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11/23: Bull goes all Christmas
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
With the legacy of being the all Christmas station as Lite 94.9 for six years, 94.9 The Bull has decided to do it, too. In this case, though, the Christmas music is almost all country artists.
As you may recall, a week before Christmas last year, Clear Channel shocked Atlanta radio by abruptly cutting off all-Christmas music on Lite a week early and switching the station format to country music.
Program Director Clay Hunnicutt said he has no regrets doing that a year ago. But he knows the legacy Lite has with Christmas so he decided to go the Yuletide route with 80 to 90 percent country artists and a bit of Burl Ives and Nat King Cole thrown in, too. While hundreds of soft rock stations and Christian stations go all Christmas between Thanksgiving and Christmas, Hunnicutt said only a couple of other country stations do this nationwide.
“The format as far as country is fairly religious in tone and music such as Brooks & Dunn’s ‘Believe’ and Carrie Underwood’s ‘Jesus, Take the Wheel,’ ” he said. It helps that virtually every major artists does a Christmas album or contributes to some Christmas compilation at some point. He was able to compile a relatively deep playlist of 400 to 450 songs compared to just 150 or so B98.5 used last year. And to pay homage to Lite 94.9, the station is using the on-air line “The tradition continues.”
The year-old Bull, which has done almost as well as its predecessor in the key 25 to 54 demographic but still lags far behind mainstay Kicks 101.5, started all Christmas at the same time as B98.5 at 7 p.m. Thanksgiving evening. (Christian soft rock station 104.7/The Fish started a bit earlier. And the south-side leaning soft rock station Lite 96.7 launched Christmas earlier this week.).
So Atlanta has three Christmas stations and four if you count Lite 96.7 (which I really don’t because it isn’t a metro-wide signal and doesn’t have enough listening to qualify to show up on the Arbitron ratings.).
The first hour last night featured Alan Jackson’s “Holly Jolly Christmas,” Taylor Swift’s “Silent Night” (wow, she already has recorded a Christmas song!), Bing Crosby’s “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas,” Toby Keith’s “Joy to the World,” Alabama’s “Christmas in Dixie,” Martina McBride’s “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing,” Garth Brooks’ “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year,” Gene Autry’s “Here Comes Santa Claus,” Trisha Yearwood’s “Away In a Manger,” George Strait’s “Christmas Cookies,” the Eagles “Please Come Home For Christmas,” Brad Paisley’s “Winter Wonderland,” Carrie Underwood’s “Do You Hear What I Hear,” Bobby Helms’ “Jingle Bell Rock,” Willie Nelson’s “Pretty Paper,” Tracy Lawrence’s “All Wrapped Up In Christmas,” and Johnny Mathis’ “The First Noel.”
Comments
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By nick
November 23, 2007 1:20 PM | Link to this
Sorry, Rodney, again misinformed. BULL is nowhere near accomplishing what LITE did, especially as a pure country station. This means numbers without baseball listenership. LTM averaged a 3.0 in 2006 in monthlies, and Year to Date BULL is a 2.0 through Oct trends (oct estimated Extrapolation). This includes healthy baseball lift May-Sept. so they are off 1/3rd. In other demos its worse. Currently through current trend, BULL is rolling at a 1.8 and 17th compared to last Fall 06 when LTM was a 3.5 and 9th. Great job!
By Al
November 23, 2007 2:33 PM | Link to this
When will the likes of Deskins, Hunnicutt, and Bloomquist finally get thrown out of the Building of Death, both figuratively and literally? These clowns are The Three Stooges of Atlanta radio. Though, the original Three Stooges actually had talent, something these brain dead morons lack.
By jack frost
November 23, 2007 2:46 PM | Link to this
All cows go to slaughter sooner or later. Looks like this yearling bull will be sold for veal just in time for the new year. Will they plant a peach tree on 949 for spring? Let’s hope so.
By Rodney Ho
November 23, 2007 5:45 PM | Link to this
Geez, nick, cut me some slack. I don’t have monthy extraps like you do.
It’s true that Lite demolished Bull year to year in the winter of 2007 vs. 2006. Bull ranked 20th among 25-54; Lite ranked 11th.
But the differences were not that great in the spring and summer, which included the Braves. The Bull ranked 14th in the spring vs. 11th for Lite in spring 2006. Over the summer, the Bull ranked 17th vs. 18th last summer for Lite.
I can’t cite specific ratings numbers. That’s Arbitron policy.
Regardless, you are right nick. There is no doubt the Bull has been a disappointment for Clear Channel, especially given the amount of money placed in advertising to market it.
By DOA
November 25, 2007 1:36 PM | Link to this
Last year CC blew up LTM in the middle of playing Christmas music to start playing country and in the process ticked off their core. Now after airing a rater benign series of TV commercials that talk about the country music they play they start playing Christmas music, I don’t get it.I wish I could get a gig like Clay a dead 3rd country station and he has no regrets…or skill it would appear.
By deadair
November 25, 2007 9:12 PM | Link to this
I heard that Bloomquist’s deal is up in December. Might as well be. What the hell is he “programming” anyway. You sure could stock quite a few stations with the talent he’s run off. And anybody that thinks Mitch Evans is beter than Eric Page is about as dumb as Bloomie.
By Norbert Malvaux
November 26, 2007 7:44 AM | Link to this
I wish they would abruptly return 94.9 to its Lite format
By Boomer
November 26, 2007 6:36 PM | Link to this
I suppose Bloomquist and Deskins are celebrating the first anniversary of the death of Atlanta radio. Since these morons killed off GST and others, we’ve had nothing but syndicated crap.
By Tom
November 27, 2007 4:56 PM | Link to this
I like the Bull. I hope they stick around. It would be interesting to see if a station went Christmas music all year around…with the love that this market has for Christmas music it’s possible this format could be a top 5.
I always wondered why the listeners that were ticked about lite changing formats a year ago didn’t just switch to the other two stations that played Christmas music 24x7.