iHeartMedia has announced it has made the move to Christmas Music across the majority of the stations that do so across its portfolio.
Over 85 stations within the company have begun playing Christmas music today with the only notable exceptions remaining being AC “106.7 Lite-FM” WLTW New York, Classic Hits “94.5 3WS” WWSW Pittsbugh, and Soft ACs “98.1 The Breeze” KISQ San Francisco and “92.5 The Breeze” KBEB Sacramento. Those stations usually wait until the third week of November to do so.
The company will also feature the annual iHeartRadio Holiday Special across its suite of AC and Classic Hits stations on Wednesday, November 22 at 7pm. The two-hour special will be hosted by Mario Lopez and feature interviews with Cher, David Foster and Katharine McPhee, Elton John, Meghan Trainor, Rob Thomas, Ryan Tedder of OneRepublic and Train discussing their favorite holiday songs and traditions.
iHeartMedia announced the annual station flip to holiday music kicks off today with more than 85 stations across the country broadcasting the season’s festive music from today’s biggest artists as well as Christmas classics from Bing Crosby, Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra and more 24/7. Continuing the celebration of the holiday season, the iHeartRadio Holiday Special returns this year on November 22. Hosted by Mario Lopez, the two-hour special event will feature interviews with Cher, David Foster and Katharine McPhee, Elton John, Meghan Trainor, Rob Thomas, Ryan Tedder of OneRepublic and Train discussing their favorite holiday songs and traditions. The special will broadcast across iHeartMedia’s AC and Classic Hits stations nationwide and on the iHeartRadio app on November 22 at 7 p.m. local time.
Every holiday season, iHeartMedia converts music radio stations in its key markets to all holiday music through Christmas Day. Each year, these stations continue to have the largest audiences of all radio stations in each market – often doubling the audience size from non-holiday programming – making iHeartMedia the No. 1 holiday music listening destination.
Listeners can discover a holiday station for every mood and celebration across more than 250 platforms and 2,000 devices with the iHeartRadio. Original stations like “iHeart Christmas,” playing all the holiday favorites; “North Pole Radio,” hosted by Santa Claus himself; “iHeart Christmas Classics,” the place to hear all the timeless holiday classics; or holiday channels playing all kinds of music, including iHeartCountry Christmas, iHeart Christmas Jazz, iHeart Christmas Rock, iHeart Christmas R&B, and more. To find all iHeartRadio’s extensive holiday offerings, listeners can visit the iHeartRadio app and search “iHeart Holiday.”
“Listeners look forward to that special day when we convert so many of our stations to Christmas music because it means that the holiday season has really started,” said Tom Poleman, Chief Programming Officer for iHeartMedia. “To celebrate we are bringing back the iHeartRadio Holiday Special with Cher, David Foster and Katharine McPhee, Elton John, Meghan Trainor, Rob Thomas, Ryan Tedder and Train who will be sharing their personal holiday memories.”