Familiar Christmas recordings perform strongly in a new holiday-music analysis, offering stations useful guidance as they prepare seasonal libraries. The essential qualification is who supplied the preferences.
Finney Media’s study covers Christian-radio listeners. Radio Ink’s October 6 analysis examines 224 recordings and reports Josh Groban’s “O Holy Night” at the top, followed by Nat King Cole’s version of the same carol.
Frank Sinatra’s “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” and the Carpenters’ recording also rank near the top.
The recording matters—and so does the audience
These are preferences for specific performances, not simply a list of song titles. Two artists’ versions of the same composition can produce different listener responses.
Finney makes the study available through its download form and explicitly identifies the audience as Christian listeners. That distinction should remain attached to any use of the findings.
The rankings should not be presented as a representative survey of every American listener. Before applying them to another station, programmers should examine sample size, recruitment, demographics, familiarity and the scoring method.
The Radio News Now question
Do these recordings fit the listeners your station actually serves—and what local research would reveal where your audience differs?
Sources: Finney Media study page; Radio Ink analysis.