The all-Christmas flip is coming, and the year’s stress is driving what listeners want. New song research finds familiar standards beating newer recordings among radio listeners, guidance that reaches beyond one format for stations locking down their holiday libraries.
Christian music research and consulting firm Finney Media surveyed Christian radio listeners around the US on their Christmas song preferences, asking participants to rank more than 200 songs.
A Radio Ink review of the rankings found that artists outside the Christian music market account for 79 of the 224 songs tested but nine of the top 10, 15 of the top 25, and 31 of the top 50. Their songs average a score of 4.07, compared with 3.80 for Christian-market artists, and make up 56 of the 107 songs scoring 4.0 or higher but just three of the 34 scoring below 3.5.
Josh Groban’s “O Holy Night” ranked first with a score of 4.46, followed by Nat King Cole’s version of the same carol at 4.42, Frank Sinatra’s “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas” at 4.40, and the Carpenters’ version at 4.39. Percy Faith and His Orchestra’s “Deck The Halls” sat at 4.36.
Nostalgic secular seasonal standards all carry strong preferences. Andy Williams’ “It’s The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year,” Bobby Helms’ “Jingle Bell Rock,” Burl Ives’ “Have A Holly Jolly Christmas,” and Brenda Lee’s “Jingle Bell Rock” all ranked high. Nat King Cole has eight songs in the study and Bing Crosby seven.
Radio Ink reached out to McVay Media’s Mike McVay for advice for secular stations, and he told us, “Nostalgia ALWAYS wins with Christmas. That’s not new, but during tough times like these, people lean more into nostalgia. What will change is that more people will search out Christmas music this year as they search for comfort. And the Christmas songs that do the best are the standards.”
The Finney results suggest programmers may lean heavily into nostalgia this year, given the nation’s anxious state. Playlist decisions come as consumer sentiment sits near historically weak levels. The University of Michigan’s final September reading was 48.1, down from 51.7 in August and about 13% below a year ago. A recent Katz Radio Group survey found 85% of consumers say holiday music improves their mood and 87% say it makes them feel nostalgic.
For stations deciding when to flip, Research Director, Inc.’s Steve Allan wrote in Radio Ink that stations that flipped in November, at the start of the December survey, in week three of the book, and the day before Thanksgiving all succeeded, though the format redistributes existing cume rather than adding significant new cume.
