The pre-Christmas frenzy is upon us. Thankfully, amid the bombardment of consumerism and tacky decorations is a little beacon of good, old- fashioned festive cheer.
Christmas FM, the 24-hour radio station dedicated solely to Yuletide songs, returns to Irish airwaves for its third year on November 29th. The station’s Christmas song contest will also make a comeback, having proved wildly popular last year. Musicians and songwriters are invited to submit their own original Christmas song in MP3 format via the station’s website before November 28th.
A panel of judges (including yours truly) will whittle the entries down to a shortlist, and listeners will then decide the winner by text vote over the ensuing weeks.
Last year more than 100 entries were accepted, with Funzo's This Christmascoming up trumps. The band won €500 in vouchers, and recorded the song to release online as a charity single in aid of Barnados, for which they hope to generate €100,000 over their month-long on-air period.
This is the first year that the station will be available on air outside Dublin (100.3FM) and Cork (106.7FM): folk in Galway, Limerick and the southeast can also tune in. More details will be announced on christmasfm.ie.
:quality(70)/s3.amazonaws.com/arc-authors/irishtimes/613eb54f-992a-41f0-b76a-403dfd0a78a5.png)
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/SJQTLMCMMRC2PLALXUKEWWS6HU.png)