Apparently, when radio stations switch to an "all Christmas music, all the time" format between November and New Year's, it pays off, according to poster Mike Grayeb at the New York Radio Message Board, who listens to New York's WPLJ-FM during the mornings:

I happened to hear about 10 minutes of their show this morning and Scott was mentioning that last year, PLJ got its "butt kicked" by the competition during the Christmas season.

He and Todd joked that they were making fun of the competition (I presume WLTW) during last year's season -- but that they weren't laughing when the ratings came in. Hence, he said, why they went holiday music 24/7 so early this year.

Is this what it's come to? Who are these people who 1) Listen to all-Christmas music radio stations and 2) admit it when the Arbitron survey-takers call them up?

The holiday music started even before Thanksgiving this year on several New York radio stations.

Howard Stern has said that he is now out to destroy broadcast radio by switching to satellite. If he does, he'll do it with a lot of help from broadcast radio executives.