Michael St. John has been walking into the KSAL studio every Christmas Eve since 1990 to steer his special music show on NewsRadio 1150 AM.

“My first song and my last song are set – but everything else is winging it pretty much,” he said.

According to St. John’s plan: “White Christmas” by Bing Crosby always kicks off the show just after the 9pm news on December 24th.

The Pretenders “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas” will wrap up the celebration Christmas morning at 9am.

St. John says over the past 25-years the biggest change in the show is the way he presents the twelve hour musical marathon.

“I used to use cart machines, cassette tapes and CD’s to pull it off, now most of it is loaded into our digital computer.”

Thanks to social media and the internet, the request show is not limited to just listeners near Salina.

“I take requests on Facebook. I’ve met a lot of people online over the years from Canada and across the pond in the UK. And people call in from west coast and east coast and all over the place on the toll free line.”

Along with great music and callers, St. John also follows the news updates from NORAD as Santa takes his reindeer sleigh ride and the world celebrates Christmas.

“It’s really neat that so many people have made this tradition their tradition too,” St. John said.

On the other 364 days of the year, Michael St. John mans the studio work during the overnight shift at KSAL, providing audio production, web updates and severe weather coverage to our listeners.

https://soundcloud.com/ksal-radio/st-john-on-ksal-morning-news-12-22-15