Those of us who have changed our entire station’s music to holiday music can breathe a sigh of relief today. You can pack up Bing Crosby until next December (maybe even November for those of you ambitious program directors). The holiday tunes have gone to bed!
However, we’ve seen what all holiday all the time can do for ratings. That has to get your wheels turning…are there holidays we’re missing and could be banking on? As we check the calendar, we see Easter, Fourth of July, and Halloween are among the heavy hitters. Are there enough songs to do this?
Looking into Halloween, there are plenty to play per hour. Throughout the week you can splice in one Halloween song per hour, at least. On the weekends you can have Halloween Blocks…call them Boo Blocks (mega corny, I know.) Nevertheless, there’s enough to satisfy even the party poopers in your group.
Easter, probably not gonna happen. We want to stay away from religion and this is something we should probably steer clear of. Veteran’s Day is definitely something you should tackle! Just don’t call it Resurrection Weekend. Yes, a station in Illinois really did call it this and did it for years. Don’t do that. When honoring our veterans we need to be as respectful as we can. There aren’t a lot of pop songs dedicated to our fallen heroes so that format will be difficult. However, rock and country tend to have quite a bit of songs devoted to America and/or our soldiers. Again, do this with the UTMOST respect.
Fourth of July would fall along the same lines. This has a little more leeway in that there are pop songs discussing our country but maybe not suitable for Veterans Day.
All this being said, there is a way to capitalize on more holidays than Christmas when it comes to programming music. Utilize this! Sell the Boo Block Weekends. Promote your Veterans Day playlist with dedications from listeners. Engage with your audience through music.