Don’t Rush Christmas: When to Tell Listeners What’s Next
With the holiday season about to begin, AC Programming Today will be featuring a number of subjects on the many ways you can celebrate this most special time of the year with your listeners and, most importantly, stay in touch with everything they are experiencing. Today, I’d like to talk about recycling the Christmas audience.
By now, most radio people realize how tough it is to keep all that Christmas cume once the season is over. After all, you are attracting listeners from many different formats, some of whom would probably never listen to your station during the rest of the year.
Having said that, I still believe you have to do everything you can to keep some of that cume.
With that in mind, let’s talk about when you should start telling listeners about what happens after Christmas, and some good ways to do it.
If you’re a PD, you know the feeling. You go all Christmas and within 24 hours you feel it. Everyone is listening. Sure, you get a few complaints, but most people are happy and in the spirit. The station feels alive, and listeners feel good.
Then the next thought kicks in: how do we turn all this cume into regular listeners? It’s not easy. All Christmas stations attract listeners from across the dial. If you’re an AC station, suddenly you’ve got P1s from Rock, Country, News and formats that normally never touch you.
Every year, this flip brings a rare opportunity: a huge influx of new ears who may not know your regular sound at all. Naturally, stations want to take advantage of that and start planting seeds about what happens after December 25.
But that’s where things can go wrong.
People love the build up to Christmas as much as the day itself. The shopping, decorating, cooking, travel plans and parties are part of the mood they expect from you. When you start talking too early about what you’ll be “after the holidays,” it breaks that mood. It feels like you’re pushing the season out the door, and no one wants that. That’s why timing is everything.
A smart rule: don’t talk about life after Christmas until you’re inside the final ten days. By then, listeners are deep in the season but also starting to think about what comes next. That’s the moment when a gentle, well phrased message won’t feel out of place.
And when you do start talking about January, sell the benefit, not the format. Most Christmas listeners do not care that you are Mainstream AC, Soft AC, Classic Hits or anything else. Tell them what they are going to get. Great familiar music. A relaxing workday. Personalities they will enjoy. Fewer distractions. Whatever your station’s real advantage is, that is what you should be selling.
When you start introducing the message, keep the tone warm and seasonal. Skip the blunt “after the holidays” language and try softer lines like:
“When the lights come down, we’ll take you back to the music you love.”
“Once the season winds down, here’s what we’re all about.”
“As the new year approaches, here’s the sound waiting for you.”
And remember, December 26 matters just as much as the ten days leading up to it. Once Christmas is over, the station should immediately sound confident about what comes next. Your regular music, imaging and personalities should all reinforce the same message listeners heard during the final days of Christmas.
Do not make January sound like a completely different radio station. The goal is not to convince every Christmas listener to stay. That is not going to happen. The goal is to give the listeners who might stay a clear reason to come back.
This approach lets you protect the magic listeners came for while still positioning your station for January. Hold the message until the last ten days, say it warmly, keep Christmas front and center until the end, and then make sure December 26 delivers on the promise.
That’s the best way to turn seasonal visitors into everyday listeners without rushing the season they love.
And by the way, Merry Christmas!