SYRACUSE and UTICA-ROME -- With Halloween 2010 just barely into the history books, two local radio stations are already looking ahead to Christmas. And based on previous years' experience (2009 | 2008) -- it's no surprise that Galaxy's Sunny 102 (WZUN/Phoenix) and Mix 102.5 (WUMX/Rome) are those first two stations to make the switch.
In Syracuse, Clear Channel AC Y94FM (WYYY) has also traditionally gone all-Christmas, but not until later in November. While we haven't heard anything from the station about their plans for this year, the station made the change on November 12th last year.
In the Utica-Rome market, for many years, there was just one station doing the all-Christmas thing. But last year, Christmas fever spread to two other stations: Roser's Bug Country (WBUG/WBGK) offered an all-country version of all-Christmas by mid-November and TownSquare's Lite 98.7 (WLZW) made the switch the day after Thanksgiving. (In previous years, WLZW had "partially" gone all-Christmas, only at certain times.)
We haven't heard from any of the above stations about their plans for this year, but we'll be scanning the dial and posting updates as needed.
To the best of our knowledge, nobody in the Watertown or Ithaca-Cortland markets has gone all-Christmas -- we hope our readers in those areas will let us know if you hear anything. Even in Syracuse and Utica -- we'll be scanning the dial too, but a heads-up is appreciated if we miss anything, especially if an "unexpected" station joins in the race.