Friday, November 02, 2007

Rosenthal: WCKG to flip to Xmas msic

Contradicting a earlier report that WCKG was going to flip to Adult Contemporary on Friday, Phil Rosenthal in the Chicago Tribune is reporting that WCKG will flip to an all-Christmas music format instead, beating WLIT to the punch. WLIT has aired the Jingle Bells format for years during the Christmas season.

In fact, WLIT had a countdown clock on it website stating when it will flip to Christmas music.

After Christmas, WCKG is expected to flip to an adult-contemporary format named Fresh FM, which would make WCKG and WLIT competitors.

Most Adult Contemporary stations air Christmas Music during November and December, resulting in a ratings boost in the always-profitable fourth quarter. Launching an AC format in November wouldn't have done any good for WCKG since Christmas music is all the AC audience wants to hear at this time of year.

This is not the first time WLIT has had competition for the Jingle Bells format. A few years ago, the former WNND-FM (now WILV, "Love FM") flipped to an all-Christmas music format to compete with WLIT.

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