Package shows are a time-honored tradition in the radio business. Some do it better than others. For example: landing One Direction, even the Zayn Malik-less version, is a big get for the city’s pop music station and its signature Jingle Ball showcase, especially just a few short weeks after the release of the group’s latest, Made in the A.M. KISS-FM has always been good at giving the people what they want, riding whatever wave happens to be coming along. (This time that also includes Calvin Harris and Demi Lovato.) The station has been doing it for years. Even when the dystopian future finally comes, KISS will probably find the charismatic leader of the ragtag band of people trying to rebuild society and book him to headline at a bombed-out American Airlines Center.
KDGE’s How the Edge Stole Christmas shindig isn’t as big of a deal for the station as it is for KISS; it stakes its rep on Edgefest in the spring. So it doesn’t necessarily have to bring in one of the biggest names in alternative rock. Of Monsters and Men, a sort of Icelandic Mumford & Sons, will do just fine. The Edge finds the bands that KISS might eventually scoop up. (Like the actual Mumford & Sons.) You buy into the station’s taste, trust it to do the discovering for you. This year is an exception: there’s not much discovery to be had with a de facto Sublime cover band and Panic! At The Disco on the bill.
Like KDGE-FM, the Eagle doesn’t rely on its Christmas show to shore up its base. That happens in October with its Freakers’ Ball. Instead, the station goes the theme route, and in theory, its Hair Metal Holiday, with a quartet of ’80s hair metal bands, is the perfect offering to its listeners. But in actual practice, it doesn’t quite work. Most of the groups from that era that were worth a damn have packed up the spandex and scarves. And so here you’ve got bands (Slaughter, Dangerous Toys) that were mostly on the B-team even when their brand of hard rock ruled the land. Plus, in Great White, they have a headliner that many people still immediately associate with a 2003 nightclub fire that killed 100 people. Happy holidays!
A version of this article appears in the December issue of D Magazine.
KDGE’s How the Edge Stole Christmas shindig isn’t as big of a deal for the station as it is for KISS; it stakes its rep on Edgefest in the spring. So it doesn’t necessarily have to bring in one of the biggest names in alternative rock. Of Monsters and Men, a sort of Icelandic Mumford & Sons, will do just fine. The Edge finds the bands that KISS might eventually scoop up. (Like the actual Mumford & Sons.) You buy into the station’s taste, trust it to do the discovering for you. This year is an exception: there’s not much discovery to be had with a de facto Sublime cover band and Panic! At The Disco on the bill.
Like KDGE-FM, the Eagle doesn’t rely on its Christmas show to shore up its base. That happens in October with its Freakers’ Ball. Instead, the station goes the theme route, and in theory, its Hair Metal Holiday, with a quartet of ’80s hair metal bands, is the perfect offering to its listeners. But in actual practice, it doesn’t quite work. Most of the groups from that era that were worth a damn have packed up the spandex and scarves. And so here you’ve got bands (Slaughter, Dangerous Toys) that were mostly on the B-team even when their brand of hard rock ruled the land. Plus, in Great White, they have a headliner that many people still immediately associate with a 2003 nightclub fire that killed 100 people. Happy holidays!
A version of this article appears in the December issue of D Magazine.
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