We're not even into the home stretch of the holiday season, but we've been hearing Christmas music 24/7 on the radio for about a month now.

Burl Ives tune back on top Burl Ives' "Holly Jolly Christmas" is the most-played Christmas song among nearly 100 All-Christmas radio stations this year, as tracked by Media Monitors, LLC, in its annual Christmas Music Radio Report. The list of the top 10 songs comes from monitoring 93 All-Christmas radio stations in 60 cities during the first 10 days of the holiday season, beginning on Thanksgiving Day. The Ives classic is back on top after being bumped to second by Nat King Cole's "The Christmas Song" last year.
The top 10 in previous years:
2006	Title	Artist	2005	2004
1	"Holly Jolly Christmas"	Burl Ives	2	1
2	"The Christmas Song"	Nat King Cole	1	2
3	"White Christmas"	Bing Crosby	4	5
4	"Feliz Navidad"	Jose Feliciano	8	10
5	"The Most Wonderful Time of the Year"	Andy Williams	5	6
6	"Please Come Home for Christmas"	Eagles	9	12
7	"Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree"	Brenda Lee	3	3
8	"Happy Xmas (War Over)"	John Lennon	6	8
9	"Merry Christmas, Darling"	Carpenters	7	7
10	"It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas"	Johnny Mathis	10	9
Online poll: Which is your favorite song and which are you most tired of hearing? Vote for the Best and Worst songs.

If you're among those who grouse about it, imagine what it would be like to be a DJ, playing nothing but Christmas music for four hours a day on one of the city's three all-holiday music stations. What does playing "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer" or "Dominick the Donkey" at least once a day do to one's holiday spirit?

DJs at Pittsburgh's three all-Christmas stations -- FM stations WWSW, WLTJ and WSHH -- take it in stride and even seem to enjoy the break from playing those non-holiday hits, which can be repetitious, too.

"People always ask me, 'Does listening to Christmas songs over and over again drive you crazy?'" says WSHH morning host and program director Ron Antill. "The answer is no. These are songs I actually like."

He's not alone. Listeners like the ability to tune in and get in the holiday mood any time of day, and advertisers believe that translates into a spirit of giving -- and consumerism. The format also give retailers a push-button solution to providing background music for holiday shoppers.

Ratings and revenues are driving the trend: According to Edison Media Research, stations that went to an all-Christmas music format last year on average attracted 10 percent more audience.

The trade publication Inside Radio runs a list of every known market in the country playing all-Christmas music on its Web site (www.100000watts.com), and it grows steadily every year. As of last week, there were 369 stations listed, with most markets having two for listeners to choose from.

Radio is all about competition. With three Pittsburgh stations going for a piece of holiday pie this year, how will that affect audiences levels for Christmas music? Alex Tear, WWSW/WKST program director, doesn't foresee people tuning out to sample the competition.

"There is a strong basic library of holiday songs. If you're a strong radio station the other 11 months, people will stay with you."

Although it's too soon to gauge how the local ratings are going this year, WLTJ program director Chuck Stevens notes that the station's online audience tuning in the live stream while at work "is definitely way up."

	Dan Marsula, Post-Gazette Click image for larger version.

Familiarity breeds contentment

Antill compares radio's all-Christmas formats to TNT's annual marathon showing of the movie "A Christmas Story," which he says he typically watches several times. "I'm a glutton for repetition."

In the fast-paced environment of a morning drive show, it's a moot point: There's no time to enjoy music, or get bored with it.

"We're so busy, we don't listen to the music," says WLTJ morning host Beth Bershok of the station's Gary and Beth morning team. "We're taking phone calls, talking to the news person."

"Or we're doing calculus," WLTJ morning host Gary Love chimes in.

With all the elements that go into a morning show -- talk, news, traffic, and weather -- he says, "The pace of the show doesn't really allow you [to listen to the music]."

However, both say they'll tune in to the station during off hours when they want to hear some holiday music.

"We're used to filtering in and out of what's happening on the air," Antill says. With everything going on in the studio, he adds, it's only the beginning or end of a song that he hears over and over.

Oldies station WWSW started the format here in 2003. Adult contemporary WLTJ launched an all-Christmas format last year.

This year, adult contemporary WSHH-FM joined the fray. For years, it featured its "36 Hours of Christmas" programming -- a nonstop music marathon beginning Christmas Eve and running through Dec. 25, without announcers and without commercials. The station will drop the ads and send the air staff home on Christmas Eve and do that again this year.

Sister station WJAS-AM (1320) is nearly all Christmas, mixing a lot of holiday music in with its regular standards format.

WWSW midday host Sheri Van Dyke says having a good mix of songs to play keeps things interesting.

The station's baby-boom audiences get a mix of artists who were among their parent's holiday favorites, such as Gene Autry and Brenda Lee, childhood hits such as the Royal Guardsmen's "Snoopy's Christmas" and more contemporary music by artists such as Bruce Springsteen and Kenny G.

However, she admits, "By the time the 24th rolls around, I'm sort of tired of hearing 'Dominick the Donkey.'"

With many stations doing remote broadcasts and raising money for favorite charities, the hosts don't even hear the music that's being played. And the music helps to put listeners into more of a holiday spirit of giving.

Who's listening?

So the jocks can handle it. The more important question is whether listeners get tired of it. Programmers and stations get mixed signals about whether they launch the format too soon.

WWSW and WSHH launched the format in mid-November, while WLTJ began on Thanksgiving.

"There are always a few at the beginning who say 'Why are you doing this so early?' Then there are others who are waiting since Halloween for this to happen," Van Dyke says.

Starting the season early is simply part of the culture, and radio has to keep up with that trend, says Tear. A few people think it's too early, he says, but the majority are demanding it. "If the response is not positive, obviously we're not going to start earlier."

"Despite what you hear from year-to-year about listeners rebelling against stations that go too early, it's still believed throughout the industry that you have to get there early to claim the franchise, because it's still better than not having the franchise at all," says Sean Ross, Edison Media Research vice president of music and programming. "And nobody has really been effective being the station that doesn't play Christmas music."

WLTJ surveyed listeners about when they wanted to start hearing all-holiday music, and most said around Thanksgiving was the right time, says WLTJ program director Chuck Stevens.

WSHH is a newcomer to the all-Christmas, all-the-time format, although for years it offered a 36-hour holiday music marathon starting on Christmas Eve. It makes sense for WSHH make the switch earlier, Antill says. "Throughout the year we're already playing their favorite songs This happens to be their favorite Christmas music. It's just a natural extension of the radio station to play their favorite songs all year."

"Going all-Christmas is a truly powerful programming tool that attracts attention from both current listeners and -- very important -- new ones," says Tom Taylor, editor of the trade publication Inside Radio.

"Lots of people groan when they hear the first Christmas song, even before Thanksgiving. But recent Arbitron research from a couple of markets [Philadelphia and Houston] suggests that at the very least, listening doesn't go down for stations that jump before Thanksgiving."

Most important, he adds, "that 'Christmas effect' seems to linger for successful stations into the first months of the new year."

Maybe it's more important to know when to pull the plug. Says WWSW's Tear: "Everyone will hit that point on the 26th: Here comes the new year, and we're excited to get back to what 3WS does best."