The Ongoing History of New Music, episode 1001: The 27th annual weirdo Christmas show

You want to know when I started thinking about this year’s annual Ongoing History Christmas show? It was August 27. Why? Because that was when a record label sent me the first new Christmas song of the year.

August 27? Starbucks had barely started serving pumpkin spice lattes and the labels were already pushing Christmas.

The next day, another I was sent “Rockin’ ‘Round the Christmas Tree,” the 1958 hit by Brenda Lee. What?

Then came stories out of the Philippines. I didn’t know this but the good people of the Philippines really, really, really love Christmas. Some started getting started on the celebrations the second the calendar turned over to September 1. And sure enough, on that day, Spotify registered 311,000 streams of Maria Carey’s All I Want for Christmas is You.

Too soon, people, too soon. Even Mariah herself said so—although she also said that she was going to “make an exception for my Filipino peeps.”

Christmas creep is even weirder when it comes to radio. Did you know that there was a station in Milwaukee that started playing Christmas music on July 25? It was just a one-day stunt, but still…

And then a station in the UK flipped on August 25, 122 days before the big day. And once we got to October, tons more followed. Why? Because the masses love their Christmas music and that translates into big ratings for many radio stations.

So, yeah, I’ve been thinking about this program for a while, but I didn’t do anything about it until the last second thanks to the way the calendar falls this year. This is one of those rare instances where this show can run as late as Christmas Eve. Since this show began in 1993, this has happened only in 1995, 2000, 2006, and 2017.

And now we’re here in 2023. This is the 27^th Annual Ongoing History Christmas show. Prepare yourself.

Songs heard on this program:

• We Are the Union, Yr Always Alone on Christmas
• The Frostbite Faction, Santa on the Off Seasons
• Aaron Gage, Deck the Halls + War Pigs
• Tarya Tununen, All I Want for Christmas is You
• Vicious Kitty, Mrs. Claus
• Twenty One Pilots, Christmas Saves the Day
• Scot Helman, Coming Come for Christmas
• Type O Negative, Red Water (Christmas Mourning)
• Falcomer, Alone at Christmas
• GWAR, Stripper Christmas Summer Weekend
• Korn, Kidnap the Sandy Klaws
• Henry Rollins, ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas

And what would this show be without a playlist from Eric Wilhite?

The Ongoing History of New Music can be heard on the following stations:

• 102.1 The Edge/Toronto – Sunday night at 7pm
• Q107/Toronto – Sunday night at 9pm
• Live 88-5/Ottawa – Saturdays at 9am and Sundays at 6pm.
• 107.5 Dave-FM/Kitchener – Sunday nights at 11pm
• FM96/London – Sunday nights at 8pm
• Power 97/Winnipeg – Sunday nights at 11pm
• Sonic 102.9/Edmonton – Sunday at 8am and 8pm
• The Zone/Victoria – Sunday at 8am and 9pm
• The Fox/Vancouver – Sunday at 11pm
• Surge 105/Halifax – Sunday at 7pm
• WAPS/WKTL The Summit/Arkon, Canton, Cleveland, Youngstown – Mon-Fri at 9pm

We’re still looking for more affiliates in Calgary, Kamloops, Kelowna, Regina, Saskatoon, Brandon, Windsor,  Montreal, Charlottetown, Moncton, Fredericton, and St John’s, and anywhere else with a transmitter. If you’re in any of those markets and you want the show, lemme know and I’ll see what I can do.