added 26,000 Sling TV subscribers, the company said.

Rich Greenfield, a media and technology analyst with financial services firm BTIG in New York, arrived at a similar conclusion and called it "the third-worst quarter in industry history and worst since Q2 2016."

That continues a worsening trend line for satellite TV providers. Two weeks ago, AT&T said DirecTV lost a net 297,000 subscribers during the quarter – 359,600 satellite subscribers departed, while it added 49,000 new subscribers to its streaming TV service DirecTV Now. Overall, AT&T has 25.15 million pay-TV customers; Directv, 19.6 million; U-Verse, 3.7 million; and DirecTV Now, 1.86 million.

Looking just at satellite TV departures, the industry lost 726,000 subscribers during the period. Telecom TV services, which includes AT&T's U-Verse and Verizon FiOS, lost 104,000 customers combined.

Cable TV providers lost about 293,000 for the quarter, but its trends "are getting marginally better," MoffettNathanson suggests, as the industry lost 322,000 in the same period a year ago.

While Comcast lost the most video subscribers (106,000), it also added 363,000 broadband subscribers.

Slowing growth for DirecTV Now and Sling TV could suggest "price sensitivity" of broadband-delivered TV services may be "turning out to be greater than expected," after several of the services increased prices, the analysts said.

Overall, about 78 percent of U.S. TV households subscribe to some form of pay-TV service, down from 86 percent in 2013, according to Leichtman Research Group.

61-Year-Oldie Tops Best Testing Christmas Songs

P1 Media Group wanted to know how the 40 most-played Christmas songs from the 2017 Holiday Season rank amongst Christmas music radio listeners.

Six decades after its release (1957), “Jingle Bell Rock” by Bobby Helms is once again America’s #1 Testing Christmas song. “Christmas music’s appeal is a strong as ever amongst those that listen to All Christmas stations” Ken Benson, Partner and co-founder, of P1 Media Group.

Here’s a few highlights from this year’s study:

• The Holiday Classic’s continue to rule the Top 10 with two versions of “Jingle Bell Rock” and two versions of “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” landing in the Top 10.
• 14 of the top 20 testing songs are classics recorded between 1942 and 1970.
• The iconic Christmas songs test higher than their contemporary counterparts, such as “Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24,” “Last Christmas” and “Wonderful Christmastime.
• 2017’s most-played Christmas song was Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas is You” which ranked #13 in this year’s research.
• All-Christmas Music stations have broad appeal amongst Men and Women 25-54 with 70% of the sample saying they “frequently” listen to Christmas music on a local radio station.
• Classic Rock, Classic Hits, Country, CHR, AC, Rock/Alternative and Christian format listeners are most-likely to listen to an All Christmas format.

P1 Media Group conducted the survey the weekend of November 2-4th, 2018. They sampled 25-54-year-old radio listeners in the Top 50 US Radio Markets that reported listening either “Frequently” or “Sometimes” to Christmas Music on a local radio station during the holiday season. The 40 songs tested were the most-played Christmas Songs from 2017 according to Mediabase monitored airplay. The full results are available http://p1mediagroup.com.

Nov 8 Radio History

➦In 1939...WQXR FM NYC signed-on as W2XQR.

WQXR-FM is the outgrowth of a "high-fidelity" AM station, WQXR 1560 AM, which was founded in 1936 by John V. L. Hogan and Elliott Sanger. Hogan began this station as a mechanical television station, W2XR, which went on the air on March 26, 1929.

The radio station broadcast mainly classical music recordings. One of the station's listeners was the inventor of frequency modulation, Edwin Howard Armstrong. When Armstrong put his experimental FM station, W2XMN, on the air, he arranged to rebroadcast some of WQXR's programming. This ended in 1939, when Hogan and Sanger put their own experimental FM station on the air, W2XQR on this date, just down the dial from Armstrong at 42.3 MHz.

When the Federal Communications Commission began licensing commercial FM stations, W2XQR moved to 45.9 MHz and became W59NY; the special FM call signs were later dropped and the station became WQXQ.

➦In 1953...Buddy Holly's Sunday radio show (featuring the singer as part of a country duo called "Buddy and Bob") premieres on Lubbock, TX's KDAV.

➦In 2012....WXRK NYC changes call letters to WNOW-FM. The calls today are WBMP.

The station, first known as WMCA-FM, went on the air on December 25, 1948. It was co-owned with WMCA 570 AM by former New York state senator Nathan Straus. FM radio was not a successful venture for Straus, and he sought to either sell it or close the station down altogether.

Today WBMP-FM

In late 1950, Straus sold the station to the owners of WHOM 1480 AM, now WZRC, and WHOM-FM appeared on February 26, 1951, featuring a variety of formats, including ethnic, background music, classical, Spanish, and easy listening. By the early 1970s, WHOM-FM had a Spanish-language easy listening format.

Following the sale of the WHOM stations to SJR Communications, the FM station became WKTU, taking on an adult contemporary format that began on June 5, 1975. At that point, WKTU was positioned as a "soft rock" station and called "Mellow 92". Ratings were relatively low. The station held on to the format in spite of low ratings until 1978.

That June, when a station executive, David Rapaport (father of actor Michael Rapaport), visited New York's Studio 54 discothèque on half a dozen occasions, and was very impressed with the crowds there. He then got the idea that a disco-based station was needed, as several FM-based Top 40 stations were leaning disco in other markets.

As a result, Rapaport purchased 200 disco records and brought them into the station. Keeping the same airstaff, adding Paco from their Spanish-language AM station WHOM, and with no notice, the station abruptly flipped to a disco-based rhythmic top 40 format with the tagline "Disco 92" at 6 p.m. on July 24, 1978.

In fall 1978, the station rose from "Worst to First", unseating WABC in the 18−30 age demographic.