[Minnesota] Christmas (music) comes early

[Mr Tony]

I know every year markets try and "one up" the rest with Christmas music. Well in Duluth it started before Oct 1st

Townsquare Media's WEBC/560 (Duluth) has dropped ESPN Radio and is stunting with an All-Christmas format, coinciding with the launch of FM translator W293CT/106.5 (Duluth). "Ho Ho 106.5, The Northland's only year-round Christmas music superstation" launched at 6 p.m. Wednesday (9/30). Townsquare recently bought W293CT from Refuge Media and moved it in from Moose Lake; the translator had been testing with a loop of a legal ID and production music for the past two weeks. WEBC, the market's oldest station, was the Twin Ports' only all-Sports format in the mid-2000's but had three competitors more recently. W293CT transmits from the Duluth hillside with 99 Watts, enough to cover the Twin Ports, while WEBC's low-frequency 5kW signal stretches from the northern Twin Cities suburbs to nearly the Canadian border on car radios

 

[radio]

It gets worse every year...and earlier. Can you imagine having to be a live announcer at a station playing Christmas THAT long?
Good heavens! (not that Townsquare will see the need for a live announcer on a format like this)

I thought it was bad when at Menards I saw Christmas in one area last week, (pre October) and Halloween in another, both in sight
of each other.

 

[satjay]

Around here we have two FM stations that "flip" for one of them it happens after Halloween, I am sure in the next few weeks people will start talking about it. You are either for it or against it. It becomes a big discussion on social media and such

 

[Mr Tony]

It gets worse every year...and earlier.

lots of stations switch to Christmas music near this time of year when they are stunting. I'm sure the new format will start after 12/25

Can you imagine having to be a live announcer at a station playing Christmas THAT long?
Good heavens! (not that Townsquare will see the need for a live announcer on a format like this)

there is no announcers...other than a bumper that says "Ho Ho Ho 106.5". The only time they use the legal ID of 560 is at top of hour

Duluth has a couple stations like that (where their moniker is not the "mother" station). KZIO 104.3 in Two Harbors (25 miles up the road) is a active rock format. But they ID as "94X" which is derived from the translator frequency in Duluth (94.1)...Duluth suffers from real bad intermod so any "outside" station (not based at the antenna farm on the hill in Duluth) is a pain to pick up

 

[eurosport]

 

[DWS44]

I thought it was bad when at Menards I saw Christmas in one area last week, (pre October) and Halloween in another, both in sight
of each other.

Nearly every store here has their Christmas displays out already. I believe Kmart was the first I saw...two, possibly three weeks ago.

 

[osu1991]

I love Xmas music but I like other holidays too. I noticed some stores putting out Xmas stuff a couple weeks ago too.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N910A using Tapatalk

 

[Blindowl1234]

Kmart? That's a name we don't see in Cincinnati anymore. I think they're all gone here. All the big box stores are geared up for Christmas here too. The others will be the day after Halloween. We had an all Elvis station here in Cincinnati at one time. Guess that didn't go so well

 

[Mr Tony]

Nearly every store here has their Christmas displays out already

yeah pretty much
I know in the big box stores after school started they put up the Halloween and Christmas stuff

. I believe Kmart was the first I saw...two, possibly three weeks ago.

KMart eh?

 

[Mr Tony]

Kmart? That's a name we don't see in Cincinnati anymore. I think they're all gone here.

Most K-Marts are gone in Minneapolis. I did see one in Duluth a month or so ago.....it even had a pay phone in it still!

 

[osu1991]

I don't know how, but we still have 2 here. Was 3 but one closed this past spring.

 

[navychop]

K-Mart? Aren't they mentioned in the same Wiki article as Woolco?

 

[DWS44]

Kmart? That's a name we don't see in Cincinnati anymore. I think they're all gone here. All the big box stores are geared up for Christmas here too. The others will be the day after Halloween. We had an all Elvis station here in Cincinnati at one time. Guess that didn't go so well

Most K-Marts are gone in Minneapolis. I did see one in Duluth a month or so ago.....it even had a pay phone in it still!

There are still several in the Charlotte area, including one a couple miles from my house. Its getting pretty run down, and feels more and more like a flea market or dollar store than a big department store chain. Sad to see them go downhill like they are. Guess I have a soft spot for them, since my first job was setting up then working in a newly built "Super Kmart" in Johnson City, TN. That one is really sad nowadays. I go back to that area couple times a year for the Bristol races, and in this huge Kmart, they closed down the entire grocery store side, and just hung up these huge white curtains blocking off that side of the store and shoved shelves up against the curtains.

 

[waylew]

Still have a Kmart and a Ratshack here in Watertown.And just about any other big box,fast food or other chain store,mainly because we have Fort Drum,without which this county would be a ghost town.

 

[The Fat Man]

Over here in the burbs of Southern NH, right on the Massachusetts boarder, there's the town of Salem. They still have a K-Mart as well. Last time I was there, they were even upgrading the facade.

 

[kofi123]

The Christmas music on the indicated stations is just a stunt for one week. The actual new format will be launching tomorrow. Rumors and signs point to some sort of rock format with a Sasquatch or Bigfoot themed branding.

 

[Mr Tony]

T Rumors and signs point to some sort of rock format with a Sasquatch or Bigfoot themed branding.

dueling translators....thats funny. If they go rock you got 94X against 106.5

 

[Mr Tony]

Sasquatch is loose!

http://www.satelliteguys.us/xen/threads/sasquatch-is-on-the-loose-in-duluth.353942/