Navidad en Español!

A real life story of novelty right before the holiday. Clear Channel in their own weird dystopian way have debuted a new, arguably experimental format in Tucson on 97.1 KTZR-FM. It's only been a couple days and most of the airplay has on the overnights so far. But I expect since they had the initiative to do it at all, that they'll go 24/7 sometime after thanksgiving.

Clear Channel picked a rimshotter in a small market to roll this out. It has all the hallmarks of a taste test. their tower of off to the South West of Tucson. It's location because of terrain and other forces is weak in the northern suburbs robbing them of full metro coverage that might otherwise be possible.  Despite large Hispanic populations in Tucson and it's southern suburbs they scrape the bottom of the Arbitron ratings book regularly. In 2003 they debuted a Spanish format for the first time under the brand Suave 97.1.  That was dropped in favor of La Preciosa which is more of a Spanish classic hits. They re-branded as Mia 97.1 about this time last year. My suspicion is that this format is the work of a local programmer.

Everybody knows the Jose Feliciano version of Feliz Navidad.  It's played on Spanish and pop stations alike. But there's a lot more Christmas music out there in the Spanish language. The playlist on KTZR is a strange blend of nostalgia such as Bing Crosby and brand new Spanish covers of yule time standards. If this succeeds in the ratings book, I'd expect to see a lot more of this next year. This will of course create demand for a slew of new releases. Here are some highlights from the play list in no order whatsoever:

Darlene Love - Christmas
Edith Marquez - Noche De Paz
Andrea Bocelli - God Bless Us Everyone
Ana Gabriel - Amarga Navidad
Grupo Mojado - Regalo A Santa Claus
El General - Jingle Belele
Bing Crosby - Do You Hear What I Hear
Belinda Rodolfo - El Reno De La Nariz Roja
Tito El Bambino - Feliz Navidad
Luis Miguel - Blanca Navidad
Los Bukis - Navidad Sin Ti
Andy Williams - Sleigh Ride
Juan Gabriel - 24 De Diciembre
Jon Secada - Feliz Navidad
Daniela Romo - Blanca Navidad
Perry Como - Winter Wonderland
Pedro Fernandez and Ricky Martin - Amigos Del Mundo
Raphael - El Tamborilero
Amalia Mendoza - Amarga Navidad
Luis Miguel - Navidad, Navidad
Los Fugitivos -  Triste Navidad
Mijares - Adeste Fideles
Ana Barbara - Dame Un Beso En Noche Buena
Daniela Romo - Blanca Navidad
Frank Sinatra -  Jingle Bells
Luis Miguel Te Deseos Muy Felices Fiestas
Nat King Cole - The Christmas Song
Aventura - El Burrito De Belen

Flipping Christmas

Unlike flipping the bird, flipping a house or flipping your wig, flipping to Christmas is traditional, and in some places regular as clockwork. Hundreds of U.S. radio stations drops their regularly scheduled formats and "flip" as we say in the biz to an all-Christmas music format.Each of these stations for sometimes as long as 60 days embraces a change from radio station to background muzak. The change matters because programmers, consultants, reps and everybody else still disagree what the effect of this is on ratings. There are changes to cume, and various demos. Specifically the female demo 25-54 doubles. On the other hand it's not unusual to lose half of your existing primary listeners. Generally speaking, TSL increases, but only in the sense that the radio is on, conscious listening essentially ends. Sure we all hear the hold music when we call the bank, but are we listening? No.

While many stations flip to all Xmas in early November, (yes some as early as September, I know) But there is a perceptible change on November 24th. On November 24th, the flip pays off, suddenly with Halloween and thanksgiving out of the way, perhaps a little frost on the ground people are willing to accept that Christmas is coming. So on the 24th, an uptick in listeners begins. See KODA case-study) AC Stations like WLTW, and WBEB see increases of 30-40% in their ratings.

Not to give you the idea that only AC stations flip or alternately that all AC stations flip. After country, AC is the most common radio format. It's logical that a large number of the 200+ Xmas stations will be from AC as they are every year. But a large number of christian AC and Oldies stations flip as well. This year I've also noticed a number of Spanish stations, especially the "La Preciosa" brand mixing in some Hispanic holiday cheer.

Despite this known set-date, stations still behave somewhat differently. They flip formats cold, or evolve toward 100% Xmas saturation from a base of one spin per hour. Some actually maintain a few weeks of a 50/50 split blending a Soft AC mix of artists like Elton John with CHR covers of Xmas classics. I don't want to give the idea that an all-Xmas format has to be dull. WRBQ in Tampa actually has forged their own Xmas playlist, not adhering at all to the expected list Sinatra/Burl Ives reruns.

It's pretty revolting actually. This year the Christmas flip will be studied more intensely than usual as Arbitron's PPM markets will be applied to a "holiday book" which will measure listening between December 13, 2007 and January 9, 2008.