Christmas music comes to KLUV

Displaying a relative amount of patience,classic-hits radio station KLUV/98.7 FM made its annual switch to Christmas programming shortly 5 p.m. Wednesday, launching with Andy Williams’ It’s The Most Wonderful Time of the Year.

This year, “the most wonderful time” began a little later than in years past, when KLUV did the switch in mid-November.

“After carefully considering a number of factors, and upon consulting our holiday snow globe, we decided that Thanksgiving eve just felt right this year,” Jay Cresswell, KLUV’s program director, said in an email. “Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas!”

This is the third year that KLUV has done the Christmas format, which for decades previous had aired on corporate sibling KVIL/103.7 FM. Both stations are owned by CBS Radio.

The format tends to be a ratings boon for the station. For the past several years, contemporary-hits KHKS/106.1 FM “KISS-FM” has been the No. 1 station in DFW (country station KPLX/99.5 FM “The Wolf” managed to tie for first one month) — except during Nielsen Media Research’s “holiday” ratings periods, when KLUV has placed first with its Christmas programming.

Contemporary Christian station KLTY/94.9 FM often also goes to an all-Christmas format, usually on Thanksgiving night.

The website StationIntel.com has a list of more than 100 stations nationwide that have already gone to Christmas programming. According to the website, WENN-AM in Birmingham, Ala., was first this year — switching on Sept. 29. The first FM to switch was WEZW-FM in Atlantic City, which made the change on Oct. 16.

This story was originally published November 25, 2015 at 11:00 AM with the headline "Christmas music comes to KLUV."