‘Y’ 94.9-FM Plays Xmas Tunes 24/7
by December 5, 2005 12:00 am 89 views
Cumulus Broadcasting Inc.’s KYNF-FM, 94.9 the “Y” switched to an all Christmas music format on Nov. 19.
Yuletide tunes will play non-stop through Christmas day, then the station will slip back into its regular “adult contemporary” format, said Joe Conway, Cumulus market manager.
The format has about 250 songs in its lineup, Conway said, including novelty songs such as “Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer.” But as Christmas gets closer, the music will be more traditional, focusing on the “Bing Crosbys and Perry Comos,” he said.
As of Nov. 22, there were 112 radio stations across the country that had made a similar format change, according to 100000watts.com.
“The advertisers love it,” Conway said. Advertisers like being on a station that reminds the audience of the holiday season, he said.
The switch is good for any station because it attracts new listeners and it “rests your products,” so the fulltime format sounds fresh, he said.
The station changed to the Christmas format temporarily last year, not long after changing its overall format from ’80s to adult contemporary, Conway said. The station’s call letters changed about that time too, from KDAB-FM.
In Arbitron Inc.’s spring 2005 radio ratings, KYNF ranked No. 14 in the “12-year-old-and-older” demographic.