What? Are you serious? We’ve actually been at this for 10 years? That is just crazy!
We would not be celebrating our 10 year anniversary if it wasn’t for you, our incredible fans. Each season I strive to make the station better than the year before and that is no small task. There are literally thousands of new holiday songs through which to comb every season and I attempt to listen to each one! The mix on Tinsel & Tunes is something I’m extremely proud of. Sure, there are plenty of options for Christmas music and virtually all of them include the cheesy, goofy and downright weird. Though they can be fun, Christmas music is much more than a light entertainment. It’s the sound track to the happiest time of year and I take it very seriously. Every song is hand selected to fit a certain ascetic that is quite difficult to describe, so I just call it the Tinsel Sound and that is what makes us different.
It was a huge honor to be featured in Good Housekeeping last year! So, so cool. Your comments on our Facebook page and the mountains of shares remind me why I work so hard every year. You obviously love the Tinsel Sound too! For that, I’m grateful every day. This station really is a labor of love.
A Spot of History
2015 is our 10th season and many of you may not know how we got started.
Tinsel & Tunes was born from the previous broadcast called “24 Hours of Christmas” on MakRadio.com. MakRadio was the very first independent commercial internet radio station. Long before Pandora or Spotify, MakRadio and its network of stations broadcast around the world from digital studios in Central Pennsylvania, with live DJs, commercials and everything you’d expect from a modern radio station. The station garnered 100,000,000 listening hours in its first year and was the very first pop radio station on iTunes! As we were a bit ahead of our time, the project ultimately couldn’t sustain itself, was disbanded, sold for parts to Fusion Radio in Chicago, reformatted and brought back to life as Pop Fusion Radio. In 2005, a joint effort between myself and Fusion launched our very first 2 month broadcast of Tinsel & Tunes. We’ve committed to maintaining the yearly broadcast and it grew year after year into its current incarnation.
Tinsel & Tunes is 100% commercial free and does not generate revenue. Its sole purpose is to bring you the absolute BEST MIX of Christmas music available anywhere in the world. Each year we launch more than 1,000,000 streams in virtually every country around the globe. That, to me, is payment enough for the the work that goes into its production each season.
With that, I want to say a heartfelt thank you. Your ongoing listenership fills my heart with warmth and happiness as I hope the Tinsel Sound fills your home with the same. Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, I’m raising a glass to you saying “Cheers” to 10 Years.
-Mak McKeehan
Founder, Program Director
Tinsel & Tunes