Spokane Christmas radio station’s playlist maintains ‘Baby It’s Cold Outside’ as #MeToo debate emerges

While some stations across the country – such as Star 102 in Cleveland – have decided the Christmas classic “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” really must go, Spokane’s Christmas station 98.1 KISS FM will continue to play the frequently covered holiday duet.

Brad Miller, who is the senior vice president of programming at 98.1, said the song is often requested and no one has called in to complain about it airing.

“No one has brought to our attention that it’s hitting them in a negative way,” Miller said. “I can’t say I’ve listened to it with that ear yet, from that standpoint. People usually are pretty vocal about something that’s touched them the wrong way.

“This just hasn’t been something that’s been brought up that way.”

98.1’s official call letters are KISC, though it markets itself as KISS FM.

Glenn Anderson, of Star 102, who described himself as the “Christmas Executive Officer”, posted on the radio’s website that, though he realizes that 1944 – when the song was originally written – was a different time, “Now while reading it, it seems very manipulative and wrong.”

He posted the lyrics of the song to further his point, which features lines like “Say, what’s in this drink?” and the female repeatedly saying that she should leave.

“In a world where #MeToo has finally given women the voice they deserve, the song has no place,” Anderson wrote in the post.

KOSI 101.1 in Denver, in reaction to Star 102’s decision, pulled the song from its airwaves and posted a poll on its website so listeners could weigh in. On Tuesday, KOSI 101.1 Program Director Jim Lawson announced in a news release that the station would put it back on the air, citing that 95 percent of the listeners voted to keep it on the air.