WZTI Planning A New Party On Christmas

Party Almost On....

It looks like the MILWAUKEE RADIO ALLIANCE has tipped its hand when it comes to the future format of Adult Standards WZTI-A/F (MARTINI RADIO)/MILWAUKEE. Although it's currently playing all-CHRISTMAS music as "100.3 THE ELF," a new website is live, touting a new format as "THE PARTY 100.3" that is "coming soon."

The stations are also airing promos that predict, “Something Big Is About To Start On 100.3 and 1290" -- specifically, 5p on CHRISTMAS DAY. Stay tuned!

« see more Net News

View the original article here

Summit Louisville Flips To Christmas Format

10-30-14

SummitMedia Louisville's Lite 106.9 (WVEZ) morning man Jeff Ramsey, accompanied by a roomful of Santas, made the official transformation into "Louisville?s Original Christmas Music Station.? The station will now play modern and classic Christmas and holiday-themed songs through Christmas night. Operations Manager Shane Collins said, "With the weather getting colder, it seemed the perfect time to pull the switch. We just couldn't wait to continue our 15-year tradition of being Louisville's Christmastime authority. We are the first in the neighborhood to put up our tree and we are proud of it!"

Add a Comment Send This Story To A Friend

View the original article here

The First Signs Of Christmas

10-5-14

Envision Networks is the first to start spreading holiday cheer. Envision is already offering stations "The 100 Greatest Christmas Hits of All Time," the 10-hour radio special hosted by TV game show host Wink Martindale. Available on a cash basis, this program counts down the Yuletide hits and has been updated to include music from this past year. "The 100 Greatest Christmas Hits of All Time" is based on data compiled by Billboard magazine and listings of the Christmas tracks most played on radio over the past decade.

View the original article here

Its 14 Years For "Christmas Across The Lands."

12-12-13

Randy Sherwyn, PD for Beasley's  Sunny 106.3 WJPT-FM in Fort Myers will host the 14th annual ?Christmas Across the Lands,? a 12-hour radio Christmas show that airs mainly on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day in markets across the globe. Originating thirteen years ago as a tribute to our troops stationed overseas, ?Christmas Across the Lands? is written, produced, and hosted by Sherwyn. Sherwyn freshens the show every year which includes a mix of music and interviews. New interviews include Richard Marx, Trans-Siberian Orchestra and B.J. Thomas.

With the support of the American Forces Network-Radio (AFN Radio), ?Christmas Across the Lands? has become an annual signature event for troops stationed overseas and for ships at sea during the holiday season.  The Canadian Forces Network/Europe (CFN) also airs the show across Europe and NATO HQ.   This year, the show will be heard by military personnel stationed in over 177 countries around the globe. Additionally, the show will air nationwide and in international territories including Canada, West Indies, Cayman Islands, New Zealand, England, South Africa, Guam, Ireland, Kosovo, the Philippines and the U.S. Virgin Islands. 

View the original article here

MAGIC In Boston Goes Christmas

11-21-13

Greater Media's MAGIC 106.7 (WMJX) in Boston officially makes the flip to Christmas music today at 5 p.m. The station will have commercial-free Christmas hours at 8:15 a.m. and 1:15 p.m. each weekday. In addition, it will be commercial free from 3 p.m. Christmas Eve through 8 p.m. Christmas Day so listeners can enjoy their holiday favorites with no interruption as they celebrate with family and friends.

View the original article here

KEZK Goes "All Christmas" Through Dec. 25

11-15-13

KEZK (Fresh 102.5 FM) in St. Louis is now playing continuous Christmas music and will continuthrough December 25. 

The station will feature traditional Christmas music from iconic artists like Bing Crosby, Elvis, Nat King Cole, and Burl Ives, as well as contemporary Christmas favorites from Michael Buble, The Eagles, Harry Connick Jr., Madonna, Paul McCartney, Elton John, Trans-Siberian Orchestra, and more.

John Sheehan, Senior Vice President / Market Manager for CBS Radio in St. Louis, MO, says ?As the official Christmas music station, Fresh 102.5 is proud to once again provide the soundtrack for so many great St. Louis family holiday traditions.?

Add a Comment Send This Story To A Friend

View the original article here

93.9 MYfm Chicago Goes Christmas

11-14-13

Clear Channel's 93.9 MYfm has been playing Christmas music programming during the holiday season since 2000. PD Mick Lee said, ?Over the past few weeks, we?ve asked listeners to head to http://www.939myfm.com/ to take a guess at when they think we?re flipping to Christmas music. With thousands of submissions, it?s clear that Chicagoland is ready for the holidays! Beginning today, we?re thrilled to announce the tradition of Christmas music continues on Chicago?s new 93.9 MYfm.?

View the original article here

Christmas Now Belongs To KLUV In Dallas

11-11-13
KLUV-FM will now be CBS's Dallas Christmas station. Previously, KVIL would flip to holiday music but Director of Music Programming for CBS in Dallas Ron Harrell says, "We're passing the torch from KVIL to KLUV. Christmas music is a natural fit with KLUV's classic hits format, and our listeners will embrace it." Holiday-related promotions and community events which were previously associated with KVIL, such as the Children's Medical Center Radiothon, will transition to 98.7 KLUV as well. KLUV morning drive host Jody Dean will be at the forefront of these efforts.

View the original article here

(SALES) Make It Feel Like Christmas Now

8-14-2013

While your sales people are boating, golfing, and enjoying the summer weather, it can be difficult to have thoughts of sugar plums dancing in their heads.

But your clients and prospects are planning their Christmas campaigns NOW.

An August 8 report in Chain Store Age suggests that 60 percent of retailers are ?cautiously optimistic? about sales in the upcoming holiday season. In their ?2013 Holiday Predictions Survey? e-tailer Baynote reported 60 percent of retailers are forecasting revenue growth  in excess of 10 percent.

The report also suggests that 30 percent of retailers will begin their pre-holiday promotions prior to October 1, with more than 40 percent waiting only until early November.
You know, "The early bird gets the worm."

Yet many media account executives will be panicked and running around like frantic last-minute Christmas shoppers, trying to pick up the crumbs left by more professional account executives who captured their prospects' Christmas budgets while they were still in the planning stages.
I can still recall my rookie days when I called on my prospects with our newly-released "Christmas package" only to hear, "Sorry, but we gave our budget to the newspaper just last week."

While it might no longer be "the newspaper," you can bet there are countless traditional and new media reps who will be pounding the pavement around mid-October in the hopes of capturing lucrative Christmas advertising dollars.

You need to plan now for your Christmas sales meeting the first week after Labor Day. And it needs to feel like Christmas!

A properly planned Christmas Sales Meeting can put your sales team in the mood to be the early bird, to be the first in the door to talk to their prospects about the important Christmas selling season.

Here are some of the tactics we encourage the stations we consult to utilize during their early-September Christmas sales meeting:

? Hold it off-premises. And like Christmas gifts, make it a surprise. Forewarn your team you are holding a special off-premises sales meeting right after Labor Day, but don't let them know the theme.
? Surprise your attendees with Christmas music, seasonal d?cor, and of course, wrap up your meeting with a traditional turkey dinner with all the trimmings.
? While your team is at the sales meeting, have someone back at the office post the appropriate notices, packages, and Christmas spirit visuals to maintain their Christmas focus upon their return.
? Identify the most high-potential Christmas prospects and categories, traditional and non-traditional, complete with category research, and some sample Christmas campaigns.
? While I'm not a fan of "packages," I'm well aware that there are clients, and some radio salespeople, who need packages to motivate them. If you're releasing station Christmas packages, do so at this meeting and gift wrap each package as your gift to the team.
? Have one of your personalities make a surprise visit to your meeting in a Santa suit, and deliver your special packages and incentives programs.
? Include your Christmas' and New Year?s greetings packages in every presentation and plan, rather than trying to sell them separately later in the year.
? MOST IMPORTANTLY: Don?t forget the two worst months of your year?January and February. When you make your presentation for the holiday season, you?ll find it easier to book the post-season sales and events as part of your package NOW. Once the harsh reality of winter sales slumps set in, it?s much more difficult to talk about optimistic sales projections.

Wayne Ens is President of ENS media Inc., a marketing and motivation consulting firm that specializes in helping small- and medium-sized markets to increase their local-direct sales. If you want to increase your revenues in 2014 email wayne@wensmedia.com, or make an appointment to see him in the Consultant?s Corner at the RAB Radio Show in Orlando.

Add a Comment Send This Story To A Friend

View the original article here

Beasley Goes All Christmas in Carolina

11-20-2012

Beasley's WMGV-FM in Eastern North Carolina will switch over to all Christmas music on Wednesday. WMGV, also known as V103.3 covers all of Eastern N.C. including Greenville, New Bern, Jacksonville, Kinston, Washington, Richlands and Morehead City. GM Bruce Simel (one of Radio Ink's Top 50 managers) said ?For the past 12 years we?ve made the switch to Christmas Music Around The Clock and Eastern North Carolina loves it." 

View the original article here

(SALES) When It Feels Like Christmas

8-8-2012

By Wayne Ens

You know "the early bird gets the worm." You probably also can guess what date you can expect Christmas this year.

Yet many radio account executives will be panicked and running around like frantic last-minute Christmas shoppers, trying to pick up the crumbs left by more professional account executives who captured their prospects' Christmas budgets while they were still in the planning stages.

I can still recall my rookie days when I called on my prospects with our newly released "Christmas package" only to hear, "Sorry, we gave all of our budget to the newspaper just last week."

While it might no longer be "the newspaper," you can bet there are countless traditional and new-media reps who will be pounding the pavement around mid-October in the hopes of capturing lucrative Christmas advertising dollars.

If you want your competitors to hear you've already captured their prospects' Christmas budgets, you need to begin planning your Christmas sales meeting NOW.

I know it's hard to think "Christmas" when thermometers are at their peak, but Christmas advertising is like Christmas shopping?it's all about mood and awareness.

A properly planned Christmas sales meeting can put your sales team in the mood to be the early bird, to be the first in the door to talk to their prospects about the important Christmas selling season.  

You need to plan now for your Christmas sales meeting the first week after Labor Day. And it needs to feel like Christmas!

Here are some of the tactics we encourage the stations we consult to utilize during their early-September Christmas sales meeting:

1. Hold it off the premises. And like Christmas gifts, make it a surprise. Forewarn your team you are holding a special off-site sales meeting right after Labor Day, but don't let them know the theme.

2. Surprise your attendees with Christmas music, seasonal d?cor, and of course, wrap up your meeting with a traditional turkey dinner with all the trimmings.

3. While your team is at the sales meeting, have someone back at the office post the appropriate notices, packages, and visuals to maintain their Christmas focus upon their return.

4. Identify the most high-potential Christmas prospects and categories, traditional and non-traditional, complete with category research, and some sample Christmas campaigns.

5. While I'm not a fan of "packages," I'm well aware that there are clients, and some radio salespeople, who need packages to motivate them. If you're releasing station Christmas packages, do so at this meeting, and gift wrap each package as your gift to the team.

6. Get in the spirit. Ask your creative and production people to keep it a secret, and produce something that will bring a laugh. Last year, one of our client's creative directors produced a custom version of "'Twas the Night Before Christmas," poking fun at each of the sales reps by name.

7. Recognition and incentives should be part of your Christmas sales meeting. Posting a results board where each salesperson can proudly post each Christmas sale for all to see can keep the Christmas spirit and momentum up.

8. And don't forget how empty your logs can be in January/February. When preparing your Christmas packages, try to include schedules for January clear-outs and February sales.

9. Many stations offer discounts during those cold winter months. Extending those discounts over four months, November through February, can make your Christmas package more appealing to those hard-to-please transactional buyers, without effectively reducing your average rate of return over that period. For example, if you discount your $100 rate to $80 in January/February, offering a $90 rate across the board, can be appealing. It's also easier to sell your Christmas/New Year's greetings as part of the overall Christmas presentation than to try to sell it last minute independent of the overall campaign.

10. Sell, sell, sell. Look for data and research with positive spending indicators about the pending 2012 Christmas selling season. This data will bolster sales rep confidence, and also be great ammunition in your client presentations.

Surprise !

Most stations have a great personality on board who'd love to poke fun at the sales reps. Have them show up at your meeting dressed as Santa. They can present a personalized gag gift to each account executive to further that Christmas spirit.

Be creative, have fun, and make money!

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a great year!!

For more articles from Wayne Ens go HERE
Wayne Ens is President of ENS Media Inc and can be reached via e-mail Wayne Ens wayne@wensmedia.com

Add a Comment Send This Story To A Friend

View the original article here

Zimmer Provides A Christmas of Hope.

Zimmer Radio Group Operations Manager Char Elliot checks in with Radio Ink about a heartwarming story in Joplin. "I wanted to tell you about our Christmas miracle here at KZRG, it?s been a difficult and trying year for all of us in Joplin to say the least!  We have about 5,000 less residents in our community since the tornado, a large chuck of our community destroyed and rebuilding is slow and now we?re in the winter months." That startling statement did not prevent ZRG from helping kids around the holidays. 

News Talk KZRG for the last several years has teamed up with a local church (Ignite) and The Missouri Division of Family Services for the Christmas of Hope. Last year, according to Elliot, it was a struggle to help 200 kids. The kids are mostly forgotten this time of year. "We wanted to help but really didn't know what to expect. We just hoped to help at least 200 kids. We launched our campaign earlier this month and by the end of the first week we reached 200 kids. We just decided to keep going. We just finished the campaign and we able to help all the kids on the list this year. We are very thankful and blessed.

Reach out to congratulate Elliot and the Zimmer Radio Group for the great community work they are doing at chade@zrgmail.com

Is your station doing something special to help the community? Tell us all about it. Send details (and photos) to edryan@radioink.com

Add a Comment Send This Story To A Friend

View the original article here

Zimmer Provides A Christmas of Hope.

Zimmer Radio Group Operations Manager Char Elliot checks in with Radio Ink about a heartwarming story in Joplin. "I wanted to tell you about our Christmas miracle here at KZRG, it?s been a difficult and trying year for all of us in Joplin to say the least!  We have about 5,000 less residents in our community since the tornado, a large chuck of our community destroyed and rebuilding is slow and now we?re in the winter months." That startling statement did not prevent ZRG from helping kids around the holidays. 

News Talk KZRG for the last several years has teamed up with a local church (Ignite) and The Missouri Division of Family Services for the Christmas of Hope. Last year, according to Elliot, it was a struggle to help 200 kids. The kids are mostly forgotten this time of year. "We wanted to help but really didn't know what to expect. We just hoped to help at least 200 kids. We launched our campaign earlier this month and by the end of the first week we reached 200 kids. We just decided to keep going. We just finished the campaign and we able to help all the kids on the list this year. We are very thankful and blessed.

Reach out to congratulate Elliot and the Zimmer Radio Group for the great community work they are doing at chade@zrgmail.com

Is your station doing something special to help the community? Tell us all about it. Send details (and photos) to edryan@radioink.com

Add a Comment Send This Story To A Friend

View the original article here

Greater Media Flips Detroit's MAGIC to Christmas

It's that time of the year when holiday music thrives on the radio. On Friday Greater Media flipped Magic 105.1 to Christmas 105.1, Detroit?s Christmas Station. Afternoon host, Chris Edmonds, kicked it all off with "It?s The Most Wonderful Time of the Year? by Andy Williams.

Christmas 105.1 will also be awarding trips to Iberostar Paradiso del Mar in Riviera Maya, Mexico, just in time for Christmas. Listeners are being directed to sign up at www.Christmas1051.com. If they hear their name weekdays at 8:00 a.m., 12:00 p.m., 3:00 p.m., 4:00 p.m. & 5:00 p.m. and call back within 10 minutes at (313) 298-1051, they qualify for an all-inclusive trip for 2 to the Riviera Maya, Mexico ? plus $500 spending cash! Listeners will join mid-day host, Mitzi Miles, on March 3rd, 2011.

Add a Comment Send This Story To A Friend

View the original article here

Nobody Does Christmas Like the Choir?

The first performance of what became the Mormon Tabernacle Choir took place on August 22nd, 1847. 163 years later "Music and The Spoken Word" is heard on over 1,200 domestic stations with 600 airing the weekly broadcast, and an additional 600 airing seasonal specials. The program is distributed by Bonnevile to about 25 nations. And it's all free of charge.

The program is a community service show, literally a gift to broadcasters from the 360 Mormon Tabernacle Choir members and 110 Orchestra at Temple Square members, who are all unpaid volunteers.  (Even the President/CEO of the Choir is a volunteer, who left his clothing business in the hands of family so he could serve in this demanding capacity for over a decade.)  From its limited resources, the Choir foots the cost of dubbing and distributing the show. 

Vice President for Bonneville Distribution Gregg Garber says "Music & the Spoken Word is destination listening to loyal audiences everywhere.  It?s unique - entertaining, relaxing and motivating all at the same time.  It uplifts, but doesn?t preach.  The listener comes away feeling a little more positive about their world, and a little more able to see and share the good in it.  One station described it as a Sunday morning ?palette cleanser.?   It is, in very fact, a station?s gift to its listeners ? a much appreciated gift."

The choir is so popular those trying out for this unpaid gig far outweigh the number of people who make "the choir team." Garber says "the number of applicants each year vastly exceeds the 20 or so eventual inductees.  The application/auditioning process takes months, and requires a written application, an audition tape, a music kills inventory test, a music theory test, and of course the uptight, sweaty palms, in-person audition.  New Choir inductees sing for several months in the Temple Square Chorale, the Choir?s rigorous training school, before finally performing with the Choir."

Christmas is the most popular specials season, followed by July 4th.   Most of the Christmas specials (we offer a dozen shows  for Christmas) feature a celebrity artist.  This year?s new Christmas show has Natalie Cole.   Others feature Walter Cronkite, Angela  Lansbury, Gladys Knight, Sandi Patty, Renee Fleming, Brian Stokes Mitchell and the King?s Singers. 

Bonneville Distribution ships the show on CD or provides it on the web for download as an .mp3 or .wav file.  Broadcasters can preview a  weekly show and a Christmas special HERE   and can order shows from that same page.  The usual blanket music licensing is required to air most Music & the Spoken Word programs.

Contact gregg Garber at 801-237-2421 or ggarber@bonneville.com

Add a Comment Send This Story To A Friend

View the original article here