If I am hearing this in the Tri Cities, its being or been done everywhere else, but I find this rather amusing never the less.

97.5 KOOL-FM ( Now a Gap West Station )has a promo working now : " When you hear a KOOL Christmas Hit this summer be caller __ and win two tickets to ( several different upcoming concerts in Seattle and Spokane ). "97.5 KOOL-FM your official Christmas station all year round' and listen to win again this November and December for more ways to win when you hear KOOL Christmas Hits on 97.5 KOOL FM".

Brilliant ! Lets promote Christmas as a value added attraction for the month of July.

Christmas in July is as old a concept as the remote broadcast. You can call it genocide in July...people will still call for free concert tickets.

Makes me wonder if some station out there that's planning to change formats in 2009 will dump their current format over Fourth of July weekend, and stunt with All-Christmas until December 25th.

Regardless, How many times do we need to hear "Jingle Bells," "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year," "Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire," "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer," etc.?!

Happy Christmas in July everybody:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/southyorkshire/content/images/2007/12/19/breakfast_365x470. jpg

One aspect of all this I have to admit : Playing "listen to win" Christmas music in July and promoting Christmas music for November does tend to establish your station as " The " Christmas Station" for the market and as such for the entire year !

And while your at it, establishing this "Christmas Music Station" concept in the minds of the Clients first and formost whilst cranking out and presenting Holiday spot package specials by mid September ! A way of beating the competition to pieces 6 months ahead of schedule.

Annoying but Brilliant !

This is probably a corporate dictum and it may really be a prelude to the fear of a bad holiday season this year due to all of the economic and political pressures we are now experiencing. This would be a simple tactic to use as a way of locking up what "ad" dollars are availiable at the earliest possible moment this fall.

I have to agree with Kennewickman. To me this looks like a clever way to really lock in the Christmas music position without competition.

With the people meter's 52 week a year ratings coming in the next year or two to almost all markets (if it doesn't blow up in failure)"The Christmas Station" is going to increase as a revenue generator, and a must-own image for many stations.

As stated above: Annoying but Brilliant!

Two stations I worked for did this and had great results from the
Christmas in July campaign. It brought in lots of non-traditional revenue. The people liked it as did the clients, WIN! WIN! We gave away ski packages, shopping sprees, and a prize which allowed lucky winners (10) to be on our X-mas float in the parade!

Merry Christmas In July from All Access & CBS Radio Dallas:

----------------------Santa Lands In Dallas At KVIL----------------------

What's was up at CBS AC KVIL (103.7 LITE FM)/DALLAS? Turns out -- just a little fun. It' was 90 degrees in THE BIG D, but the station was playing nothing but CHRISTMAS music. All VP/Programming KURT JOHNSON would say at the time was, "It's CHRISTMAS in JULY!" Turns out it was -- but just from 10a-3p. The soft rock returned at 3p CT.

Im surprised k103 doesn't pull a stunt like this, Or at least play all christmas music on the midday voice tracked shift. While it might annoy some people, it will definetely get people talking around the Water Cooler.