Despite the fact that I consider"I Want A Hippopotamus For Christmas" to be the only Christmas song that doesn’t suck. I admire your spirit, and look forward to appearing on your upcoming album. Can I get a solo?
Huzzah!
So you’ll be a hippo hero stampeding there?
Enjoy,
Steven
Can you play rhythm tuba? While mounted on a wooly rhino? The last guy…didn’t work out.
I suppose one could call…dammit, I see what did there. Bravo, sir.
The local radio station started playing 24/7 Christmas musak the day after Halloween. They have been deleted.
I remember back in the day when one station played Christmas music from 12 midnight to 12 midnight on Christmas day. We spent a lot of the time driving between parental, grand-parental and other family units and appreciated the music on that day.
However there is not nearly enough holiday music to last from NOVEMBER 1- DECEMBER 25 24/7. Cut it the fuck out for the love of all that’s holy you are not doing any good for your un-holy not even close to christian blood money buy crapola from all the vendors in the market place thing. Note the previous statement should be read in all caps with blood dripping off all the letters. That is all. Happy Holidays.
Yes, some of them do.
They create a pre-programmed tape or script (depending on the degree of automation) with the Xmas songs and intros and slots for inserting commercials, weather reports, etc. Then one person runs that program all shift.
Meanwhile the regular ‘talent’ (DJ’s) are gone, either using their vacation time or on unpaid leave. Effectively laid off for a month or so. The radio station saves nearly all the money they would have paid DJ’s, while bringing in lots of money for the station because people listen more.
You can tell if your local station is doing this by listening for the DJ’s. If they seem to disappear for this month or two, and only 1 of them seems to be doing all the announcements, it’s probably all been done in advance, and that one DJ recorded all of them. (Even that person is probably laid off, too, during this time. Gets paid for using the pre-recorded stuff, but a lower rate than normal DJ pay.)
The same thing happens during some other holidays. If your radio station plays a ‘countdown of the 1,000 greatest rock & roll songs’ over New Year’s eve & day, or on the 4th of July plays a countdown of the greatest American rock & roll songs, etc., that is a pre-recorded program. But that isn’t so much saving money for the station as making sure that all the DJ’s don’t have to work over the holiday.
I’m one of the crazy people who actually likes tuning in to WASH FM 97.1 during the Christmas season to hear all-day Christmas carols. Until they start playing bloody Wham - Last Christmas and then I PUNCH THEM IN THE FACE.
Luckily we also have 91.1 - a Christian station - which plays some of the more religious songs. I’m not Christian but I think many of the traditional songs are really beautiful.
This one. It’s a bit of a drive, but the selection is really good.
I don’t mind so much since it really allows a great deal of variety from a purely musical stand point.
I mean when else can you hear a jazz instrumental followed by Elvis and then a children’s choir?
What irks me is the incessant rotation that takes hold. There are two local stations that are on 12/25 x 24/7 and each time I turn on one or the other I hear either Lennon’s “Happy X-mas / War is Over” or Springsteen’s “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” or “Do They Know It’s Christmas”. I can stomach these songs once or twice during the holiday season and I’ve then had my fill. Once a day every day? Forget it.
In my darkest nightmares.
Regards,
Shodan
Yes, this is what irks me the most about it. There is a ton of Christmas music out there but the 24/7 stations just play the same two dozen or so “classics” over and over again. I set up a “Christmas” channel on Pandora to listen to while decorating last weekend and over the course of a couple of hours the vast majority were performances or songs that I had never heard before.
I’d like another punch, please. I had to make another emergency run to Staples today, and I need something to distract me from frikkin Rudolph.
Interestingly, the song after that was some sort of hymn, and it was less annoying than the modern classics by about tenfold. I’m not saying I want to have it playing on my headphones, but it didn’t make me want to bang my head into the wall until unconscious. Although they sure liked the word “succor”.
By the way, am I the only one who thinks “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” is a terrible message for kids?
This is why I love my local Walgreen’s. Of course, I think it depends on the people who are working at the time, but they are NEVER playing xmas music in there when I go in. Today I went in (actually, to buy xmas wrapping paper and some stocking stuffers) and instead of having “Wonderful Christmas Time” inflicted on me, I got to hear “Alley Cat.”
Yes. That was preferable.
One of the most annoying things about my annual sojourn into retail is that I have to listen to the tape over and over and over…although when it’s busy and crowded, I either can’t hear it, or don’t. But oh, those late nights, when all the shoppers have left the store and some genius decided we should be open until midnight and the only people around are weirdos and the music is loud. “Santa Baby” again already? I’m going postal! I sort of have to keep repeating to myself, “Twenty percent discount. Twenty percent discount…”
It seems there many more human drones that respond to that audio trash and buy an extra marker than you usually do.
Why do you call it music? It’s Chinese effing water torture.
When I worked fast-food, the Musak that was played in our restaurant at Christmas was on a 2-hour loop. After a few shifts, I would start humming the upcoming song before the current one ended. That amused the customers, but it was my own private hell, since I was working extra hours for Christmas spending money.
In my local mall, it’s “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”, “Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire”, “Jingle Bell Rock” and “I’ll Be Home for Christmas”, all repeated about five times per hour.
I seem to remember stores playing the religious stuff back when I was a kid, but no more. Pity. I’m not a believer, but it’s just better music.
I love it. It’s not like I have to listen to 24-hour-Christmas-music for 24 hours a day. If I’m in a store for a few minutes, what’s the harm?