For radio stations that decide to flip to All-Christmas playlists, the question of when to make the change must be difficult.
Based on the feedback seen on stations’ Facebook pages, some listeners can’t get enough Christmas music while others don’t want it at all. Some will complain if a station flips before Black Friday (of course, those complaints create plenty of social media engagement that helps promotes the flip).
We have to assume that flipping early in the season helps a station establish itself as the place to go for Christmas music, even if some listeners don’t want it yet. But they know where to find it when they do want it.
The cynical perception is that Christmas starts earlier and earlier every year, but the numbers don’t bear that out. I’ve been tracking Upper Midwest All-Christmas formats for more than two decades. While the flips did get earlier and earlier every year in the early 2000s, they quietly moved a little later on many stations in recent years.
In 2008, two Milwaukee stations flipped to Christmas music hours before kids went out trick-or-treating, but they waited until later in subsequent years. There were also two Christmas flips on Halloween 2019, this time in Green Bay and Madison, but none since that year.
So, how do this year’s Christmas flips compare with last year?
| Day of flip | 2022 | 2021 |
| November 1 | 5 | 6 |
| First Friday in November | 6 | 12 |
| Second Friday in November | 7 | 2 |
| Third Friday in November | 13 | 11 |
| Thanksgiving Day | 18* | 5* |
| Black Friday | 27* | 30* |
*There were an additional six stations that flipped sometime over Thanksgiving weekend in 2021 and at least three more in 2022, but I’m not sure which day. There were also a few flips on other days not listed above.
There are also a handful of stations that make the switch in December, some of which run Christmas weekends until making the full flip. But for the most part, at least among commercial radio stations, Christmas flips generally happen by Black Friday at the latest.
As you can see, the general trend in 2022 was later than last year, with more flips on Thanksgiving Day (some of them were not until the evening).
So, which formats most commonly flip to Christmas music in the Upper Midwest? Here are the formats to flip so far this year:
| Adult Contemporary (including Hot and Light AC) | 38 stations |
| Classic Hits/Oldies | 30 stations |
| Non-commercial Christian | 27 stations |
| Country/Classic Country | 7 stations |
| Soft Oldies | 7 stations |
| Variety Hits | 1 station |
| Contemporary Christian (commercial) | 1 station |
One nerdy note: For purposes of these lists, a “station” is counted as one station identity serving the same market area, which may be simulcast on multiple frequencies. This includes the “Love 105” trimulcast in the Twin Cities and numerous FM translators relaying AM stations or HD2 channels. Stations carrying the same programming to separate market areas are listed separately.
THE DATA:
See stations that went all-Christmas in: 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011,
2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003, 2002, 2001
This article was first posted on Dec. 1 and was updated Dec. 3 to add several stations to the format breakdown. It was updated on Dec. 5 to add four Soft Oldies stations and to remove an Adult Contemporary station that flipped on Black Friday but then reverted to its regular format. It was again updated on Dec. 12 to add several more stations which flipped over the weekend of Dec. 9. More updates were made on Dec. 15.