The official Christmas FM thread

WFH today for the first time in a while, have the house to myself & the Mrs had to go in to her office today, decided to stick on Christmas FM classical for some mellow background music, but nah not even two songs in & wasn't feeling it at all so early in the year. Normally I dip in & out all year round to classical but just not feeling it at the moment. Will try again next time I'm WFH to see if my mood has changed at all.

Whilst the total is impressive its clearly short of the target ( c. €330k) they set themselves with the 3 year 'The Magic of Christmas' plan outlined before Christmas which is unfortunate, however the cost of living crisis shouldn't be underestimated, and with it unlikely to abate anytime in the next year or two that 1 Million target could be a tough one to achieve. 706k required over the next 2 years is €353k each year, would love to see them do it, but its going to be difficult IMO.

Fingers crossed we all get some relief on the outgoing bills front & the donations are up this year.

Agree.

I mentioned it on here previously that they really didn't do themselves any favours last year with the lack of any kind of social media content after Paddy FM finished after St. Patricks Day up until just before the launch. On previous years whilst they weren't prolific they at least had the odd post/email highlighting countdown milestones etc. before the build up to the launch, for last year they had very little interaction and that may have been a factor, whilst in reality it was probably dwarfed by the cost of living I'd be amazed if it wasn't a factor.

In fairness they acknowledged it when quizzed on it during the run and said they'll be doing more next year, maybe behind the scenes there was a lack of resources or suchlike with yet another studio relocation etc. Anyway, hopefully they are a little more active, even if it is just a token 'we havent gone away you know, just xxx days to the launch of Christmas FM'

If they are playing non Christmas classical tunes at the moment, maybe they need to temporarily change the name of the station!

290 days until FM launch day for 2023.

as per @Loughc post above, they have this on their twitter feed...

I must admit I haven't listened in previously to this one and genuinely suspect I'll not bother again this year either, anyone else listen in previously? & was it anyway decent?

I think I had it on for maybe an hour or so last year. From what I recall, it wasn't all diddly eye music, they were playing songs from Irish artists - U2, Aslan etc. I might have been lucky with the presenter who was on when I tuned in, but it was definitely listenable!

The Sound of Ireland (to give it its proper name!) ran for a week last year as well. This year the FM frequency in Dublin will be 94.3 FM. It will of course be also available online for all of Ireland.

https://thesoundofireland.com/

Trying to listen to classical but it keeps buffering and pausing, so went to change over and saw the playlist under the Christmas FM 'Ireland'

to go from Merry Christmas everyone by shaky to The rare auld times by Luke Kelly is some leap!!! 🤣

I see the skipping error has been fixed on Christmas FM classical which is good, I had to turn it off the last few times I tried to listen as it was really irritating. All fixed now though so must have a listen when I get a chance again next time I'm WFH.

I don't know how these dates even come into your head, but I love that they do!!

My maths was off on that last one, it should have been 30 weeks.

Its 28 weeks today we'll hear CHristmas FM back on our radio's! So nearly half way there!

Make that 22 weeks to launch day!!

Thats a good call, it was always a nice stepping stone to the build up when that was announced.

Have a feeling their 3 years strategy is going to backfire somewhat, the figures for last year didn't meet the quota they'd have needed for their 3 year target, so 2 big years needed now to get to their goal.

It's worth remembering that last Christmas people were getting energy bills that were through the roof. If it comes down this year you might see a bit more donated.

WFH today & being back from our summer holiday & the weather being so miserable have stuck on Christmas FM classical on in the background....

Might catch up with a podcast this afternoon too am behind ona few of them at this stage.

14 weeks today is launch day!