Fewer stations went all-Christmas this year

Last year "100000watts.com's" Tom Taylor (MStreetTom@aol.com) reported 386 stations doing all-holiday music by Christmas Day. As of the afternoon of 12/21 -- the site counts 279 all-yule stations.

All-Christmas pays off in Atlanta, says Navigauge.
Its Consumer Behavior Index says "by the week following Thanksgiving, the three Atlanta FM stations that had switched to continuous holiday music saw their combined share of listening increase nearly 3-1/2 times." Those stations would be "B98.5" WSB-FM, "Lite" WLTM and "Fish" WFSH. Atlanta-based Navigauge uses an "in-vehicle passive monitoring device" to track listening behavior.

Other results from the just-released study: A combined 23% of Atlanta drivers (752,000 persons 16+) tuned into an all-Christmas station at least once during the first week after Thanksgiving. And 12% of all Atlanta listeners made one of the three holiday music stations one of their top three favorites, immediately after Thanksgiving.

Meanwhile, A&O agrees with AC consultant Mike McVay (www.mcvaymedia.com) that it's best used as a tactic for background formats and ultra-core-driven foreground formats like country are usually smartest to play heavy defense (lots of Holiday stuff but not 100%, except in unusual circumstances).