Now ye're talking - to Christmas FM!

Boards.ie: Niamh

This week we have Ronan from Christmas FM here to answer your questions about the Christmas station.

Christmas FM is coming back for its 11th year on air, launching on Wednesday 28th November at 1pm.

Christmas FM has five stations, 4 of which only stream and Christmas FM Ireland that goes out on the FM dial. Between the five stations we have something for everyone (who likes Christmas ) and every Christmas mood.

About Christmas FM:
ChristmasFM Ireland is a quasi national FM radio station serving Ireland for 30 days each Christmas period. We operate a unique temporary radio service funded by commercial sponsorship and activities and have a strong focus on fundraising for charity. To date we have raised over 1,250,000 for Irish charities.

Ronan is here to answer as many questions as he can about Christmas FM and the work that they do. They have a charity partner every year who benefit from the monies raised. Raising money for charity is one of the main reasons that Christmas FM is on air. This year their 2018 charity partner is Temple Street Hospital.

If you have any questions, ask away!

kitten_k

How is the charity partner selected?

Cockadoodledoo

Do you ever get tired of hearing Christmas music

Loughc

When does the heavy preparation work kick off for Christmas fm?

October or sooner?

Also how is scheduling and song rotations decided.

Thanks so much for doing this Ronan. Great appreciated during what will be an extremely busy week for you.

Gloomtastic!

Congratulations Ronan on such a great product. It’s a unique station with such professional djs and output and brand loyalty that every other radio station owner in Ireland would die for. They must hate you to bits for taking what I imagine is a large chunk of their listeners away at this time of year.

As a serial entrepreneur are you not tempted, just a teeny weeny bit, to commercialise it?

How long, from the initial idea, did it take to get to launch? What was the biggest obstacle you faced at the time and how did you overcome it?

Sean Dunne was an early backer, accommodating you in the Berkerly Court. You obviously met him, what did you think of him?

Have you had many approaches to buy it?

What’s your favourite Christmas song?

Well done again, and best of luck with the AMA.....

R.dufy454773

Hi , thanks for doing this

What keeps you busy for the rest of the year?

eviltwin

No questions, just wanted to say thank you to you and the team for all your hard work. You're as much a part of Christmas in my home as the toy show and fairy lights. Best of luck and have a lovely Christmas.

Tom Mann Centuria

What frequencies are you on? Do you yourself enjoy Christmas, or is it a case of too much of a good thing?*




*though I can't believe this is actually possible with Christmas.

Toto Wolfcastle

What are the busiest and quietest times for texts? How often does it get to the point where you can’t read every text out? Do you ever get angry texts? (Presumably from people on the naughty list.)

SEPT 23 1989

Do you wish it could be Christmas every day?

s3rtvdbwfj81ch

Christmas Shoes.

Why?

Why, why, why?

Why?

endacl

Just for clarity....

You are aware it's still November?!?

:mad:

AllForIt

Do you accept that some ppl have no interest in xmas whatsoever and that your station exists as a part of the whole xmas advertising machine to make xmas compulsory for everyone, all done not to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ but to increase consumerism as far as you possibly can.

endacl

AllForIt wrote: »

Do you accept that some ppl have no interest in xmas whatsoever and that your station exists as a part of the whole xmas advertising machine to make xmas compulsory for everyone, all done not to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ but to increase consumerism as far as you possibly can.

I can't help meself...

Despite my previous, I simply must draw attention to the fact that there is a user-operated 'tuning' function on most radios these days. And usually an on/off button, switch or slider of some sort?

It pained me to type that. I agree with you 100%. Bar the celebration of holibabijebus's birthday. Couldn't give a polite shyte for that.

FanadMan

Are you going to play A Merry Jingle by The Greedies? It's possibly the best xmas song ever......better than that fairytale rubbish!

Jude13

First of thanks for doing the Q&A, I love driving across country seeing other people singing the same Christmas tunes as me. This year we cant get home for Christmas so will be listening via an app in the desert.

Q: Is there a relaxed festive atmosphere, i.e. a tipple or two and some quality street, or it all business?

Zaph

AllForIt wrote: »

Do you accept that some ppl have no interest in xmas whatsoever and that your station exists as a part of the whole xmas advertising machine to make xmas compulsory for everyone, all done not to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ but to increase consumerism as far as you possibly can.

You do realise that the station is run by volunteers and is used to raise significant funds for charity each year, don't you? Are you a Grinch all year round or is it just a seasonal thing for you?

seamus

Why do you shut down on 26th? Why not the 30th?

beertons

What's your favourite non Christmas song?

Brock Turnpike

Hi, Ronan.

Fair play on the fundraising for Temple Street this year. A very worthy cause that is often overlooked.

May I ask how you choose your playlist for the station? I enjoy flicking to the station on the build up to Christmas, but I do find the playlist fairly repetitive. (I don't mean that in a "you're always playing Christmas songs" way!)

Are there a particular set of Christmas songs that you feel meet what the station is slot, and therefore exclude other Christmas songs?

One example I would give is an album called "Funny Looking Angels" by Smith & Burrows. Is an album of Christmas* songs, some of which are beautifully done, in particular "Only You". I'm sure there are plenty of other artists that have done similar Christmas albums that could be added to the playlist.

Finally, your station introduced me to "Feliz Navidad" and for that I am eternally grateful

TheValeyard

Will you have Santa on this year, so the kids can listen to him?

Call me Al

Why have you never played Chrissie Hynde's song 2000 Miles? I mean it has to be the BEST CHRISTMAS SONG EVER.
I clearly now expect it to be song number 1 played this week after my intervention. :-)

davo2001

AllForIt wrote: »

Do you accept that some ppl have no interest in xmas whatsoever and that your station exists as a part of the whole xmas advertising machine to make xmas compulsory for everyone, all done not to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ but to increase consumerism as far as you possibly can.

No one is forcing you to listen to it.

Loughc

seamus wrote: »

Why do you shut down on 26th? Why not the 30th?

It's a 30 day temporary licence. So my going live on the 28th (they use the 27th for testing, etc)

they need to end on the 27th of December.

Of course your question is now why start on the 28th and not December 2nd?

Caybar

The Christmas FM App works all year round, who looks after that during the year?

Nokia6230i

One doffs ones hat to all those volunteering be it front of house or behind the scenes in production.

As Sharon Ni Bheolain on Six One might opine; "It's not for me now" though I don't do her facial tics as well as she can.

Have dipped into it but it's the radio equivalent for those volunteers of what it must be like for retail staff at this time of year too.

Listeners can tune in/out, switch on/off, retailers/staff can't as such.

Groundhog Day comes to mind!

It'd be great for piping into a remand cell to get a prisoner to talk; they'd either co-operate or be a gibberish wreck coming out.

But I get it's a necessarily evil and raises funds, in this case for Temple St.

The altruism for me would be outweighed by the need to bang my head off a wall with the same songs being played during my 8, 10, 12 hour shift.

But that's just me and I think it's a novel, noble idea and for reasons like staying power I doff my hat to the volunteers involved!

The Specialist

AllForIt wrote: »

Do you accept that some ppl have no interest in xmas whatsoever and that your station exists as a part of the whole xmas advertising machine to make xmas compulsory for everyone, all done not to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ but to increase consumerism as far as you possibly can.

Can you just go listen to Radiohead or something?

Faith

How much would we need to pay to make "Christmas Shoes" disappear from the rotation forever more?

seamus

Faith wrote: »

How much would we need to pay to make "Christmas Shoes" disappear from the rotation forever more?

That actually sounds like a great idea for a donation drive for Xmas FM;

"If we can reach our target of €100,000, then we will remove Christmas shoes from rotation for the rest of the year!".

Mint Sauce

What would have to be the minimum amount rasied, to remove Mariah Carey 'All I Want For Xmas' from the Play List?

AllForIt wrote: »

Do you accept that some ppl have no interest in xmas whatsoever and that your station exists as a part of the whole xmas advertising machine to make xmas compulsory for everyone, all done not to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ but to increase consumerism as far as you possibly can.

There are other radio stations you know.

ainy

I love Christmas fm, I am ridiculously excited to start listening tomorrow! One of my favourites has to be grandma got run over by a reindeer! In our new house this year and don't have a radio for my kitchen yet, will be purchasing one today for sure!!

Peig Sayers

Why do you play so much shyte Christmas music? "Grandma got run over by a reindeer" etc. There are so many beautiful traditional carols that are available. Why not pop some of these into your playlists instead of the bubblegum tunes you churn out?

Myself and ainy posted at the same time! Interesting perspectives!

Bob Harris

Ronan is off-air it seems.

Gumbo

Bob Harris wrote: »

Ronan is off-air it seems.

Maybe he is replying on a different frequency....

Bob Harris

kceire wrote: »

Maybe he is replying on a different frequency....

His answers aren't frequent anyway.

CheerLouth

Thanks for doing the AMA - Christmas FM is an essential part of our Christmas

Is there any song (other than Christmas Shoes :P) that you really dislike and cringe when someone requests it?

How do you decide who does the Christmas Day shows?

Brock Turnpike

Nokia6230i wrote: »

One doffs ones hat to all those volunteering be it front of house or behind the scenes in production.

As Sharon Ni Bheolain on Six One might opine; "It's not for me now" though I don't do her facial tics as well as she can.

Have dipped into it but it's the radio equivalent for those volunteers of what it must be like for retail staff at this time of year too.

Listeners can tune in/out, switch on/off, retailers/staff can't as such.

Groundhog Day comes to mind!

It'd be great for piping into a remand cell to get a prisoner to talk; they'd either co-operate or be a gibberish wreck coming out.

But I get it's a necessarily evil and raises funds, in this case for Temple St.

The altruism for me would be outweighed by the need to bang my head off a wall with the same songs being played during my 8, 10, 12 hour shift.

But that's just me and I think it's a novel, noble idea and for reasons like staying power I doff my hat to the volunteers involved!

Where is the question in this post?

optogirl

AllForIt wrote: »

Do you accept that some ppl have no interest in xmas whatsoever and that your station exists as a part of the whole xmas advertising machine to make xmas compulsory for everyone, all done not to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ but to increase consumerism as far as you possibly can.

ah lads- it's not compulsory

ChristmasFM: Ronan

kitten_k wrote: »

How is the charity partner selected?

Hey all,

Great question, at the beginning of each year we ask for Charity Partners to apply and then we send them out an application form.

What we are looking for includes (but isn't limited to):

1. National interest. If we choose a Dublin only charity it won't appeal as much to listeners in Donegal.
2. They need to have a team in place that can help us. For example on Donation day, its the charity that mans the phones. We also like to have Street Teams available when needed (outside broadcasts etc)
3. Obviously they need to be a registered charity.
4. Who we think will benefit most from the exposure. One thing we hear every year is the money is most appreciated but the people finding out about the charities work and either volunteering as a result or making monthly contributions.
5. Input - we have slots on the radio for stories about the charity and we need the charity to help us put their best foot forward here.

ChristmasFM: Ronan

Cockadoodledoo wrote: »

Do you ever get tired of hearing Christmas music

Sometimes, but to be honest I love it and everything about Christmas.

ChristmasFM: Ronan

Loughc wrote: »

When does the heavy preparation work kick off for Christmas fm?

October or sooner?

Also how is scheduling and song rotations decided.

Its basically all year round. But ramps up massively from our first staff meeting on the 1st of November. Q1 and Q2 are arranging charity partners and sponsors (This year Coca Cola are on board!) Q3 is making changes to station format and Q4 is on air prep.

Remember its run by volunteers all have full time jobs. Many are top of their respective trees in other organisations too.

Scheduling of Presenters is done purely on best fit. I'd love to be on daily, but there are much better presenters in the pool of Talent so they get the gigs. At this stage we also priorise past presenters, Like the station just wouldnt sounds the Same without Keith Shanley, Garv and the others that make the voice of Christmas FM. (Dont want to name them all incase i leave anyone out.

Song rotation. Again great question.

We have a computer system to help with this. Songs are allocated a grade A being best and D being nice once in a while. So A songs (example Fairy Tale of New York) might get played 5 times a day and D songs might get played once a day or once every 2 days.

This also prevents 2 key issues:
1. A new presenter coming on air and playing the exact same songs the last person did.
2. One person requesting "Christmas Shoes" on repeat and then the song getting over played and driving everyone else crazy.

ChristmasFM: Ronan

Gloomtastic! wrote: »

Congratulations Ronan on such a great product. It’s a unique station with such professional djs and output and brand loyalty that every other radio station owner in Ireland would die for. They must hate you to bits for taking what I imagine is a large chunk of their listeners away at this time of year.

We have a good listenership but don't publish the figures. But also other stations can't just turn off their normal programming for a month so i think they understand the need and to be honest there are no real enemies in the radio game.

Gloomtastic! wrote: »

As a serial entrepreneur are you not tempted, just a teeny weeny bit, to commercialise it?

Haha wow...

So we operate under a temporary license. If we ran a paid ad we wouldn't be as likely to get the license next year. Every year we apply for a license and every year we are a little tense about if we will get it or not. There are objections that go in saying other people deserve the slot too. So its not something we can take for granted.

I'm not the top of the tree or the owner. For everyone its a CSR project. It would be great to find a commercial avenue, in particular I think it would be amazing it we could have funds to make a full time, year round salary for Dan who is the station manager and puts in massive hours.

In my experience with Radio as soon as its a commercial station it becomes less fun. All our staff (bar one) are volunteers and it wouldn't be at all cool to be making profit and not paying them. So making it a commercial station has its pro's and con's.

Gloomtastic! wrote: »

How long, from the initial idea, did it take to get to launch? What was the biggest obstacle you faced at the time and how did you overcome it?

Like most idea's, it started small. I was one of the first funders but the idea itself wasn't mine. Some of us had been involved in Free (can also be read pirate) radio in prior years. so we knew a little about setting up a station.

Biggest challenge is the license submission and after that keeping the station up to a professional standard.

There's a great blog on our launch 10 years ago here:
https://christmasfm.com/christmas-fm-10-years-old/

Gloomtastic! wrote: »

Sean Dunne was an early backer, accommodating you in the Berkerly Court. You obviously met him, what did you think of him?

I've never met Sean at all, in business or radio situations.

Gloomtastic! wrote: »

Have you had many approaches to buy it?

No that im aware of, doesn't make sense to buy something thats a not for profit and isn't guaranteed a license next year. But i suppose thats a question best asked to the team at the top of the tree.

Gloomtastic! wrote: »

What’s your favourite Christmas song?

I love a song called Funzo - This Christmas, which was a past Christmas Fm song contest winner. It was also in the back ground by chance when i proposed to my wife so that might have something to do with it.

ChristmasFM: Ronan

R.dufy454773 wrote: »

Hi , thanks for doing this

What keeps you busy for the rest of the year?

I'm the CEO at Zatori Results Ltd, which runs TheCostumeShop.ie and several other online businesses. I'm also financial director for a marine engineering business called Martek. I sit on the Alumni board of EYs Entrepreneur of the Year. And i've a little 2 year old that does his best to make sure every other waking minute is occupied.

ChristmasFM: Ronan

Tom Mann Centuria wrote: »

What frequencies are you on? Do you yourself enjoy Christmas, or is it a case of too much of a good thing?*


*though I can't believe this is actually possible with Christmas.

I love Christmas and halloween. Never get board of it.

ChristmasFM: Ronan

Toto Wolfcastle wrote: »

What are the busiest and quietest times for texts? How often does it get to the point where you can’t read every text out? Do you ever get angry texts? (Presumably from people on the naughty list.)

So up to when i had my first kid i used to do Christmas day - which started off because of a complaint here on boards.ie (i think) saying how crap it was that it wasn't live on the one day they cared to listen on. And the volume of text we get on Christmas Day now is astounding!! Lots of best turkeys and thanks for X presents. Now we have loads of volunteers to do Xmas day.

Donation day is probably the biggest day over all. Time wise on the average day would possibly be on the drive home from school. It really does vary though. If you dont mention the text line for a while the text are much slower coming in.

Many text don't want to be read out, often just people being nice and wanting to donate. We have to be careful that its not becoming TEXTmas FM with no music just a long list of names.

We do get the odd complaint. I don't like Christmas Shoes. Or someone asking us to play Christmas shoes right now, and followed by a reminder every three minutes and telling us not to charge them for the repeat texts (thats not how it works mobile operator gives the funds direct to the charity!) Our playlists are quite controlled to ensure that we dont over or under play certain songs. We try to have an over all station feel, rather than I like X presenters taste in Christmas music.

ChristmasFM: Ronan

SEPT 23 1989 wrote: »

Do you wish it could be Christmas every day?

ChristmasFM: Ronan

Ethan Limited Diesel wrote: »

Christmas Shoes.

Why?

Why, why, why?

Why?

Because:

You see, she's been sick for quite a while, and
I know these shoes will make her smile, and
I want her to be beautiful,
If momma meets Jesus tonight.


Also because of the sheer volume of (paid) texts we get asking for it. Its on a minimum rotation now.

ChristmasFM: Ronan

endacl wrote: »

Just for clarity....

You are aware it's still November?!?

:mad:

Christmas is a Lifestyle. These things dont happen without a lot of prep.

ChristmasFM: Ronan

AllForIt wrote: »

Do you accept that some ppl have no interest in xmas whatsoever and that your station exists as a part of the whole xmas advertising machine to make xmas compulsory for everyone, all done not to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ but to increase consumerism as far as you possibly can.

Yeah we have a great solution for this... its the off button. We don't force anyone to listen and if helping out Temple Street and delivering a little bit of magic is consumerism then sign me up.

I see your point of view, Christmas FM, Christmas music or Christmas itself isn't for everyone. Personally I choose to buy into halloween, Christmas when we are lucky enough to have it ChristMarch. Happiness is a choice, choose your own bliss.

Toto Wolfcastle

ChristmasFM: Ronan wrote: »

Christmas is a Lifestyle.

ChristmasFM: Ronan wrote: »

Happiness is a choice, choose your own bliss.

Ronan for president! :pac:

ChristmasFM: Ronan

FanadMan wrote: »

Are you going to play A Merry Jingle by The Greedies? It's possibly the best xmas song ever......better than that fairytale rubbish!

We have 5 stations

1. Christmas FM Ireland
2. Christmas FM UK
3. Christmas fm Classic
4. Classical Christmas FM
5. Christmas FM North Pole

We don't have a rock station, maybe there's an opportunity for you to start one?