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[Henry]

It's that time of year again...

If your local station hasn't done so already, it'll start playing nonstop Christmas music all the way up to midnight on December 26, if not beyond that. This means that KSWD and KRWM in Seattle, as well as WLIT in Chicago, are in 24/7 Christmas mode. What stations in your area are currently playing the holiday favorites, or will flip to All-Christmas soon?

[1]

In my area: 106.7 (Boston, Audacity Audacy) and 96.1 (Worcester, iHateRadio IHeartRadio). I can get both stations. However, I preferred 104.9 (Topsfield, smaller range), which has been bought out and is an entirely different station now. 104.9 had a much larger variety, some of which were just less well known songs, but others of which were songs from the movies that typical stations have no reason not to play, e.g. We Are Santa's Elves from the Rudolph movie. 104.9 was also independent and not owned by either of the two radio conglomerations mentioned above.

[Ted$8roadFan]

IIRC, 106.7 played Christmas music well before Halloween, which the normal start date.

[Ted$8roadFan]

In Providence, RI, Lite Rock 105.1, WWLI-FM (signal reaches into Massachusetts) is another all-Christmas music station. Given the relatively small number of RI radio stations, it’s really noticeable.

[US 89]

FM 100.3 was always the Christmas standard in Salt Lake.

[Rothman]

Around here, the stations that go Christmas play the same cycle of about ten songs over and over.  I actually like Christmas music in the season; the lack of variety stinks.

[1]

IIRC, 106.7 played Christmas music well before Halloween, which the normal start date.

That's definitely not the case now, and I don't think it was the case back when it was 105.7 rather than 106.7 doing it. (The switch happened when 106.7 was owned by 105.7, and 105.7 would even periodically say to listen to 106.7 for Christmas music the year they switched.) It started about a week ago. 96.1 started on maybe November 4 or so, while 104.9, when it existed, started on somewhere around the 10th.

[ZLoth]

KDGE-Star 102.1 in Dallas, TX started their Christmas music rotation on November 10th. They can be streamed on Audacy, although at that point, I would rather be streaming from either my Plex media server, Amazon Music, or Apple Music.

[Ted$8roadFan]

IIRC, 106.7 played Christmas music well before Halloween, which the normal start date.

That's definitely not the case now, and I don't think it was the case back when it was 105.7 rather than 106.7 doing it. (The switch happened when 106.7 was owned by 105.7, and 105.7 would even periodically say to listen to 106.7 for Christmas music the year they switched.) It started about a week ago. 96.1 started on maybe November 4 or so, while 104.9, when it existed, started on somewhere around the 10th.

There’s a 106.7 HD station (106.7-2 on my car radio) that has played Christmas music for a while, definitely before Halloween.

[1]

So here is a list of songs that 104.9 played that I haven't heard on the radio anywhere else, comparing 1 year of 104.9 to 6+ years of 96.1, 105.7, and 106.7 combined. This list is almost guaranteed to contain errors, but it's the best I have.

Default category

• Christmas Lights
• Hallelujah (Carrie Underwood) (unrelated to the one by Leonard Cohen or the Hallelujah Chorus)
• Oh Santa!
• The Man with All the Toys
• ¿Dónde Está Santa Claus?
• A Christmas Song (not to be confused with The Christmas Song)
• Christmas Calling
• Christmas is the Time to Say I Love You
• I Believe in Father Christmas
• It's Christmas Time All Over the World
• Must Be Santa
• Officially Christmas
• Santa's Coming For Us (also heard at CVS)
• Small Town Christmas
• That's Christmas to Me
• (It Must Have Been Ol') Santa Claus
• Candy Cane Lane
• Christmas Where You Are
• Favorite Time of Year
• Give Love on Christmas Day
• Hard Candy Christmas
• Ho Ho Ho and a Bottle of Rhum
• It Doesn't Have to Be This Way (yes, this is a Christmas song)
• Merry Xmas Everybody
• Santa Can You Hear Me
• Shake Up Christmas (have heard at some stores)
• Text Me Merry Christmas (have heard at Stop & Shop)
• That Holiday Feeling
• The Christmas Sweater
• All I Want for Christmas is a Rock 'N' Roll Guitar
• An Old-Fashioned Christmas
• Feels Like Christmas
• I Believe in Santa Claus
• Merry Christmas from the Family
• That's Why We Celebrate
• Wake Up, It's Christmas Morning
• Whatever Happened to Christmas?
• Wrapped in Red
• One that I have no idea what it is but it's called "[title] (Christmas version)" where only about two words are changed in the entire song

From movies

• Heat Miser/Snow Miser (always consecutive, but in either order)
• Silver and Gold
• We Are Santa's Elves
• Put One Foot in Front of the Other
• The Polar Express
• We're a Couple of Misfits
• Hot Chocolate

Parodies

• Mr. Santa (parody of Mr. Sandman)
• Don't know the title, but it's a parody of YMCA

Not Christmas songs and shouldn't be played

• The Gift (first two words are "winter snow", no mention of anything after that)
• Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen) performed by Pentatonix (putting something on a Christmas album doesn't make it a Christmas song) (also heard at one restaurant)
• Don't Put Mercury in the Trash (justified since it's a commercial)

Still missing and non-religious

• Good King Wenceslas, except as a station identifier on 105.7 years ago
• Here We Come A-Wassailing
• Boar's Head Carol
• Any non-instrumental version of O Christmas Tree

[1995hoo]

I won’t listen to the station until after they stop this nonsense, but in the DC area, WASH-FM 97.1 starts doing that around November 1 (which just makes it that much more obnoxious).

[KCRoadFan]

Here in KC we have two Christmas radio stations: 94.9 KCMO and KC 102.1. The former switched over yesterday morning; I'm not sure when the latter one switched, but I know it was already playing Christmas music in the single-digits of November.

Anyway, I think that, not only should stations wait until the week of Thanksgiving (preferably the day itself) to change to all-Christmas music format, but I think they should keep it on that format at least through New Year's, if not through Twelfth Night (January 5). Who's with me on that? (Sometimes, if we have a big snowstorm in late January or February, I'll sometimes listen to Christmas music even then!)

[SectorZ]

Unless it's Bob Rivers I'm not too interested. As someone who loves the Christmas season (my house is by far the most Christmas-y looking in my neighborhood my whole life), the music just doesn't move the needle for me. I guess being a metal head leaves a void for us.

• Christmas is the Time to Say I Love You

Man I forget all the time that Billy Squire has a Christmas song.

[TheHighwayMan394]

Twin Cities had 107.9 KQQL (KOOL 108, 80s/90s hits) switch over sometime already.

[hbelkins]

WMXL-FM (94.5) in Lexington switched at the first of the month. They market themselves as MixMas during this time.

The first time I rode anywhere with my wife driving and that station playing, I lost Wham-a-geddon.

[epzik8]

101.9 WLIF is the standard in Baltimore.

[-- US 175 --]

KNTU 88.1 in Denton, TX plays jazz from a link on their online site (www.kntu.com); since Thanksgiving, every 3rd to 5th song played is a jazzy Christmas song.
(If you listen to their OTA station, it plays indie music; the OTA station flipped from jazz a few months ago to a negatively-raucous mixed reaction.)

[kirbykart]

In WNY, Star 102.5 starts playing 24/7 Christmas music on November 1st now.

[roadman65]

100.7 in my area of Lakeland, Florida along with 107.9 FM.

[Rothman]

So here is a list of songs that 104.9 played that I haven't heard on the radio anywhere else, comparing 1 year of 104.9 to 6+ years of 96.1, 105.7, and 106.7 combined. This list is almost guaranteed to contain errors, but it's the best I have.

Default category

• Christmas Lights
• Hallelujah (Carrie Underwood) (unrelated to the one by Leonard Cohen or the Hallelujah Chorus)
• Oh Santa!
• The Man with All the Toys
• ¿Dónde Está Santa Claus?
• A Christmas Song (not to be confused with The Christmas Song)
• Christmas Calling
• Christmas is the Time to Say I Love You
• I Believe in Father Christmas
• It's Christmas Time All Over the World
• Must Be Santa
• Officially Christmas
• Santa's Coming For Us (also heard at CVS)
• Small Town Christmas
• That's Christmas to Me
• (It Must Have Been Ol') Santa Claus
• Candy Cane Lane
• Christmas Where You Are
• Favorite Time of Year
• Give Love on Christmas Day
• Hard Candy Christmas
• Ho Ho Ho and a Bottle of Rhum
• It Doesn't Have to Be This Way (yes, this is a Christmas song)
• Merry Xmas Everybody
• Santa Can You Hear Me
• Shake Up Christmas (have heard at some stores)
• Text Me Merry Christmas (have heard at Stop & Shop)
• That Holiday Feeling
• The Christmas Sweater
• All I Want for Christmas is a Rock 'N' Roll Guitar
• An Old-Fashioned Christmas
• Feels Like Christmas
• I Believe in Santa Claus
• Merry Christmas from the Family
• That's Why We Celebrate
• Wake Up, It's Christmas Morning
• Whatever Happened to Christmas?
• Wrapped in Red
• One that I have no idea what it is but it's called "[title] (Christmas version)" where only about two words are changed in the entire song

From movies

• Heat Miser/Snow Miser (always consecutive, but in either order)
• Silver and Gold
• We Are Santa's Elves
• Put One Foot in Front of the Other
• The Polar Express
• We're a Couple of Misfits
• Hot Chocolate

Parodies

• Mr. Santa (parody of Mr. Sandman)
• Don't know the title, but it's a parody of YMCA

Not Christmas songs and shouldn't be played

• The Gift (first two words are "winter snow", no mention of anything after that)
• Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen) performed by Pentatonix (putting something on a Christmas album doesn't make it a Christmas song) (also heard at one restaurant)
• Don't Put Mercury in the Trash (justified since it's a commercial)

Still missing and non-religious

• Good King Wenceslas, except as a station identifier on 105.7 years ago
• Here We Come A-Wassailing
• Boar's Head Carol
• Any non-instrumental version of O Christmas Tree

But the station doesn't play this variety anymore, right?

Would appreciate a direct recommendation for a station that has Christmas variety like this.

[elsmere241]

Generally if one company owns one or more stations in the Philadelphia / Wilmington area, one of them goes Christmas.

I ventured south today into the Salisbury / Dover market and almost every station was playing Christmas music.

I miss the days when stations had individual owners.  Around now they'd start mixing Christmas music in, and go full throttle on Christmas Day.

[1]

But the station doesn't play this variety anymore, right?

Would appreciate a direct recommendation for a station that has Christmas variety like this.

It changed ownership and doesn't even go all-Christmas anymore.

It's also way outside your area: https://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=WNKC&service=FM

[PurdueBill]

IIRC, 106.7 played Christmas music well before Halloween, which the normal start date.

That's definitely not the case now, and I don't think it was the case back when it was 105.7 rather than 106.7 doing it. (The switch happened when 106.7 was owned by 105.7, and 105.7 would even periodically say to listen to 106.7 for Christmas music the year they switched.) It started about a week ago. 96.1 started on maybe November 4 or so, while 104.9, when it existed, started on somewhere around the 10th.

Another 105.7, WMJI Cleveland, switches really early to Christmas music every year (November 4 this year) and won't stop until about New Year's.  Seems too early, although Hallmark Channel was already nonstop Christmas movies for two weeks at that point.
 
Shopping in Meijer yesterday I said "uh, oh, here it comes!" when the beginning notes of Mariah Carey's All I Want for Christmas is You played in the store, with a soft screech of people singing along in low voices all tried to hit that high note near the end.  Only another month of that left!

[therocket]

KOST 103.5 is a notable Christmas radio station in the LA area.

[Scott5114]

Shopping in Meijer yesterday I said "uh, oh, here it comes!" when the beginning notes of Mariah Carey's All I Want for Christmas is You played in the store, with a soft screech of people singing along in low voices all tried to hit that high note near the end.  Only another month of that left!

I may be in the small minority that actually likes that particular song, although I wonder how much of it is me actually liking it and how much of it is because of how many times in my life it has represented a brief respite from Bing Goddamn Fucking Pants-Shitting Crosby.