--Barter-Free Christmas Merry & Bright: Play Backstories Hosted by Raymond Arroyo Available to Air November 25 - December 25, 2025--

Listen to the Trailer Here

LOS ANGELES, November 21, 2025 – This holiday season, Premiere Networks is once again offering Christmas Merry & Bright: Play Backstories – a three-hour, barter-free radio special hosted by FOX News and CNN contributor, seven-time New York Times best-selling author, award-winning producer, chart-topping music artist, and podcaster, Raymond Arroyo.  

In the special, Arroyo unveils the hidden backstories of some of the most beloved songs of Christmas - with new, big band arrangements from his Billboard chart-topping album, “Christmas Merry & Bright” and some classic tracks. Arroyo also interviews Grammy winners Jose Feliciano and Amy Grant for special insight into their massive Christmas hits.

“I have always been fascinated by origin stories, and when I had a chance to explore the backstories of some of Christmas’ most beloved songs, I could not resist,” shared Arroyo. “These songs are not only part of our holiday, but also part of who we are. What other genre features songs known by you, your children and your great grandparents? Only Christmas music! My Christmas Merry and Bright album restored these songs to their classic and intended settings and this show reveals the hidden stories that shaped the music we all gather around this time of year.”

Christmas Merry & Bright: Play Backstories reveals:

• The origin and true meaning of “Jingle Bells,” the most well-known song of Christmas. Did you know it's a drag racing, girl chasing, drinking song, which was written in a tavern?
• The story of how the beloved “Christmastime Is Here” from A Charlie Brown Christmas almost didn’t happen, and the man who not only saved it, but also wrote the lyrics. 
• The hidden, tragic backstory of “White Christmas,” and why it continues to stir up deep emotions nearly a century after its premiere. 
• The fact that “Joy to the World” and “Deck the Halls” were never intended to be Christmas songs.
• Neither the composer nor the lyricist of “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” wanted to write the song.

Christmas Merry & Bright: Play Backstories is available for stations to air between November 25 and December 25, 2025. The market-exclusive special is available for download on November 25 and may be run multiple times over the broadcast window.

Stations interested in this commercial-free special can contact Kurt Kretzschmar at KurtK@PremiereNetworks.com to check availability and request additional information.

About Raymond Arroyo
Raymond Arroyo has informed and entertained audiences his entire career.  He’s a Fox News Contributor, who has worked for CNN, the Associated Press, written multiple New York Times best-selling books, and made regular appearances on The Ingraham Angle, The Today Show, Outnumbered, Good Morning America, Access Hollywood, and Erin Burnett Outfront, among others. He also founded and hosts the international news magazine, ‘The World Over’ for EWTN News. In January 2025, he launched a new podcast, “Arroyo Grande with Raymond Arroyo,” on iHeartPodcasts’ network of shows. The weekly “applaud cast” wades deep into the culture of the present and past with satire, insight, and style.  In each episode, through surprising conversations with celebrities, thought leaders, and culture-makers, Arroyo unearths life lessons, practical advice, and inspiring examples to live by.

Christmas Merry & Bright is Arroyo’s debut album in which his deeply rooted musical background takes center stage; having grown up singing in his native New Orleans, then graduating from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, followed by theater stints in London. On Merry & Bright, Arroyo is backed by jazz supergroup, The NOLA Players. Christmas Merry & Bright showcases Kevin Kaska’s (The Greatest Showman, Jungle Book) beautiful, Big Band new arrangements of the timeless "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day," a hard-driving “Joy to the World,” and a never-before heard orchestration of medley “The First Noel/We Magi of Orient Are.” Recorded at the historic Le Petite Theatre by multi-Grammy award winning producer Brad Michel, the album captures unexplored emotions of the season with an all-new rendition of the beloved “Feliz Navidad” -- complete with a moving duet with Grammy winner, José Feliciano. Soon to be a Christmas favorite, Christmas Merry & Bright will forever change the way listeners will experience these cherished songs. Visit https://www.raymondarroyo.com/ for more information.

About Premiere Networks
Premiere Networks, a subsidiary of iHeartMedia, syndicates more than 100 radio programs and services to more than 8,000 radio affiliations and reaches a quarter billion listeners monthly. Premiere offers the best in talk, entertainment and sports programming featuring the following personalities: Ryan Seacrest, Glenn Beck, Delilah, Steve Harvey, Clay Travis, Buck Sexton, George Noory, Dan Patrick, Colin Cowherd, Granger Smith, John Boy and Billy, Sean Hannity, Elvis Duran, Mario Lopez, Bobby Bones, Johnjay and Rich, Big Boy, Brooke & Jeffrey, Doug Gottlieb, Enrique Santos, Nancy Grace, and others. For more information, please visit www.PremiereNetworks.com.

# # #

Media Contacts:

Rachel Nelson
Premiere Networks
rnelson@premierenetworks.com

For Raymond Arroyo:
Monica Fitzgibbons
MFitzPR@gmail.com