Why did a Milwaukee radio station switch to all-Christmas music in the hottest week of the year?

Milwaukee is heading into what could be its hottest week of the year, but it's beginning to sound a lot like Christmas at WRXS-FM (106.9).

The radio station, which switched to its "Pure Oldies" format in 2021, flipped to an all-Christmas format for one day — July 25 — as part of a "Christmas in July" promotion. In the promotion, listeners can go to the station's website to enter to win tickets to see a live conversation with Chevy Chase following a screening of "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation" at the Riverside Theater on Dec. 28.

WRXS, operated by Milwaukee Radio Group, really committed to the Christmas bit. Flipping over just after midnight, the station filled its July 25 playlist with the full array of oldies Christmas music you hear during the holidays, from Perry Como ("It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas") and Bing Crosby ("Mele Kalikimaka") to the Ronettes ("Sleigh Ride") and Chuck Berry ("Run Rudolph Run"). It even included a few Christmas songs rarely played when radio stations make the switch during the holidays, like the Beatles' "Christmas Time (Is Here Again)," a record first made for fans in 1967.

The "Pure Oldies" station isn't a stranger to going all-Yule.

In 2021, the station switched to all Christmas music the day after Thanksgiving, the third Milwaukee radio outlet to go all-Yule. Last year, WRXS was the second station to switch, doing so on Nov. 18.

The other two Milwaukee radio stations in the all-Christmas sweepstakes each year are WLDB-FM (93.3), which traditionally has been the first to switch, and WRIT-FM (95.7).

RELATED: Which Milwaukee radio station first switched to all-Christmas music this year? Any others?

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Why a Milwaukee radio station switched to all-Christmas music in July