Magic Radio will switch to playing all Christmas music from this Friday instead of launching a separate service.
Previously, Magic Christmas was in addition to the main station on 105.4 FM in London and DAB nationwide, but this year the festive tunes will replace the usual playlist.
The station tweeted the information on Tuesday morning, saying “So, um. This Friday at 9am… we’re going 100% Christmas.”
Bauer says it’s a first for a UK radio station to switch to an all-Christmas format, and that listeners can expect ‘festive editorial content and a selection of much-loved Christmas pop hits from the last fifty years’ – with an emphasis on 80s and 90s classics from WHAM!, The Pogues, Mariah Carey, Elton John and Paul McCartney.
Sky Cinema is sponsoring the rebrand to promote its Christmas movie offering.
Tony Moorey, Group Content Director told RadioToday: “Our listeners come to Magic Radio to lift their mood and with Christmas music being the number one reason for putting the UK in that festive spirit, we decided to embrace the season and turn the station 100% Christmas all of December.”
Magic Breakfast’s Ronan Keating said, “We’ve had this under wraps for three months and I am so excited that the news is out there. I can’t wait to kick Christmas off this Friday at 9am with our first Christmas song voted for by our listeners at magic.co.uk”
Magic Breakfast’s Harriet Scott added “No major station has ever done this before, what a way to get into the festive spirit!”
The station ran its Magic of Christmas event at the London Palladium last weekend, which included performances from Rick Astley, Boyzone, Gabrielle and Katherine Jenkins.
Heart extra Xmas has already started broadcasting across the UK, in addition to a number of other services from Wireless, UKRD and more.
So, um.
This Friday at 9am… we’re going 100% Christmas.
Yep. pic.twitter.com/ApAZgL59up
— Magic Radio – More of the Songs You Love ? (@magicfm) November 27, 2018
Oh well,another excuse not to listen then,Bah Humbug!.
THAAAAT’S NOTHING! I’ve just rented a Mazaratti for only £79 from Sixt!
….I’m listening smug 😉
I’m sure some people will love it but to be honest I have had enough when there are two Christmas songs on an hour,let alone all of the output.They will no doubt keep playing the same tunes we are all sick to the teeth of.A NO Christmas Songs station would be more in my line.My parents wouldn’t even put a tree up until Christmas Eve so no doubt i’m behind the times!.It does annoy me though when stations (not Magic in particular) can play Christmas songs by Nat King Cole,Crosby,Mathis et all at this time of year yet the rest of the year all other great timeless non seasonal songs by such artists are are a no no.Anyway rant over!.
If these christmas stations played more variety instead of the usual songs played constantly then I think people wouldn’t mind so much. If they look around there’s loads of christmas songs out there.
Particular turn-offs for me are Wizzard,Waitresses,Bing Crosby’s White Christmas,Paul Mccartney’s Wonderful Christmastime,Shakin Stevens,Band Aid,Frankie Goes To Hollywood Power of Love (Not even a Christmas song but always treated as one and so miserable sounding!),Cliff’s Mistletoe and Wine and Slade-yes they may be popular but I’ve just had enough of them -familiarity can breed contempt!.
I swear if I hear that Fairytale Of New York or Stop The Cavalry anymore I’ll throw the radio out the door!.
Capital went 100% Christmas from Dec 22rd-Dec 26th in the GCap years.
Over Christmas you mean?
“Grandma got run over by a reindeer” by Elmo, and Patsy, ” Leroy the redneck Reindeer” by Joe Diffe, and ” Wreck the Halls” by the 3 stooges. Have a cool Yule. Ron
Now you’re talking Ron 🙂 that’s what is needed, although haven’t heard the 3 stooges “Wreck the halls”. I’ve heard Bob Rivers “Wreck the malls”, more songs like that would be great to listen to.
Have to find another station to listen to till new year
Oh come on, you must be kidding. Not another 100 per cent Christmas station playing the same old songs!
That’s me switching off then. A few days perhaps ..a week at a push but a month??I usually have radio on at work on the ward at weekends so maybe i ll go over to magic soul instead
I think this sort of thing is fine when it’s a pop up station, but it will alienate a lot of the audience when a station they’re used to switches music format for 4 weeks.
There’s a section of the population who for whatever reason don’t care for Christmas…. whether they’ve been bereaved or are lonely or have other issues. I hope Magic are taking into account that not everyone enjoys Christmas
I’d agree with this.
I sought out Magic Christmas last year and really enjoyed it. But that was my choice.
We lost my Dad ten days ago, so Christmas isn’t going to be the same and back to back Christmas songs isn’t something I want to listen to. I can choose not to seek out the DAB pop-ups, I can accept that over the next four weeks Christmas songs are going to sporadically appear on stations, but to have my main station change format like this means I have to find something else.
The question is, will I want to go back in January?
A risky move.
Looking forward to listening to Magic Christmas ?, just this morning I installed the app on my new Smartphone ?.
Hope you enjoy it,but if I liked Christmas music so much I would rather choose my own tracks and play them without the adverts also avoiding the inevitable repetition of tracks I can’t stand every few hours.
Just goes to prove, they don’t care about their listeners…. Same old same old…
All they are interested in is the bottom line…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mV2BPk3D0E&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR2iADmwJR0m4YFMuc9k8oK4qnEHyNGjt27jV8ijYaqrmgzTNnaU79u__cY
from tomorrow at 12
Sadly,the playlist can’t be that big-five hours in and several songs have already been played twice.
Try Pledge Drive, Christmas Rhapsody. Great alternative to Bohemian Rhapsody!
Can’t listen to Christmas songs all day so will have to find new station go back to magic after Christmas the odd Christmas song is great but not all day everyday
How very dare you? ( boring ). Typical mainstream commercial radio. Lost the plot again eh?.
What a great way to turn listeners away, Magic!
Although I do celebrate Christmas and enjoy it, hearing the same annoying Christmas songs on the radio and in every shop is the thing I dislike about Christmas.
Also, think about other people who maybe because of their religion, they don’t celebrate Christmas or as mentioned above, maybe people are bereaving family and/or friends.
There should be an Ofcom rule about replacing mainstream radio stations with a Christmas-only song playlist.
Ofcom should state as to when radio stations and TV music channels are allowed to start playing Christmas music/videos and as to the maximum percentage of songs/videos they’re allowed to play in 24 hours. Maybe if there was no more than 60% Christmas songs and as long as the same song/video isn’t played more often than say once in a 6 or 8 hour period.
And there should be a much wider selection of Christmas music played and the likes of Slade/Wizzard/The Pogues/Paul McCartney/Shakin’ Stevens/Jonah Lewie/Mariah Carey and Band Aid played less often than Christmas songs that don’t get played as often and likewise Christmas songs that a lot of people may not have heard of before.
No,I don’t agree with quotas for Christmas music,just vote with your ears and switch off,in my case to a station that doesn’t play the wretched stuff at all-on the internet you can find loads!.
Hope they do it again this Year!,
I’ll be Listening for Sure!.
Hope they don’t for the reasons I and everyone else mentioned above last year. There should be an Ofcom rule that bans any mainstream TV channel or radio station from switching to an only-Christmas TV show/film or song format before a certain date, especially in the case of this year with Sony Movies switching to a Christmas only format still in September and Starz TV becoming Christmas Starz in early October. Bloody crazy!?