Tracking the annual flips to All-Christmas has become somewhat predictable, with most stations flipping on the same general schedule. But there were a few notable items this year, marked in bold, in Milwaukee, Fargo, and Sioux Falls. Here’s when changes came in rated markets:
October: No Upper Midwest stations chose to hand out candy canes for Halloween. Such a move is typically done for stunting between format changes, to establish a new entrant to the All-Christmas format, or in a hyper-competitive situation such as Milwaukee in 2008.
Monday, Nov. 1: A half-dozen regional stations flipped as soon as the calendar turned, including Midwest’s KELO-FM/101.9 (Sioux Falls) and Woodward’s “KZ104.3” (WKZG Seymour-Green Bay). KELO-FM’s flip was 18 days earlier than last year, while WKZG had also flipped on the first Monday of November 2020.
Thursday, Nov. 4: Leighton’s “104.3 Cities FM” (KZLT East Grand Forks), the same day as 2020
Friday, Nov. 5: A dozen regional stations flipped, including two in Madison. Most were part of a launch by iHeartMedia nationwide, the most notable of which was KYYY/92.9 (Bismarck) dropping its regular format to stunt as “Christmas 92.9.” Other iHeart changeovers included KMJM/1360 (Cedar Rapids), “Mix 96” (KMXG/96.1 Clinton-Quad Cities), “KG95” (KGLI/95.5 Sioux City), “Kool 108” (KQQL/107.9 Anoka-Minneapolis), “Mix 99.9” (KMXA-FM Minot), and “Rewind 92.1” (WXXM Sun Prairie-Madison.)
All of these iHeart stations had also flipped on the first Friday in November 2020 except WXXM, which changed over two days earlier last year after Audacy’s “Mix 105.1” (WMHX Waunakee-Madison) flipped on Oct. 30, 2020. WMHX’s changeover this year came the same day as WXXM.
Other non iHeart flippers on Nov. 5 included Leighton’s “99.9 Lite FM” (KCML St. Joseph-St. Cloud) and NRG’s “B107.3” (KBBK Lincoln). KCML and KBBK’s flips were a week earlier than last year.
Saturday, Nov. 6: Magnum’s WSJY/107.3 (Fort Atkinson-Madison), five days later than last year
Sunday, Nov. 7: Magnum’s “Magic 97.9” (K250AZ La Crosse and WKBH-FM-HD2 La Crescent), six days later than last year
Thursday, Nov. 11: Corus’ “Peggy @ 99.1” (CFPG-FM Winnipeg), which had also flipped on the second Thursday of November last year
Friday. Nov. 12: SummitMedia’s “Star 104.5” (KSRZ Omaha), eight days later than last year
Week of Nov. 15: Mid-West Family’s “Greatest Hits 98.1” (WISM Altoona-Eau Claire)
Thursday, Nov. 18: Saga’s “B93.3” (WLDB Milwaukee), 13 days later than last year
Friday, Nov. 19: 11 Upper Midwest stations changed over including three in Duluth, all timed to the “Christmas City of the North Parade:” Midwest’s “My 95.7” (KDAL-FM), Northwestern’s “Life 97.3” (KDNW), and Townsquare’s “Kool 101.7” (KLDJ). KDNW and KLDJ had also flipped on parade day in 2020 while KDAL-FM did not flip the last two years.
Other flippers this day included Saga’s “104.1 EZ FM” (KOEZ Ames-Des Moines), Townsquare’s “Y105” (KYBA/105.3 Stewartville-Rochester), Ingstad’s “106.9 The Eagle” (KEGK Wahpeton-Fargo), Mid-West Family’s “Classic Hits-mas 94.7” (KCLH Caledonia-La Crosse), iHeart’s “95.7 BIG FM” (WRIT-FM Milwaukee), and WSPT/97.9 (Stevens Point-Wausau). Townsquare’s KDAT/104.5 (Cedar Rapids) also flipped sometime this weekend but the exact date is unknown.
WRIT’s flip notably came two weeks later than other iHeart stations; the station had flipped on the first Friday of November last year. KOEZ and KEGK’s flips were about the same as last year while KYBA and KCLH were about a week later and WSPT was about two weeks later.
Monday, Nov. 22: Cumulus’ WVBO/103.9 (Winneconne-Oshkosh-Appleton), about two weeks earlier than last year
Wednesday, Nov. 24: Four stations in unrated Upper Midwest markets
Thursday, Nov. 25 (Thanksgiving Day): Northwestern’s “Life 102.5” (WNWC-FM Madison), five days later than last year, as well as a handful of stations in unrated markets
Friday, Nov. 26: Black Friday was by far the biggest day of the year for All-Christmas launches, with at least 28 regional stations making the seasonal change. Flips included Cumulus’ “Love 105” trimulcast in the Twin Cities (WGVX/105.1 Lakeville, WLUP/105.3 Cambridge, and WWWM-FM/105.7 Eden Prairie-Minneapolis), “Spirit 92.9” (KKJM St. Joseph-St. Cloud), and Saga’s “Pure Oldies 106.9” (WRXS Brookfield-Milwaukee). Love 105’s flip was about a week later than last year while WRXS is a first-time flipper, giving Milwaukee three commercial Christmas stations.
Many non-commercial Christian stations also made the switch on this day, including WCTS/1030 (Maplewood-Minneapolis), Northwestern’s KNWC-FM/96.5 (Sioux Falls), KSLT/107.1 (Spearfish-Rapid City), the five stations of “The Family” network in Wisconsin, and the national Family Radio network.
KNWC-FM and the Wisconsin “Family” stations are planning to keep the Christmas music going through Dec. 26 while WCTS will keep the seasonal playlist through New Year’s Day.
Wednesday, Dec. 1: Midwest’s “101.9 Jack FM” (KRWK Fargo) became a new entrant to the All-Christmas format with a change to “Jack Frost 101.9.” Midwest had previously carried the seasonal format on 104.7, which flipped to a simulcast of KFGO earlier this year.
Still to come: All of the Northwestern Media music stations not already mentioned above carried All-Christmas playlists from Nov. 26 to Nov. 28 but then reverted to their regular formats on Monday, Nov. 29. Most usually make a permanent switch to All-Christmas by mid-December. Westwood One’s Adult Standards network is currently airing a high proportion of Christmas selections and usually transitions to All-Christmas in early December.