Christmas Wrap

We pause briefly from our series of pre- and post-CRS analysis to wax nostalgic and revisit the Christmas season, or what legendary crooner Andy Williams once declared in song, "The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year."

But, is it? ... Really?

For those of us in Country radio, Elvis Presley was probably more accurate when he sang, "I'll have a Blue Christmas without you," and by "without you," we mean listeners. In fact, since the late ‘90s and early 2000s, when a few AC programmers brilliantly discovered radio listeners' insatiable appetite for Christmas music – the onset coinciding with that post-Thanksgiving meal nap – holidays pretty much suck for Country PDs when it comes to ratings.

True to form, the losses continued for Country during Holiday ‘17. In PPM-measured markets, Country was down overall 6+ (7.1-6.6), 18-34 (7.7-7.2), and 25-54 (6.6-6.3) compared to December monthies, which were also down from November. As in past years, these are the two lowest monthly shares of the calendar year for Country radio. There were some bright spots, however, as 15 Country outlets in 14 PPM markets increased 6+ shares. Renda WGNE/Jacksonville saw the biggest jump, moving 3.9-5.1, but still trailed market Country leader WQIK, which – while down 11.0-10.6 – posted double-digit shares for the umpteenth month in a row. Mt. Wilson KKGO/Los Angeles was also up, 2.1-2.9, the second-best gainer of the 15 who improved over the Holiday survey. Interestingly, both Phoenix Country stations increased during that month, each rising to the tune of 0.4; Entercom KMLE moved 3.4-3.8, while iHeartMedia KNIX went 3.7-4.1, a net gain of 0.8 for Country in the market.

For two years now, KKGO has done what has been historically rare for a Country outlet: jump into the Christmas music waters with both feet, playing all holiday music. I can probably count on two hands the total number of stations that have boldly gone where few have been before in that regard during the all-Christmas music era. In most cases, radio stations getting their holiday on have been doing so for a while and totally own that lane. Case in point, and since I mentioned Los Angeles, iHeartMedia AC KOST – one of the first stations ever to do it beginning in 2001 – enjoying instant, fantastic success.

In 2016, KKGO announced it would play all Christmas music, beginning around the usual trigger point for the tactic, Thanksgiving. The lone Country station in Los Angeles, KKGO upped the ante by going wide, musically, not limiting itself to Country artists and songs. Nope, KKGO went right at KOST, playing traditional holiday classics, and few – if any – Country titles. KKGO enjoyed success – at least in the Holiday survey, which, as I pointed out earlier, is traditionally a black hole for Country stations when it comes to results.

After a rough December ‘16 where it posted a 2.1 among persons 6+, KKGO surged to 2.8 in the Holiday month, adding nearly 500,000 cume persons, while posting its highest monthly cume figure for the year: 1,588,900. KKGO settled at 2.2 in January of ‘17, then averaged a 2.7 share from April through September of ‘17 before moving 2.6-2.5-2.1 from October through December, a steady decline typical for Country radio leading up to Christmas.

I spoke to KKGO Station Mgr. Michael Levine during and after the ‘16 holiday flip, pressing him to commit whether or not the station would repeat Christmas music again in 2017. Levine holds his cards close to the vest, so it wasn't until mid-November that he announced KKGO would indeed be all-Christmas again. It's always interesting, and more reliable, to track results like this, so now with two years of holiday programming under his belt, I thought a follow-up conversation was in order. What did he learn from last year? What changes, if any, would he make to music and or presentation at KKGO? And, will KKGO go all-Christmas again in 2018?

Levine said the first adjustment for 2017 was flipping a week later than the year before. "We heard feedback from last year saying it may have gone on too early," said Levine. "We saw that the growth really comes after Thanksgiving; that's when the ratings start going up in a positive direction. That's the peak period for Christmas programming." So, KKGO trimmed its all-Christmas mode to five weeks instead of six in 2017. Additionally, said Levine, "One of the big things we did this year was add Country programming to our HD3 channel. Last year, it was streaming only, where you had to go online to hear Country music – so we had the on-air option via our HD3 channel."

Levine shared another twist from 2016. "We probably didn't do a great job in the beginning [in 2016], making sure the top Country Christmas songs were highlighted, so we incorporated that very quickly this year. The focus was classic – we wanted to make sure Country artists were highlighted. There are many wonderful Country artists making great Christmas music that should appeal to all listeners. For example, Brett Young had a great version of 'O Holy Night' that we added. And, Brett Eldredge 'Baby It's Cold Outside' has become a favorite, not only on our station, but other stations across the country, too."

Levine says there was another musical adjustment versus 2016, and it came after Christmas day. "The two weeks following Christmas music, we only focused on our top songs – everything in Power, Medium, and of course, top re-currents played. New and light category songs were not, so we focused on familiarity."

Looking over Nielsen Holiday PPM data after the fact, Levine saw many positives. "Two-thirds of our audience came back after Christmas music. Not only did we grow by 250 people meters, with that growth – which was just about 950 people meters against our average of 650-700 – most were previous listeners to the station. So, it was good to see that not only were listeners of the station coming to our holiday programming, but we added new listeners and enjoyed the best of both worlds, which we were pleased with."

We already talked about KKGO's monthly share increase – 2.1-2.9 December-Holiday ‘17 for its best share of the year. And, like 2016, KKGO saw a cume surge as well, adding 309,400 persons in the Holiday ‘17 month taking the station north of 1.5 million, the highest average weekly sample for KKGO in all of 2017.

Oh, and KOST, the station that made Christmas music famous in LA? As usual, also, up – big. The station moved 8.7-11.9 from December to the Holiday month, adding 1.1 million cume persons in the 13th PPM Monthly. Both figures ranked #1 in Los Angeles.

"We are different vehicles," Levine said of the two stations. "We'll be more focused on what works for us, knowing that we can both grow in the market without one station taking from the other. We had originally looked at this as a zero-sum game, with the station in town that's a Christmas powerhouse since 2001. We assumed there was only one station listeners would want to hear playing Christmas music. We saw growth on both stations; we both added new listeners, and people were drawn to both stations. This will be helpful if we continue this in years to come."

Key word there: "If." See? Levine is still playing close to the vest. Guess we'll just have to wait until November to know KKGO's holiday plans for 2018. Also, there's something else that happens to Country radio on an annual basis: strong ratings recovery beginning in January. That, we don’t have to wait long for. January PPM monthlies start rolling Tuesday, February 20th, and All Access will have full coverage each of the four days Nielsen sends results.