English

The story begins. The idea for Christmas Radio came to Riitta Kalliorinne in Helsinki 18 years ago, and it immediately attracted an audience of faithful listeners. The FM frequencies reached 11,000 listeners, surpassing even her wildest dreams.

2003

Just a year after its launch, Christmas Radio became available online, although not yet on its own website but through a separate service.

2004

”Oh, people elsewhere want to hear this?” In 2006 and 2007, Christmas Radio expanded its coverage to Oulu, Turku, Tampere, Rovaniemi and Seinäjoki. In 2006, Christmas Radio also launched its first website, shown in the picture here.

2006

The second decade of the new millennium saw Christmas Radio grow into a family of stations. First, in 2010, two online channels were set up alongside the main station: Rakkaimmat joululaulut (now Kauneimmat joululaulut, ‘the Best-loved Christmas Songs’) and Pikku Jouluradio (now Lasten Jouluradio, ‘Christmas Radio for Children’), and a year later the Swedish-language Julradion. These channels could be listened to through a mobile app. The record-breaking expansion on the FM frequencies brought Christmas Radio to eight new regions and about 3 million Finns.

2010

To celebrate Christmas Radio’s 10th anniversary in 2012, the vibrant ‘Hoosianna’ tradition was launched, with the band Rajaton as the first act to rearrange the classic hymn ‘Hosanna, Son of David’. A Christmas song contest was also organised that year, and 266 new songs were submitted. Jouluiltana, sung by Marko Maunuksela, was announced as the winner at the gala at Hartwall Arena.

2012

Kerkko Koskinen Kollektiivi created a catchy version of ‘Hoosiana’, which attracted a lot of attention, not least because of the music video, which was directed by Susanna Kuparinen. The family of stations was extended by the English-language station Xmas and Rouhea joulu, which focuses on heavy metal.

2013

The number of likes that Christmas Radio received on Facebook grew from about 20,000 to 86,000 in just a couple of years, and it was at the request of our listeners that we created two new stations: Klassinen joulu (‘Classical Christmas’) and the Estonian-language Jõuluraadio. ‘Hoosianna’ was performed by Lenni-Kalle Taipale and Jesse Kaikuranta.

2014

The Jouluyö, Bailuyö party held at Tavastia, Helsinki, made news. Sointi Jazz Orchestra turned ‘Hoosianna’ into instrumental jazz.

2015

2016 was all about communal spirit. The magnificent ‘Hoosianna’ was a joint effort as it was compiled from versions sent in by our listeners. In the same year, Joululaulupäivä (‘The Christmas Song Day’) appeared in the calendar for the first time.

2016

In 2017, the focus was on improving the quality of the entire family of stations, starting with the main station, and it paid off: during the Christmas week, Christmas Radio reached a record number of listeners: one million. ‘Hoosianna’ was rearranged by Tuure Kilpeläinen, and Happy Holidays was added to the family of stations.

2017

For the first time in its existence, Christmas Radio is accessible to people as its office moved to the REDI shopping centre in Kalasatama, Helsinki. The musical theme of the year was equity, and the number of female artists on the main station was increased to 50 per cent, including the great performance of ‘Hoosianna’ by Nina Tapio and Katja Lappi.

2018

The theme for the year 2019 was multiculturalism and internationality. Jouluradio played even more Christmas music from outside of Finland this year.
Hoosianna was taken to 2020s and the original hymn was rearranged as a rap version by PastoriPike. Jouluradio was the 4th most listened radio station in Finland in December 2019.

2019

Jouluradio turned 18 years old. Living in a pandemic, we believed in the power of music and Jouluradio invested in young Finnish musicians. The chamber choir of Vaskivuoro Upper Secondary School performed Hoosianna in a beautiful and peaceful way and made the religious hymn viral online. A competition called UBV (Uusien biisien viikko), ”The week of new songs” was launched. Solina-choir won the competition with a song called ”Lapsenkokoinen”.

2020

Jouluradio was feeling nostalgic in 2021 and had a retro theme.
Hoosianna was performed by a legendary singer with ”a blue and white” voice –Katri Helena. Jouluradio invested in video making and filmed a nostalgic video of Jouluradio’s and Haaga Church’s heart-warming meeting, for example. Muistojen joulu, ”The Christmas of Memories”, was played on Jouluradio every Saturday. Listeners of Jouluradio told their own Christmas song related memories and the song was played on the radio.

2021