It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas. And sound like it, too.

Hundreds of radio stations around the country are now playing all Christmas music. In the town where I live I counted a dozen or so, many different formats from Christian to rock to country to AC. Even Oldies! (I reckon’ they play Christmas songs that are OLD!)

While stations chase the success of significant audience growth during the holidays, many stations seem to have forgotten why people seek out Christmas music in the first place.

Playing Christmas music on a CCM station. Is it good or bad? Right or wrong? Clearly, it is not why our existing listeners tune to us.

Viewed simply as a programming tactic, programming all Christmas music is about as crazy as it gets. Let’s see, your listeners come to you because you play the music they love – Chris Tomlin, Big Daddy Weave, Hercules and the Chicken Fat People. Now you’ve decided to stop playing all the music that they love. That’s like ESPN deciding to stop carrying sports. How is the name of Bill Gaither is THAT supposed to be a good idea?

However, viewed as a programming strategy, it’s a different thing altogether.

Givers and takers.

When you think about the people that have had the greatest influence on your life I reckon’ you’d say they were GIVERS. I think of my mom and dad, many of my bosses in radio, and my friends and mentors along the journey.

“The human spirit senses and feeds on a giving spirit… Think about what Jesus taught – half the time people didn’t know what he was talking about, but they listened attentively. Jesus was giving – feeding them. Not taking. It is at a spirit (heart) level. He wasn’t just giving information.”

John Maxwell

Is there a connection between Christmas and your station’s strategy? No, I didn’t say Christmas MUSIC. I said Christmas.

They say there are more “religious” radio stations in the United States than any other format category. They also say that those religious stations have fewer listeners than any other. Ouch!

Many Christian radio stations could best be described as “A bunch of stuff all on one station,” consisting of a little of this and a little of that with little connection to their WHY.

“Your format sounds small,” an industry friend recently told me.

I reckon’ he knew how to get my attention.

“If your station can be transformative in someone’s life as you claim, then why do you spend 99% of your time focusing on the nuts and bolts, the songs, the artists, the deejays, the features – the stuff any radio station in any format can do.

Why don’t you focus on what matters most?,” he says from an outsider’s perspective.

Coming out of the pandemic and through a turbulent election season people are looking for answers. People are looking for hope.

Hyundai’s recent campaign “Hope is our greatest feature” offers us a perspective.