The Dr. Christmas Radio Show

This is the homepage of what has been acclaimed as the most musically diverse Christmas music radio program heard anywhere.  Every year since 1989, in the week or so before Christmas, UW Oshkosh sociology professor Dr. Gerry Grzyb has become "Dr. Christmas", bringing his astonishing array of holiday music to the airwaves of WRST-FM. Sizeable samples of over 2000 Christmas CDs have been played (there are 7000 in his collection!), with 172 added in 2008 alone.  The diversity of the program lies in the fact that there is almost no genre of Christmas music that Dr. Christmas won't play, the one major exception being chlildren's music since it is obviously made for a much younger audience.  Dr. C. likes it all, and plays it all, and the playlists (see below) provide ample evidence of that.

Here's what you'll find using the links at right:

• About Dr. Christmas - the story of the man who went looking for the perfect Christmas record, and never stopped
• About the Show - how it came to be, and the honors bestowed upon it
• CD Giveaways - every year some musicians send extra copies of their recordings to give to listeners; they're listed here, along with an updated count of how many are left
• Playlists - At first only the most recent will be here, but eventually these will stretch back to 1993 (the four years before that are lost to the ether)
• Post Crescent Reviews - Since 1994, Dr. Christmas has also written a massive column of short Christmas CD reviews for the Post Crescent (Appleton, WI), at 75000, the largest circulation paper in northeast Wisconsin.  Currently only a select few CDs appear in the print version of the column, which is limited to about 1000 words, but a much bigger column (in 2009, over 6000 words) appears on the PC's website.  In recent years, the web version had hyperlinks to the musician or label websites of almost all of the CDs reviewed.  Eventually all of the available reviews will be here.
• Recordings Received This Year - A comprehensive list of the CDs received each year. 
• Reviews of Late Arrivals - The Post Crescent review has to be submitted for publication in mid-December, yet CDs continue to be received.  They are reviewed here.