THE MOST PROFITABLE BIRTHDAY ON RADIO

In just a few days, one or more of the radio stations in your market is going to go to “the all little drummer boy with chestnuts on an open fire format”.
It happens earlier and earlier each year and for good reason since they usually generate a rating bonanza, just last year 95 percent of these radio outlets racked up double digit shares in key audience demo cells!
How did this trend get started? Well in 2002 when WSNI - Sunny 104.5 – switched formats from easy listening to oldies. As a part of their new format launch, they became Philadelphia's first station to try a full month of Christmas songs and completely dominated the market with the move.
Mr. Brian Check, then regional vice president of programming for Clear Channel Communications at WSNI-FM in Philadelphia said, "Maybe it's the mood of the country. Maybe after 9/11, and with the war, people want an early pick-me-up, I'm not sure," he said. "But audience demand is what's driving this."
He was partly correct; it’s taking hope and fear and explaining it to ignorance the nature of the unknowable. The audience needed this spirit to remind us there is something bigger than our circumstances. So much so that now seven years later in 2009, 4 stations in Philadelphia are planning to repeat last year’s plan and switch to the all Christmas format and at least a hundred others nationally because of the massive ratings increase.

Here’s why, the United States remains a dominantly Christian nation. According to Gallup Polls, more than three-quarters of all Americans identify as Christian. And the vast majority of those who identify with any religion say they are Christian in some form or another.
However you have probably heard that there has been a decline in recent decades for those who profess the Christian religion. Let’s look at the numbers, today the country is just under 80%, according to an aggregate of Gallup Polls conducted in 2008. Which is more than a 10% drop since the 1948 study when the country was a whopping 91% ( that's when Gallup began tracking almost 70 years ago) claiming Christian religious identification.
To most of you the “go all-Christmas format switch” in September is not an option. However if this holiday generates this much interest, how will you capitalize on this season of ratings giving?

Here’s an option, create some interactive Christmas promotions:
1. Sponsored Podcasts! (something fun) How about the on air staff Christmas soap webcast (include office personnel too) with a direct link to a clients website, so you can track the respondents. Be creative with this podcast about Christmas and tie in a contest!
2. Set up an All-Christmas music internet stream on your website with the style of music your audience enjoys. Again, client website link you don’t have to stop the music just make sure the scenery during the webcast is exciting and seasonal during the holidays for this stream. (If you have an HD signal this is also an option however it will be difficult to gauge your effectiveness for a client and limits the reach)
3. The (your station) Christmas Grinch hater who will show up and give away free money and prizes to listeners who have their Christmas attire on in your clients place of business. The set up is” sometime this week the CGH will visit this business, mall, parade, food bank, homeless shelter etc, looking for listeners dressed for Christmas” (give them something goofy to say to make it fun) .

Here’s a news flash, the same listeners who will listen to the all Christmas format will also buy something for the holiday. All of them, 100% because it is not just tradition, it’s like a religious obligation to honor Jesus Christ’s birth. Credit card companies will testify that these holiday consumers are not always driven by their bank accounts.


It’s the three “R”s, Radio needs the money, Retailers need sales and everyone needs Results. When you create a buzz about your station it all adds up to Ratings. Isn’t that how the all-Christmas format became so popular, remember it was great word of mouth!

OK! Here it is, keep the main thing the main thing. Let me say it different, Keep is simple stupid. I see you missed it “Don’t re-invent the wheel”. If they believe you intentionally won’t use Christmas because you don’t want to offend anyone you’ve just alienated 80 percent of your audience, remember whose buying and whose birthday they are celebrating.

The best example I can give on this subject is Israel! Their number one industry is tourism. Even though the landscape of this country is breath taking, that’s not why people flock to their hotels and restaurants this time of the year, is it. And it is also the reason why, the most successful fall format promotion ( for radio chains that can afford it), is all Christmas, all the time!

Did you know that the most famous Christmas carol of all time is “Silent Night” so called because of why it was written. The church organ had broken on Christmas Eve in 1818 in the small alpine village of Oberndorf. Austrian priest Joseph Mohr and his friend Franz Gruber composed this classic intended for a guitar and simple score in less than an hour for Midnight Mass that night.

Just like Joseph Mohr and Franz Gruber, the promotion with Philly’s Sunny 104.5 was to fix a broken format and instead they introduced the radio industry to the all time ratings bonanza.

Silence is golden when you give the people what they want!