Nov. 20, 2018 | Joliet, Ill.
Starting on Thanksgiving Day (Thursday, Nov. 22) and running through January 2, 2019, University of St. Francis (USF) radio station WCSF-FM 88.7 switches over from its regular programming to the Spirit of Christmas, a 24-hour, commercial-free, season-long holiday format. This year’s Spirit of Christmas is a milestone event, as the program will celebrate 25 years on the airwaves. You can also livestream the Spirit of Christmas atstfrancis.edu/spirit.
Spirit of Christmas features a variety-filled rotation of over 4,000 songs, including multiple versions of holiday classics, like “White Christmas”. One special program that airs nightly at 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. during Spirit of Christmas is the classic 1937 radio series, “The Cinnamon Bear,” which tells the story of Judy and Jimmy Barton and their adventure to an enchanted world alongside Cinnamon Bear, a stuffed bear with button eyes and a green ribbon around his neck, to recover their missing silver star from their Christmas tree.
Established in 1993 by Bob Zak, Spirit of Christmas was ahead of its time because season-long broadcasts of holiday music were not yet airing.
“At the end of the fall semester, the radio station would shut down for a few weeks because students were finished with their coursework for that semester,” said current Spirit of Christmas Director of Programming Don Burke. “Bob wanted to experiment with a holiday format that ran from December 1st through December 26th and that continuously played a variety of Christmas songs. Within two days of the original launch, the station’s phones were constantly receiving calls about how much people loved the station and to make song requests.”
The University of St. Francis, in Joliet, Ill., serves close to 4,000 students nationwide, offering undergraduate, graduate and doctoral programs in the arts and sciences, business, education, nursing and social work. There are over 49,000 USF alumni across the globe. For information, call 800-735-7500 or visit stfrancis.edu.
University of St. Francis: Bigger thinking. Brighter purpose.
