NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwire - December 4, 2007) - The holiday season is in full swing and for
many people, this festive time of year wouldn't be the same without
familiar holiday songs being played on their radios. The American Society
of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) has compiled holiday song
data, tracked by radio airplay monitoring service Mediaguide, from over
2,600 radio stations nationwide. The results show that dozens of stations
are in the holiday spirit -- with many of them rockin' around the Christmas
tree 24/7 -- and playing some of the most popular and best loved holiday
songs.
Highlights of the data include:
-- 1,562 different holiday songs have been played on radio stations from
October 1, 2007 to December 3, 2007.
-- Holiday songs have been played 2,366,787 times altogether.
-- 197 stations have switched to all-holiday, all the time playlists.
-- The top 10 most-played holiday songs in the ASCAP repertoire so far
this holiday season are:
1. "Sleigh Ride" (Leroy Anderson, Mitchell Parish) - played 86,925 times
2. "Winter Wonderland" (Felix Bernard, Richard B. Smith) - played 82,185
times
3. "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" (Ralph Blane, Hugh Martin) -
played 64,806 times
4. "Jingle Bell Rock" (Joseph Carleton Beal, James Roth Boothe) - played
62,285 times
5. "White Christmas" (Irving Berlin) - played 59,611 times
6. "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" (Edward Pola, George
Wyle) - played 58,508 times
7. "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" (Johnny Marks) - played 52,587
times
8. "Frosty the Snowman" (Steve Nelson, Walter E. Rollins) - played
44,472 times
9. "Silver Bells" (Ray Evans, Jay Livingston) - played 44,465 times
10. "A Holly Jolly Christmas" (Johnny Marks) - played 44,374 times
-- Note: The above list represents an aggregation of all different artist
versions of each cited holiday song.
"Sleigh Ride" is the only holiday song on the list written originally as an
instrumental piece for a symphony orchestra. The Boston Pops Orchestra
gave the first performance in a concert conducted by Arthur Fiedler at
Symphony Hall in Boston, May 4, 1948. Mills Music published it that same
year. The Boston Pops Orchestra recorded it in June of 1949. Mitchell
Parish added lyrics in 1949.
Members of the press who would like a custom week-to-week or local run of
real-time 2007 holiday song airplay may contact Kathleen Reynolds
(CooperKatz for Mediaguide) at 212-455-8062 or
kreynolds@cooperkatz.com.
Mediaguide, co-owned by ASCAP, was launched in 2002 to monitor radio
broadcast music in real-time and facilitate the accurate distribution of
royalty payments to songwriters, composers and publishers. Its proprietary
technology and network of over 2,600 radio stations currently tracks more
stations and total airplay than any other monitoring service in the U.S.
About ASCAP
Established in 1914, ASCAP is the first and leading U.S. Performing Rights
Organization representing the world's largest repertory totaling over 8.5
million copyrighted musical works of every style and genre from more than
300,000 songwriter, composer and music publisher members. ASCAP has
representation arrangements with over 90 music rights organizations such
that the ASCAP repertory is represented in nearly every country around the
world. ASCAP protects the rights of its members and foreign affiliates by
licensing the public performances of their copyrighted works and
distributing royalties based upon surveyed performances. ASCAP is the only
American Performing Rights Organization owned and governed by its writer
and publisher members.
www.ascap.com