For listeners of 105 FM, lite rock has gone dark. At B-101 FM, oldies are a thing of the past. Instead, Christmas has come early.

Very early.

When Thanksgiving was still about three weeks away, the two Providence radio stations switched to all-Christmas-music-all-the-time formats.

That’s earlier than ever before.

WWBB, better known as B-101, became Christmas-101 on Nov. 6.

WWLI, which markets itself as Lite Rock 105, made the switch the following Monday, at least a week earlier than usual.

The program directors at both stations say they’re doing it for people who think Christmas can’t come soon enough.

“The feeling was, in these tough economic times there’s a lot of bad news going on. Families are hurting, people are losing their jobs, trying to figure out how to keep their house. By bringing the Christmas cheer early we thought we could cheer people up and get people’s minds off the current conditions,” said Chris Duggan of WWBB.

“We went a week earlier because listeners love it so much, and it’s also been one of those years where people need something to feel good about,” said WWLI’s Tony Bristol.

He said B-101’s beating them to the punch had nothing to do with the timing.

This is not a phenomenon unique to the Providence market. Two Boston stations made the switch at the beginning of the month. As of Monday, 99 stations nationwide were logged as all-Christmas broadcasters, according to the Web site www.100000watts.com.

In many markets, at least two stations are battling it out antler-and-hoof. Salt Lake City, Milwaukee and Columbus each had three stations that were jingle bells-all-the-day.

If you think it’s too early to be inundated with “It’s Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas,” apparently you’re in the minority.

Duggan said the switch to continuous Christmas music is typically good for a one- or two-point bump in the ratings, which means a station gets to tell advertisers it has tens of thousands of extra listeners, which translates into more revenue.

“We wouldn’t do it if it didn’t help the ratings. It’s a win-win situation,” he said, particularly in the station’s target audience of women age 35 to 54. (These days, fewer younger people seem to have a passion for Christmas music, according to the program director.)

And the competition for those listeners is intense.

Ask Bristol or Duggan how they select their holiday music and you’d think you were asking a member of the Illuminati to hand over the Da Vinci Code.

“If I told you that, I’d give away the secret that makes us the official holiday music station,” said Bristol with a laugh. “I’m not going to win the war if you’re going to tell the enemy how to win the war.”

And it is a form of war.

The people at B-101 “are trying to steal our brand,” said Bristol, whose station has been doing this since 2003. “We own the holiday music brand. If you ask people what radio station plays Christmas music, they will say Lite Rock 105.”

Over at B-101, Duggan is looking to “own” the competition by telling people that “Christmas has moved” and his station now is “Southern New England’s official holiday music station,” although Duggan and Bristol don’t exactly define who bestowed the “official” designation.

Duggan contended that the distinction is deserved because Christmas-101 is more in tune with the Christmas spirit. “We live, eat and breathe Christmas . . . we’re sending our elves out in the community and randomly paying people’s purchases at local area merchants. We’re so much more than playing the music.”

The station even has Santa as their DJ for an hour each night.

Is the economy so bad that Santa has to get a side job?

“Santa does it out of the goodness of his heart because he just loves Christmas,” quipped Duggan.

This is the first year B-101 is doing an all-Christmas format. WSNE (93.3 FM), a sister station, began doing it in 2002 and had been Lite Rock 105’s holiday competition. But WSNE recently changed its format, so the decision was made to let the oldies station go the holiday route.

Both program directors said they play a mix of religious and secular music.

Duggan estimated that about 40 percent of the songs on his station are religious, with some sort of Biblical reference.

But playlists sampled from the two stations Tuesday, from 2 to 3 p.m., were heavy on snow, Santa, sleigh bells and songs you’d never hear in a church service.

The closest B-101 got was one song out of 16: “O Holy Night.”

Lite Rock 105 played 15 songs that hour, according to its Web site. Sting’s “I Saw Three Ships” was the only one that might be classified as religious.

It’s as if broadcasters regard Jesus of Nazareth as the equivalent of Harry Potter’s he-who-must-not-be-named.

But that shouldn’t be surprising. Most of the holiday tunes that are popular don’t have a religious theme, and both Bristol and Duggan made it clear that they’re out to play songs they think will have the broadest appeal to listeners.

“I don’t think the typical listener differentiates ‘Jingle Bells’ from ‘It Came Upon a Midnight Clear,’ ” Duggan said.

“It’s just a great feel-good time to be listening to the radio,” said Bristol.

So soak it up while you can. There are only 34 listening days until Christmas.

gemery@projo.com