Radio Stations Across The Country Continue Battling Each Other With Jingle Bell Rock

Kansas City residents aren’t the only poor suckers caught in the merry crossfire, as two more radio stations have gone to war against each other via all-Christmas playlists. This time, Chicago’s WLIT rushed to get its Christmas offerings on the air before dawn this morning, almost a week ahead of schedule, in order to beat WCKG, a former talk station looking to cash in on big holiday ratings. And who loses in this struggle? Only Grinches, of course.

WCKG’s “Deck the Halls” gambit of making a playlist and checking it twice may very well set the stage for a competition on a larger scale since a leading candidate for the station’s new format is an adult-contemporary brand that would have it going head-to-head with the WLIT for female listeners.

Last year, WLIT, or The Lite, began playing Christmas songs on Nov. 2, attracting strong ratings over the next eight weeks according to Arbitron. As of late Thursday night, a countdown clock on WLIT’s Web site indicated the station would switch to a holiday playlist at midnight on Nov. 9, but obviously that was hardly etched in stone.

So since this stunt programming is an obvious ratings grab, it means that–like those Kansas City nutjobs counting down every year until the format switch–a lot of Chicago area listeners are actually waiting for radio stations to begin their double-barreled Yuletide assault. Who are these frightening people? Certainly not the helpless retail employees–like this poor commenter–now forced to live through more than two months of forced cheer. Nothing inches a person closer to suicide than hearing Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas” for the umpteenth time in a single day while stuck behind a register.

Christmas Music Already? Yule Bet [Chicago Tribune]