Christmas formats coming out for the season
November 10, 2023
Listeners to Renda’s WSHH (99.7) have already heard some holiday favorites this year. The first two weekends of November are Christmas music previews for the up and coming season. The Christmas format starts in full the weekend of Pittsburgh’s Light-up Night which is scheduled for Saturday, November 18.
WWSW (94.5) will start at the same time being one of four iHeart stations across the country to “wait” to start the format. Most of the iHeart stations across the country who typically make the switch each year started today.
I was surprised to hear Christmas music on the airwaves already yesterday. It’s still a couple weeks before Thanksgiving! Yowza! But kudos to 3WS for waiting at least until light up night to start the Christmas tunes.
I’m hopeful that 3WS will play more Christmas classics this year – last year’s rotation was less than spectacular. WSHH had the better music selection by far, but they process into distortion so it’s hard to listen to for too long. It’s not 1995 anymore and I’m not sure why they’re still so concerned with winning the “loudness war.”
WSOM in Salem Ohio at 600 kc AM was the first station I heard that did extended Christmas – all December, and that was a novelty back in the 1990s, maybe the 80s?
I’m glad someone is addressing the distortion on radio stations. It was noticeable back when CDs came out; I’d play a CD, and hear the same song on FM and the FM version would sound ugly, distorted bass I remember being the biggest problem. It’s even worse today, when most cars have decent sound systems. Maybe WSHH has old equipment that they haven’t replaced yet.
Boom
In the grand scheme of things, most listeners don’t notice these aural anomalies. But to those who do, I can understand the frustration.
I’ve mentioned it to people before, and they notice it sounds different and hear it as that “radio sound” like it’s what they expect from a broadcaster.
Lower fidelity could be one of the reasons that radio has fewer listeners, because stations haven’t kept up with sound technology.
Boom