As radio has been challenged by online media, one of broadcasters’ defensive strategies has been to emphasize their connections to local audiences through news and the kinds of community events that cannot be replicated online. Christmas programming has proved a perfect fulfillment of this, with broadcasters adding cheerful information between the Burl Ives and Mariah Carey chestnuts.

For WEZW, at just 4,000 watts the smallest of eight stations operated by a local broadcaster, Equity Communications, the annual Christmas format change is also a bragging right. The most common time for stations to change — or “flip,” in industry parlance — is around Thanksgiving, but WEZW, also known as Easy 93.1, has carved a niche for itself as the first in the country to go all-Christmas, a change eagerly awaited by its mostly older, conservative listenership.

“I look forward to it,” said Marla Uzanus, 62, a retired hairdresser in the tiny community of Cape May Court House. “I would rather listen to this than some of this other nonsense you hear on the radio, these young people glorified for cursing and swearing.”

On a recent afternoon at the office of Equity Communications, stuffed reindeer dolls covered the reception desk and a retired corrections officer dressed as Santa Claus for WEZW’s toy drive.

Gary Fisher, Equity’s owner, said that the station’s early format flip was partly timed to help sell eight-week advertising packages to local merchants. But he also stressed the role of light, nostalgic music in lifting the spirits of an area that has been buffeted by the ailing economy and Hurricane Sandy.