Christmas is a powerful time of the year for many people and for many reasons. So powerful in fact that 168 radio stations in the United States have converted their formats to full-time Holiday music, according to Nielsen.That's not all. Hundreds of other stations across the country have also converted their formats to part-time Christmas music.
One of the downsides to this is the fact that there's less space than ever on already crowded playlists, to the point that superstars like Adele and Taylor Swift even get boxed out by the Xmas classics.
Speaking of which, even though most music stars try to cash in on the Christmas cheer with a Holiday release, they find it hard to break the stranglehold that songs from the 40s and 50s seem to have on radio at this time of year.
That said, I was recently on a cruise ship for a week where they didn't once play a familiar Christmas song by Bing Crosby, Burl Ives or Brenda Lee and never repeated a song the entire week, so there's lots of great Holiday music out there if only stations were willing to look.
In the meantime, take heart in the fact that on December 26th there will be 168 more radio stations back playing their regular formats, and Christmas music will be forgotten for another year.
