About the show

Dr. Christmas now has his own site that can be accessed here.

It 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 130 added in 2009 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 above:

  • About - the story of the man who went looking for the perfect Christmas record, and never stopped.

  • Playlists - Interested in looking back to old Dr. Christmas playlists? This is the place to go!

  • Contact - Would you like to contact Dr. Christmas? If so, find out more here.

Young Dr. Christmas - Racine, early 50's

About Dr. Christmas

 

The good doctor has been honored in a number of ways.

  • "I thought my knowledge of Christmas music was formidable, but it pales next to Gerry Grzyb. He's my "go to" guy for pulling a Christmas music query out of the hat. Possibly peerless!" - Warren Hartman, music director for Kenny Rogers for 18 years

  • Kyle Munson, longtime music critic for the Des Moines Register, wrote that he was “perhaps the nation’s foremost authority on Christmas music.”

  • In recognition of his commitment to independent music, the Association For Independent Music (now defunct) named him one of the five judges in the Seasonal Music category for its Indie Awards (which were the independent music version of the Grammy).

  • A variety of musicians cite his reviews of their CDs that appeared in the Appleton Post Crescent on their websites. Google "Gerry Grzyb" or "Dr. Christmas" to see some of them.

  • His show has been written about in newspapers from Morro Bay, CA to Erie, PA, and it was listed as one of the distinctive ways people celebrate Christmas in the Sueddeutsche Zeitung, Munich's largest quality paper (roughly the equivalent of our New York Times).

  • In 2008 he was featured on WNYC, the public radio station in New York City. He took part in a debate about Christmas music as part of WNYC’s Soundcheck program. It can be heard on the WNYC website here.

Dr. Christmas is also heard on WRST's web stream. In 2008, for example, he had listeners around the country; click here for a map of them all! Stream listeners were also recorded in Toronto and its metro area, Dublin, Ireland, and even Hong Kong, China!