Radio.Intern wrote:

Not sure why the surprise with All Christmas on Boom…. As they’ve gone all Christmas from 6PM Christmas Eve to Midnight Christmas Day for years now.

Virgin had some Christmas music sprinkled into their regular format yesterday/today. Same for KiSS.

CHUM’s All Christmas Music went longer than it’s gone in years. 11AM Christmas Eve to Midnight Christmas Day.

And of course, CHFI continues to pump out the festive well past Boxing Day!

Hansa wrote:

I don't remember if I ever actually listened to it but Wally Crouter made a point of always broadcasting Christmas mornings in order to provide "company" to anyone who was alone on Christmas. 

I remember a time when CFRB used to put callers on the air who got to call long distance to their family in some far off place.
Ironically, NT 1010 today is owned by a phone company, yet they don't do stuff like that anymore.
 

RadioActive wrote:

After my rants in previous threads about stations abandoning their regular formats for Christmas, I decided to take a run up and down the dial to see who was doing what. This was performed between 10 AM and 10:45 AM Christmas Day. Most of the stations were monitored briefly, so it’s possible those marked as “All Christmas” are simply adding a few Xmas songs between their regular tunes.

It's a lot easier for FM stations to alter their programming for Christmas Day, since they're playing music anyway. It's more notable on AM, with many stations abandoning their regular formats for hours and/or even days, because they literally can’t think of anything else.

My two major complaints remain 640 and 1010, which have completely deserted their audiences in favour of all Yule all the time. I still believe it is a disservice to the listeners they spent the rest of the year cultivating.
 
So with that said and for what it’s worth, here’s a look at Christmas morning radio in the GTHA.
 
AM

WGR 550– CBS Radio Sports
CKGL 570 – The Best of Mike Farwell (Talk show rerolls, but at least it’s talk!)
CJCL 590 – CBS Radio Sports
CKTB 610 – Christmas Themed Old Time Radio
CFIQ 640 – Modern Xmas music
CFTR 680 – All News as usual
CFZM 740 – All Christmas music
CHAM 820 – All Comedy (My go-to for the day)
CHML 900 – Various Christmas specials and music
WBEN 930 – ABC & CBS Radio News year-enders
CKNT 960 – Christmas music
CFRB 1010 – All Christmas music and specials
CHUM 1050 – ESPN Radio sports
CJYE 1250 – Christmas/religion, the normal format
CFAJ 1220 – All Christmas music
WHLD 1270 – All conservative talk
CKDO 1580 – All Christmas
I’ve skipped most of the rest, because they’re either mainly ethnic programming or Christmas or both.

FM
 
CIND 88.1 – Modern Christmas music
CKDX 88.5 – Country Christmas
CIUT 89.5 – Regular programming
CJBC-FM 90.3 – Christmas music
CJRT 91.1  – Regular programming
CIXL 91.7 - Regular programming
CISS 92.5 – Regular programming 
CHAY 93.1 – Regular programming mixed in with Christmas music
CFXJ 93.5  – Today Radio appears to have regular programming
CBL 94.1  – All Christmas
CHKX 94.7  - All Christmas
CKGE 94.9  - Regular Programming
CING 95.3 – Regular Programming
CJKX 95.9  – All Christmas
CFMZ 96.3 – All Christmas
CHBM 97.3 – All Christmas, which really surprised me.
CHTZ 97.7 – Regular programming
CHFI 98.1 - All Christmas since mid-December
CKFG 98.7 – Regular programming
CBLA 99.1 – All Christmas
CKFM 99.9 – Regular programming
CFNY 102.1 – Regular programming
CKLH 102.9 – Christmas programming
CIDC 103.5 – Regular programming
CHUM 104.5 - Christmas music
CHRY 105.5 – Regular programming
CFMS 105.9 – All Christmas
CFPT 106.5 – ELMNT Radio doing regular programming
CILQ 107.7 – Regular programming
CJXY 107.9 – Regular programming

Based on this list, I would have chosen the Old Time Radio on CKTB.

Hansa wrote:

I don't remember if I ever actually listened to it but Wally Crouter made a point of always broadcasting Christmas mornings in order to provide "company" to anyone who was alone on Christmas. 

I seem to recall Wally always offered to do the Christmas morning shift so that employees with young children could enjoy that time with them.

RadioActive wrote:

Radio.Intern wrote:

Not sure why the surprise with All Christmas on Boom…. As they’ve gone all Christmas from 6PM Christmas Eve to Midnight Christmas Day for years now.

I'm not sure why it came as a surprise to me. They're such a well run radio station and so consistent to their format that I just thought they'd incorporate Christmas tunes while staying true to what they do best. 

Most of the talkers (with the exception so far of CKTB) are back to normal Tuesday, although it's reroll or pre-prepared programming, which is fine. There comes a day when you have to put the Mariah Carey and Bing Crosby stuff away for the year. Every station decides differently as to when it's time. If they have to do this, the day after Xmas certainly makes sense.

But not all of them stop. We often ask here every year when is it too early to go all Christmas? We can also wonder how long can it go on, as in CHFI, who is still sticking with their Yule rule, even though it's now Boxing Day. 

Speaking of when it's time to cut the Christmas music, I found this article on that very subject from a radio consultant. 

He argues that the switch to all Xmas brings in a whole different audience than normally listens and it's important to sell them on your regular format so they'll stay tuned when Christmas ends. But he believes not enough stations do that. 

So You Went All-Christmas… Now What?

Radiowiz wrote:

There used to be a time when going all Christmas used to mean changing format December 26th.
Did anyone change format?
I mean, besides Newmarket's 88five, which simply went Country before Christmas.
They didn't want to wait until December 26th for some unknown reason.

Funny you would ask. I came across your post just after I finished reading this. (Of the completed list, most are in the U.S., one is in Canada.)

2023 Post-Christmas Format Change Rundown

Here is what CKHD Assiniboia, Sask. sounds like after the flip yesterday from CIAT Cat Country.  They sound pretty good for a station in a town of 2,500.  Lots of jingles with the new call letters.
https://www.myassiniboia.ca/player/  

What is also interesting is how this small station owned by a small independent broadcaster sounds better than many much larger stations run by Bell and Rogers and Corus.  No over modulated generic voice tracks, screwed up levels of music, dead air and repetitive boring corporate promos for phone services, TV programming, and internet.
https://www.myassiniboia.ca/player/ 

RadioActive wrote:

paterson1 wrote:

What is also interesting is how this small station owned by a small independent broadcaster sounds better than many much larger stations run by Bell and Rogers and Corus.  No over modulated generic voice tracks, screwed up levels of music, dead air and repetitive boring corporate promos for phone services, TV programming, and internet.
https://www.myassiniboia.ca/player/ 

You're not alone in that assessment. In the comments section of the original article, one online listener says this:

"It is interesting to notice CKHD-FM in Assiniboia, SK on this list, because the station is not only using JAM jingles for the format, but they are also using Earl Mann as the station’s voice. And to top it all, the slogan “HitRadio” and logo were based on some of the old Mike Joseph “Hot Hits” stations from the 1980s.

I will add this: I am listening to the station online over the Internet from the United States and CKHD is doing such a fantastic job with the new format. And, I hope they will find some good DJs to make this station even more exciting."

Anybody employing the great Earl Mann is OK in my book.

Call-letters for a name, JAM jingles, Earl Mann, pointless HD. Maybe a small profit? Doesn't matter - not the point.

It's a radio nerd spending his own money to run a radio nerd's radio station. Good for him.