If you’re regularly on the computer or you have smart phone and are tech savvy enough to download and use apps, then there’s no reason to opt for traditional terrestrial radio for your Christmas music listening experience. For years, I’ve avoided Chicago’s WLIT-FM 93.9 holiday music format, primarily because of the limited selection of music they play; it’s also nice to skip the heavy commercials.
My three alternative options for Christmas music are primarily stream based and provide an extensive playlist of Christmas songs, with limited or no commercials at all.
My first preference is Live365, which provides hundreds of different streaming stations for all types of music. Their selection of holiday channels surely will not disappoint. As a matter of fact, they have so many Christmas channels that the only downside might be deciding which ones to actually listen to(!). There is some redundancy among formats, but the selection is phenomenal. You can listen for free and only deal with a few commercials, or you can sign up for the Live365 Premium for $5.95 a month and go commercial free.
AccuRadio is another solid choice for an abundance of streaming Christmas channels. Like Live365, there are several formats of holiday channels to choose from, just minus the redundancy. You can’t go wrong with AccuRadio, and like Live365, you can listen for free and deal with only a few commercials here and there.
My old college radio station, Lewis University’s WLRA-FM has switched to their “Christmas Memories” format, which is orchestrated in-conjunction with the United Way of Will County. In place of commercials are occasional PSA’s promoting the United Way and information on how to donate for those who so desire, along with the occasional holiday message from University President Brother James Gaffney. WLRA plays a wide variety of classic Christmas songs, embed with some rare old-time songs and occasional contemporary. WLRA can be streamed from the Lewis University website (see above link), in addition to TuneIn and iHeartRadio. For those around the Romeoville/Joliet area, WLRA can be heard on 88.1 FM.