Fish 104.7 goes all Christmas, followed by B98.5 four hours later

B98.5, which last year zoomed to No. 1 in the ratings the minute it brought Santa Claus into town, chose the same time as 2009 to launch its format: 11:59 a.m. with Bobby Helms' "Jingle Bell Rock."

The first station in Atlanta to go all Christmas happened was then Peach 94.9 a decade ago. Fish jumped aboard in 2002. B98.5 followed in 2004. In 2006, Peach (now Lite) dropped Christmas in the middle of December for a country format, 94.9/The Bull, leaving Atlanta with two all-Christmas stations the past four years.

If you want your Christmas music with a bit more spirituality, listen to Fish, which features songs such as "O Come, o Come Emmanuel" and "What Child is This?." But the station will also throw in some secular classics, too, such as Andy Williams' "Silver Bells" and Burl Ives' "It's a Holly Jolly Christmas."

(Sirius/XM switched its Love station to all Christmas last week. South-skewing Magic 98.1 went Christmas earlier this month. J93.3, a Christian station that can be heard on the south side will start all Christmas music on Friday.)

B98.5 has been known to keep a tight playlist which includes the usual suspects such as Nat King Cole's "The Christmas Song" and Bing Crosby's "White Christmas." And though there are always dozens of new Christmas albums released each year, the station is picky about playing new versions of old songs. As for brand new Christmas songs getting widespread airplay? Rare nowadays anywhere. Tradition rules the day.

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By Rodney Ho, rho@ajc.com, AJCRadioTV blog