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"The Nights Before Christmas" Celebrates 10th Anniversary On WBOI

Rob Martinez
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Rob Martinez/WBOI

In 2011, Rob Martinez was a new volunteer at WBOI, helping with production segments like "The Heritage Trail", "The Entertainment Report", and Julia Meek's "Meet The Music" (which he still works on).  He was interviewed on WBOI in May of that year by then-PD Andrew Anderson about his hobby.

"We talked about my hobby of collecting Christmas music," Martinez recalled.  "The very first Christmas song that I was able to get on the air was an Arabic version of 'Jingle Bells', followed by a great 1980s Christmas tune called "Happy Santa Claus" by Billy Rancher and The Unreal Gods."

Six months later, Anderson asked Rob if he would be willing to host two specials of holiday music from his collection.  "And the rest was history!" Martinez declared happily.

For the tenth year in a row, Martinez will be hosting "The Nights Before Christmas" on WBOI this December.  His three new specials this year will showcase holiday music that seldom gets played around this time of the year.

"WBOI has always been supportive of the show," Martinez adds.  "I'm grateful for them for allowing me on the air to play selections from my collection and I'm very thankful the audiences have responded to it."

That audience has spread across NE Indiana, the United States, Canada, England, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, even as far away as China and Vietnam. 

"The Nights Before Christmas has become a  tradition not just in Northeast Indiana households, but all around the world," WBOI program director Katy Anderson says, "We are looking forward to showcasing Rob's music and ingenuity again in 2020, especially at a time when we could definitely use some holiday cheer."

"The Nights Before Christmas" will be broadcast on three nights this December with a different themes for each episode.  Some of themes you can expect to hear are "2020 New Christmas Releases", "A Hip Christmas", and several other unique themes you won't hear anywhere else.

The 2020 schedule:

Wednesday, December 9th - 9 to 11 PM

Friday, December 11th - 8 to 11 PM

Saturday, December 12th - noon to 3 PM  (a special LIVE fundraiser for WBOI)

You can also follow "The Nights Before Christmas" on Facebook.