Atlanta’s Fish 104.7 swapped out to its season Christmas format Friday at 5 p.m., its earliest date ever.
This is the 23rd year in a row Fish has made the temporary format change. In past years, the Christian pop station has tended to flip a few days before Thanksgiving. This year, Thanksgiving is on its latest date possible on Nov. 28 so Fish decided to go Christmas music nearly two weeks early.
This year, the format will run 40 days. Typically, the station shoots to No. 1 in December in the Nielsen ratings.
“Christmas is our Super Bowl on the Fish when many new people discover us and often become life-long listeners,” said program director Mike Blakemore. “We have learned over the years that starting earlier greatly improves our listenership and with only three weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas this year, we knew we had to start now, two days earlier than last year. I would much rather start a little early than too late.”
Beth Becall, Fish’s long-time afternoon jock, on Friday began with CeCe Winans’ “Joy to the World” followed by Burl Ives’ “Holly Jolly Christmas,” Blake Shelton’s “Go Tell It on the Mountain,” and Johnny Mathis’ “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas.”
The format is a wide blend of Christmas music. There are decades-old classics by the likes of Andy Williams, Nat King Cole and Bing Crosby mixed in with secular and more religious songs performed by Christian artists such as Amy Grant, For King and Country and MercyMe and pop artists like Michael Bublé, Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston.
On Saturday, Fish even played Cher’s 2023 original hit “DJ Play a Christmas Song.”
The station, as usual, will also hold its annual Christmas Wish program which provides gifts to deserving families.
