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Scotty McCreery Christmas Song Of The Day

11/16/2012

As many of you know, Scotty McCreery has a Christmas album out, and he's also one of our sponsors on the Sounds of Christmas. In fact, he even sent me a box of CDs to give away!

Here's how you can win a CD prize pack from the Sounds of Christmas, featuring "Christmas With Scotty McCreery"...

Beginning Monday, December 3, and continuing every weekday up to Christmas Eve, listen to the Sounds of Christmas for the Scotty McCreery Christmas Song of the Day! When you hear it, send an email to HERE with the title and artist of the next song that follows that Scotty McCreery song (and SONG OF THE DAY in the subject line). A winner will be chosen at random from all correct emails.

How will you know which Scotty McCreery song is the Song of the Day? That will be posted on this website, under the SONG OF THE DAY heading, every morning, with that day's winner added after the song airs. So you can just click above where it says SONG OF THE DAY and you'll see what the song is, along with a time frame of just when it will be coming up. There will also be announcements made on the air, telling you which song to listen for and when to be listening!

So starting Monday, December 3, be listening for Scotty McCreery's Christmas Song of the Day to win his new CD!

Feel free to leave any questions or comments about this below. And let the Scotty McCreery fans you know all about it!

And may you always believe in Santa Claus!

Ken

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Four States Left

11/13/2012

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As you know, we're up and running!

In fact, we already have listeners in 46 states, Washington DC and 45 other countries!

I realize that, with just over a week to go before Thanksgiving (here in the U.S.), not everyone is ready for Christmas music. That's fine. We'll be ready and waiting for you when you are!

I know there are lots of radio stations all over that go "All Christmas" this time of year. And they tend to play the same hundred songs over and over, which is one of the main reasons so many people say they're sick of Christmas music before the first of December!

Well, I have loaded almost two thousand songs into the station (so far), and there's plenty more to come. You'll get more from Bing than just "White Christmas, more from Nat "King" Cole than just "The Christmas Song" and more from Mannheim Steamroller than just "Deck The Halls".

Plus, lots of new music, including the Polyphonic Spree, Scotty McCreery, Richard Kincaid, Judy Pancoast, Rod Stewart, Cee Lo Green, August Burns Red, Celtic Woman, Christina Perri, Colbie Caillat, Gary "U.S." Bonds, Rita Collidge, the Backstreet Boys, Chris Mann, Lady Antebellum, the Civil Wars, Blake Shelton, the Empty Pockets, Cheap Trick, Fun, Jim Brickman, Kem, the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Mikey Wax, Norah Jones, Olivia Newton-John (with John Travolta), Richard Marx, Tracey Thorn, Steven Curtis Chapman the Shins, Dropkick Murphy's, Rick Braun, Jason Castro and Paul McCartney! To name a few.

Here's what I listened to on the Sounds of Christmas as I typed this...

Big Bad Voodoo Daddy "Christmas Is Starting Now"
Commodores "Deck The Halls"
Pat Boone "Old Fashioned Christmas"
Barry Manilow "(There's No Place Like) Home For The Holidays"
My Chemical Romance "All I Want For Christmas Is You"
Bobby Vee "Blue Christmas"
AgesandAges "We Need A Little Christmas"
Mariah Carey "Charlie Brown Christmas"
Dennis DeYoung "When I Hear A Christmas Song"
Carpenters "Do You Hear What I Hear"
Slim Jim Phantom "Christmas Tree Boogie"

So if you love Christmas music, I hope you'll tune in! And if you know someone who loves Christmas music, please send them my way!

Especially if they live in Alaska, Delaware, Maine or Wyoming (those are the four states I need to have all of America listening)!

Thanks so much! And may you always believe in Santa Claus!

Ken

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Take Us With You!

11/6/2012

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Now that the Sounds of Christmas is up and running, I'm trying to take care of all the behind-the-scenes things.

One of the questions I get a lot if about apps. Nice to know people want to take me with them!

The easiest thing to do is to go to your favorite app store and just search Live 365. It's a free app for your i-Phone, i-Pad, i-etc. as well as Android and other devices.

Once you have them installed, just search for the Sounds of Christmas. It really is that easy.

By the way, I held off mentioning this until I had a chance to test drive it myself. It worked flawlessly! I used it while out doing laps, and this was in an area where I frequently have interruptions when I use Rhapsody and Amazonmp3. No stalls or interruptions from the Live 365 app.

I've used it several times since that initial test drive, and have yet to have a problem. One of the times I opened it, my phone freaked out and froze, but I just uninstalled and reinstalled it and everything was fine. I also got rid of another app that was enormous and has caused other problems before, so I'm inclined to think this had nothing to with the Live 365 app, anyway.

You can check out the details of the apps by clicking either of those pics above. I'm so glad we have access to them this year, so you can listen on the go, or even in the car if you have one of those thingies that let you hook up your device to your car stereo. Didn't mean to get all technical on you but I think you know what I mean.

Anyway, here's what I heard through my Live 365 app, streaming the Sounds of Christmas, as I wrote this...

Ann and Nancy Wilson "Here Is Christmas"
Ringo Starr "I Wanna Be Santa Claus"
Tina Lambert "Hark The Herald Angels Sing"
60's Invasion "Incense and Chia Pets"
Cee Lo Green "What Christmas Means'
X "Jingle Bells"
Kylie Minogue "Let It Snow"
Perry Como "There's No Christmas Like A Home Christmas"
Thee Fine Lines "We Will Be Happy On Christmas Day"
Dennis DeYoung "When I Hear A Christmas Song"
Chris Mann "White Christmas"
Pomplamoose "Always In The Season"

Details coming soon about giveaways and the return of the All-Request show!

In the meantime, thanks so much for listening!

And may you always believe in Santa Claus!

Ken

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Bribe You To Listen

11/4/2012

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I know, I know. CDs are becoming kind of quaint. But I still love them.

Then again, back in the '80's, while I thought CDs were pretty cool, I loved my records SO much more!

All that said, I have tons of CDs to give away this season. And there will be at least three different ways to win!

The first is by signing up to be a VIP member at Live365. This one isn't so much a giveaway, as an exchange. If you pay to be a VIP member, and tell them you're doing it for the Sounds of Christmas, I'll reward you with a prize pack of Christmas CDs. Once I get confirmation from Live365 to verify it, your CDs will be on their way.

Maybe instead of calling it a giveaway, I should say it's a bonus. if you're interested, click the Live 365 picture below, which will take you to their website, and you can check out the details and see if you want to do that.I should mention that you don't have to pay Live 365 to listen to the Sounds of Christmas. You can click the player on the front page of my site here and listen, absolutely free.

But if you think Live 365 is kind of cool, and you want to listen to other stations after Christmas, it might be worth checking out.

Plus, free CDs.

The next way you can win is by coming to one of our upcoming parties on Facebook or Twitter. And inviting your friends to come along, too. I'll have bunches of CDs, kind of like party favors, that will be randomly going out to attendees, so stay tuned for details!

If you haven't already, LIKE us on FACEBOOK and FOLLOW us on TWITTER!

And then there are these.

Scotty McCreery sent me a big box of CDs, and we'll be giving one away every weekday in December right up to Christmas Eve! And all you have to do to win is listen to the Sounds of Christmas! More details to come!

So keep listening and get ready to bring some of the Sounds of Christmas home!

And may you always believe in Santa Claus!

Ken

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Rating Songs 2012

11/4/2012

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I've gotten lots of questions about our top ten and how songs are rated, so I thought I'd jot down a couple notes about it.

Live 365 rates songs in a couple ways. The first is negative. When you turn the station off, whatever song is playing gets a strike against it. I don't know exactly how the math works on that, I just know that it counts against the song playing when you turn off the station. So, the bottom line for this is - don't turn the station off on a song you like (if you can help it). The best thing is to turn it off during one of the station I.D.'s or greetings.

To positively vote for a song, you need to listen through Live 365. The player on their site has a couple small cartoon hands in the upper left corner - one giving a thumbs up and one giving a thumbs down. Clicking on the thumbs up counts as a vote for that particular song. I haven't experimented with it enough to know if clicking it lots of times means lots of votes, or if it's just one vote per person per song.

To be able to do this, you may have to set up an account with Live 365. This is free, and just takes a couple minutes. So if you want a vote in our weekly top ten list, go ahead and register with Live 365.

Since we have such an extensive on-air library, the top ten list changes almost every day during November, as all the music gets added. I just checked and the only song still in the top ten that was there yesterday is Annie Lennox's "Lullay Lullay (Coventry Carol)". Everything else is new. By December, the library is pretty much set, though there's still a lot of fluctuation from one week to the next. I'll do my best to post new lists on Friday's, so make sure you check back!

And if you want your voice to be heard, just register listen to the Sounds of Christmas through Live 365, which you can do right here: http://www.live365.com/stations/soundsofchristmas

Thanks so much for listening! And may you always believe in Santa Claus!

Ken

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Up And Shuffling

11/1/2012

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Whew!

The Sounds of Christmas is back on the air!

I just finished loading up the first thousand songs (actually 1064), and set the whole things to randomly shuffle while I get everything else set up. Like a great big iPod.

Because of the way it's running right now, there's no song or artist separation. So you might hear a couple "Santa Baby's" back to back, followed by three in a row from Scotty McCreery's new album, then a few versions of "Do They Know It's Christmas" and a pair from the Polyphonic Spree. All that should be taken care of shortly, but if you do hear something like that, at least now you know why.

I turned the station on Halloween night and was amazed to see that some were already tuning in! By midnight, the Sounds of Christmas already had listeners in five states, plus Canada and Bangladesh! Thanks so much to all who are already listening!

And if you're thinking that you still have half a bowl of Halloween candy, plus pumpkin residue on the porch, and you aren't ready for Christmas music, yet, I understand. Come back whenever you are ready, and we'll be ready for you!

For those who are ready, and already listening, please let me know if you hear something amiss. Wrong or defective songs, or even misspellings. This may be the fastest I've ever gotten the first thousand up, and there could easily be some mistakes!

Otherwise, thanks so much for your support, and welcome to the sixth season of the Sounds of Christmas!

And may you always believe in Santa Claus!

Ken

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Scotty McCreery Christmas Song Of The Day

Four States Left

Take Us With You!

Bribe You To Listen

Rating Songs 2012

Up And Shuffling

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