Kansas City Soft-Rock Stations Acting Like Christmas Creeps

noah | October 31, 2007 5:01 am
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Kansas City’s KCKC flipped its format to all-Christmas music today, despite it being a) 60 degrees and sunny in the area and b) October. The switch is the latest chapter in a holiday-music rivalry KCKC has with fellow soft-rock trafficker KUDL; the Kansas City Star news item announcing the format switch was accompanied by a chart outlining just how obscenely early in the year each station made the soft-rock to snow-rock change. (Last year, KUDL went all-Christmas on Nov. 1; presumably the KCKC higher-ups thought they would fake everyone out by switching today.) And just when you think it can’t get any sillier, KCKC’s Wikipedia page further fleshes out how the two stations have engaged in Christmas warfare over the years:

Star 102, called KSRC-FM until 2006, says they are one of the first stations in the United States to play nothing but Christmas music in December, doing so in 1998. However, rival station KUDL that has been a Soft Rock station since 1987 actually played all Christmas music closer to Christmas for several years before Star 102. Each year many in Kansas City speculate on who will be the first to make the switch. In 2006, KUDL began in early November, with KCKC following suit the week of Thanksgiving. This led to a few listeners (who believe Christmas music belongs to the Christmas season, aka December*) boycotting both stations.

Sounds ridiculous, right? Well, it sounds even moreso when you realize that the “Christmas Music” section of this page has been edited more than anything else. Seriously, people–even those of you whose proximity to Hallmark HQ has forever linked the holiday season with “profit”–this time of year is supposed to be about fun, not ditching your Celine Dion songs for, uh, Celine Dion Christmas songs. Are we really going to have to settle this by having both stations lay down their “Pretty Paper”-covered arms and play nothing but Paul McCartney’s “Pipes Of Peace” for 24 hours straight come Dec. 25?

Christmas music on Halloween? [KansasCity.com]

*Try reading that aside in a Comic Book Guy voice. Hilarity!

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