I guess holiday music works

[markwa1ion@aol.com]

What bugs me about Christmas music formatting is how they kill it off 
so quickly the day after Christmas.  I'm not fully "in the mood" until 
about the second week in December so I'm not even listening for the 
first two or three weeks that WODS, WROR, et al. are playing the Yule 
tunes.  But by mid-December I'm into it.  As my company's shutdown is 
Christmas through New Year's, our family-and-friends visiting and 
celebrating is spread out over that entire period and sometimes even 
post New Year's.  I'm a whole lot more interested in having Christmas 
music in the background at parties and in the car on the 26th and 27th 
of December than on the 26th or 27th of November, but good luck finding 
any.  CD's and iPod's have to come to the rescue.  Would it hurt the 
stations to run one holiday tune every fifth or sixth song for two or 
three days after Christmas, as I seem to recall Top 40 stations like 
WMEX and WBZ doing in the mid '60s ?  Is it nowadays all about 
"goosing" shopping, something the Thanksgiving (and even earlier) 
start-ups would suggest ?

I do enjoy the music for a few weeks even though the emotions can mix 
between joyful recollection of one's own childhood and the less joyful 
realization (for many of us in the 55+ age group) that half, or more 
than half, of the people in those recollections are no longer with us.

One thing that you can say about Christmas music is that it seems to be 
the only way any music before the Beatles era (pre-1964) gets on WODS.  
It is a joy to hear the smooth voice of Nat King Cole on the radio at 
least for one month.  Of course on Dec. 26 Boston radio turns into a 
pumpkin again and those who like big-bands, pre-rock standards, and 
'50s / early '60s rock 'n' roll have to resort to "rim shot" stations 
such as WCAP-980 and WNBP-1450 or see what's offered on the Internet.  
Mostly I rely on my own CD and MP3 file collections.  Thank goodness 
for Collectors' Choice Music, Yestermusic, Time-Life, and some of the 
other online stores out there.  Radio-wise one would never know that 
the baby boomer and older generations comprise a significant percentage 
of the population or have any money to spend ... except maybe at 
Christmas.

Mark Connelly - Billerica, MA