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All-Christmas Formats Boost Ratings after Turkey Day

From the two years that Arbitron’s PPM has been around to track Christmas seasons, 2002 in Philadelphia and 2005 in Houston, it looks as though going to an “all Christmas ” format has a significant impact on the ratings for stations - but only after the Thanksgiving holiday has passed.

And the closer you get to Christmas, the bigger the audience to Christmas music, Arbitron says.

For example, in 2002 in Philadelphia, WSNI-FM (which went All Christmas on Veterans Day) didn’t see an up tick in the ratings until just after Thanksgiving. The ratings grew steadily as Christmas approached and then dipped quickly back to typical levels soon after. The station saw a Persons 25-54 share of 26 on Christmas Eve and a share of 29 on Christmas Day 2002.

In 2005 in Houston, KODA-FM went All Christmas on November 18. However, the ratings for the station remained relatively flat until after Thanksgiving.

Arbitron’s senior vp of press and investor relations, Thom Mocarsky, says that tracking a radio station’s audience week-to-week over less than a two-month period is something only the PPM can do reliably. “The quarterly diary service can’t show you how big the weekly audience dividends are for going All Christmas. They all get ‘washed out’ in the fall three-month average.”