It’s beginning to sound a lot like Christmas

Ho-ho ... huh? KEZ 99.9 fired the first shot in the Christmasmusic wars Wednesday afternoon — it’s the first week of November, remember — when the station’s Beth McDonald and Fox 10’s Cory McCloskey introduced “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year” by Andy Williams at 5:15 p.m.

That’s the station’s signature kick-off to the season, and a pretty good indicator of what you’re going to get in terms of programming for the next couple of months. Certain Scrooges complain that it’s way too early for this kind of thing.

Clearly, not everyone agrees.

KOOL-FM (94.5), the Valley’s other Christmasmusic standby, is set to make the switch on Friday, Nov. 8, according to its website. Who knows how many times KEZ will have played Bing Crosby crooning “White Christmas” by then?

“KEZ Christmas music has become a tradition in the Valley and listeners have been anticipating the switch for months,” Paul Kelley, the station’s program director for iHeart Media Phoenix, said in a statement.

OK, sure, people are happy. But it’s kind of hard to believe someone was sitting around in September waiting for dogs barking out “Jingle Bells” or whatever. Still. “Christmas music crosses all generations and KEZ is proud to continue to be part of the Valley’s holiday tradition again this year,” Kelley’s statement continued.

Eh. Bah, humbug, whatever. As long as they play “2000 Miles” a time or two, it’s hard to complain too much.