“It’s Oct. 31 and Christmas music is already playing on a Cincinnati radio station.”
That’s how WLWT-TV reported the holiday music flip at WAKW (Star 93.3) Cincinnati last month. Star 93.3 flipped to Christmas music ahead of many of the stations in our recent coverage of the first wave of holiday flips, as well as AC rival WRRM (Warm 98). (Fortunately, WLWT did not only refer to Star as “a Cincinnati radio station.”)
We wrote about WAKW’s sister, New Jersey’s WAWZ (Star 99.1) two years ago. This week, we took a First Listen to holiday music on Star and a very different approach on KDUV (Spirit 88.9) Visalia/Fresno, Calif., the Christian AC format’s other early holiday launch.
Star 93.3 promises “uplifting Christmas music.” The segment I heard was mostly titles that you’d hear on any Christmas station, although by a 60/40 mix of artists you hear everywhere and core Christian AC acts. (As you’d expect, songs like “What Child Is This” and “O Holy Night” start right away as opposed to some Mainstream AC outlets.) The station is also first I’ve heard promoting “Christmas Wish” this year.
Here’s Star 93.1 at 8:25 p.m., November 16 during the station’s evening program “Encouraging Star Stories with Devon”:
- Bing Crosby, “White Christmas”
- Michael Bublé f/Puppini Sisters, “Jingle Bells”
- Pentatonix, “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen”
- Mark Martel f/Plumb, “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas”
- MercyMe, “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree”
- Frank Sinatra, “Mistletoe and Holly”
- Point of Grace, “O Holy Night”
- Vince Guaraldi, “Linus and Lucy”
- Sidewalk Prophets, “What Child Is This”
- Dean Martin, “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”
- Newsong, “This Christmas”
Spirit 88.9 was playing a more format-specific holiday mix, including a few songs not directly holiday themed. That was explained by a stager declaring that “the true spirit of Christmas is here with your holiday favorites, and of course, the reason we celebrate.” Here’s the station at 11:45 a.m., November 15:
- Mariah Carey, “All I Want for Christmas (Is You)”
- Jordan Smith, “O Come (Let Us Adore)”—even holiday music has its “flips” now; 2021 interpolation of “O Come All Ye Faithful” with hip-hop beats
- Jon Reddick, “God Turn It Around”
- Burl Ives, “A Holly Jolly Christmas”
- Sidewalk Prophets, “Hey Moon”
- Michael Bublé, “Ave Maria”
- Lauren Daigle, “Light of the World”
- Nat “King” Cole, “Hark the Herald Angels Sing”
- We Are Messengers, “This is Jesus”
- Andrew Ripp, “Fill My Cup”
- Vince Guaraldi, “Christmas Time Is Here”
- TobyMac, “Bring on the Holidays”