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LGBTQ+ Artists in KLTY Imaging

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I thought Salem was a pretty conservative company. 660 AM The Answer is conservative talk and 100.7 The Word is pretty conservative, as well, as I’ve heard plenty of anti-gay talk, flipping through the dial and landing on those stations.

However, I’ve noticed that KLTY has used 2 LGBTQ+ artists in their imaging. One piece had Rita Ora’s - I Will Never Let You Down and I just heard another that features Starley’s - Call On Me.

Not sure if someone is purposely trying to have some fun and sneak these songs on their airwaves or if this is just by chance, but I kinda thought this was funny. 😂
 
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chriscervantez said:
However, I’ve noticed that KLTY has used 2 LGBTQ+ artists in their imaging. One piece had Rita Ora’s - I Will Never Let You Down and I just heard another that features Starley’s - Call On Me.

Not sure if someone is purposely trying to have some fun and sneak these songs on their airwaves or if this is just by chance, but I kinda thought this was funny. 😂
Click to expand...

It probably doesn’t bother much of anyone who knows. No matter what the traditionalists think, the church is changing, and they can’t do anything about it. Amy Grant hosted and performed at her lesbian niece's wedding. That would've been unheard of at the height of her career, or even 10 years ago. Now, aside from a few hardcore fundamentalists, the worst reaction most people gave it was a “ho hum.”

The average KLTY listener is a 25-49 woman who considers herself a Christian but doesn’t necessarily attend church regularly, let alone makes it a priority. I can’t imagine too many of those ladies being bothered or upset by it. The worst reaction most of them would give would be a little chuckle.
 
Weird they’re playing secular artists, regardless of sexual orientation. What other secular songs do they play?

Or are they covers by Christian artists?
 
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Kent said:
No matter what the traditionalists think, the church is changing, and they can’t do anything about it.
Click to expand...
Not to sidetrack this thread too much, but it's also interesting that, when larger Christian denominations have recently split over opposing views on LGBTQ+ inclusion and related issues, it's notable that the larger church with the majority has remained as it was, and that's the group that went for inclusion and the core Christian values of love, care and respect for their fellow man (and women).

The ones that were staunchly against LGBTQ+ inclusion formed the smaller subgroup that fractured away. In other words, they may "proudly" hold true to their "traditionalist thinking" from the dark ages and cling to their usually uneducated viewpoints and prejudices, but more and more, they're finding themselves in the greater minority.
 
chrocket87 said:
Weird they’re playing secular artists, regardless of sexual orientation. What other secular songs do they play?

Or are they covers by Christian artists?
Click to expand...
They’re the actual songs by secular artists. I heard the Rita Ora song a while ago and last night I heard the Starley song. I listened for a while last night and heard the Rita Ora song used again. Just thought it was odd that 100.7 The Word // KLTY-HD3 often has far-right pastors preaching a lot of anti-LGBTQ stuff and meanwhile KLTY has a couple secular LGBTQ+ artists in their imaging.
 
You are confusing a radio format for a ministry. Keep in mind many Christian denominations are LGBTQ friendly and allow LBBTQ to pastor churches. So many people are clueless that the word Christianity is all across the board. Salm offers a format that is simply "Family friendly", nothing else.
 
Somewhat related, an artist named Plumb was given airplay on Christian pop stations and had the same song on gay internet stations and XM station "Pulse" (this was a while back, 2006) the song was called "Cut".
 
KLTY has played secular music and Contemporary Christian artists for a long time.

When I lived in North Texas, they promised uplifting music that was safe for the whole family. They didn’t say all-religious.

Side note: once they started playing Christmas music, usually the day after Thanksgiving, it was often much better than any other all-Christmas station. Much more variety.
 
chriscervantez said:
I thought Salem was a pretty conservative company. 660 AM The Answer is conservative talk and 100.7 The Word is pretty conservative, as well, as I’ve heard plenty of anti-gay talk, flipping through the dial and landing on those stations.

However, I’ve noticed that KLTY has used 2 LGBTQ+ artists in their imaging. One piece had Rita Ora’s - I Will Never Let You Down and I just heard another that features Starley’s - Call On Me.

Not sure if someone is purposely trying to have some fun and sneak these songs on their airwaves or if this is just by chance, but I kinda thought this was funny. 😂
Click to expand...
Are you saying Rita Ora is gay? Not according to Wikipedia: Rita Ora - Wikipedia
 
chriscervantez said:
I thought Salem was a pretty conservative company. 660 AM The Answer is conservative talk and 100.7 The Word is pretty conservative, as well, as I’ve heard plenty of anti-gay talk, flipping through the dial and landing on those stations.

However, I’ve noticed that KLTY has used 2 LGBTQ+ artists in their imaging. One piece had Rita Ora’s - I Will Never Let You Down and I just heard another that features Starley’s - Call On Me.

Not sure if someone is purposely trying to have some fun and sneak these songs on their airwaves or if this is just by chance, but I kinda thought this was funny. 😂
Click to expand...
Imaging is the key word here. The station is not playing those songs in the rotation of the music format.
 
CentralFL said:
Somewhat related, an artist named Plumb was given airplay on Christian pop stations and had the same song on gay internet stations and XM station "Pulse" (this was a while back, 2006) the song was called "Cut".
Click to expand...
Ironically, Plumb is a core artist on SiriusXM’s BPM and Utopia.
 
b-turner said:
You are confusing a radio format for a ministry. Keep in mind many Christian denominations are LGBTQ friendly and allow LBBTQ to pastor churches. So many people are clueless that the word Christianity is all across the board. Salm offers a format that is simply "Family friendly", nothing else.
Click to expand...
I don’t think I’m confusing a radio format for a ministry. A radio format can be a ministry and because of KLTY’s content, this fits the definition.

I also understand that there are LGBTQ-friendly churches, but those are liberal. Salem is a conservative company. From their about section: “Salem Media Group is America’s leading radio broadcaster, Internet content provider, and magazine and book publisher targeting audiences interested in Christian and family-themed content and conservative values.”

Also, the format description for KLTY from Salem’s website is “Contemporary Christian Music”. There are a lot of songs that could be “family friendly”, but outside of Christmas music, they play mostly CCM artists.

Even if they do play small clips of LGBTQ or LGBTQ-friendly artists in their imaging and even if the messages in the clips are family-friendly, I think most CCM stations usually take the safe route and stay away from secular artists. Again, just thought this was funny coming from Salem.

Oh, and here’s Rita Ora’s image from Apple Music. Maybe they’ll add this to one of the many KLTY billboards around the metroplex soon. 🙃

1681718780723.jpeg
 
Salem is simply a radio company. They cornered the marketing on Christian programming but they also run secular stations and I think, they owned or started USA Radio News. Salem is running for that dollar like everybody else. People I've known that worked for Salem were just radio people and I don't think any were church-goers. Four letter words were certainly is regular use. They all had their job to do and they did it well.
 
I understand your thoughts, but when more than 90% of a company’s radio portfolio is either CCM, Christian talk or conservative talk, I’d consider them a specialty company and not group them in with companies such as iHeart, Audacy and Cumulus.

I also know people who have worked in Christian media and although they were just radio people, the ones I knew had to agree to not going to bars and similar venues/events, as terms of their employment. That was 10+ years ago, so I don’t know about the legality of those terms, but they did exist—and in a blue state.

And again, I have no issue with what they do on their airwaves. I just thought it was odd that the only 2 pieces of imaging that have included secular artists have featured these 2 LGBTQ or LGBTQ-friendly artists, considering 2 notches down on KLTY-HD3, you have preachers screaming that the gays are all going to hell.

Anyways, I’m done with this thread. Much love to each and every one of you. And I’m not being sarcastic at all. I truly mean it! ❤️
 
Thank you for your thoughts ChrisCervantez.

I especially appreciate your observation about the 2 LGBTQ or LGBTQ friendly artists on KLTY.

My experience with Salem was mostly in the 1990s and maybe the first few years of the 2000's. Certainly things may have changed.
 
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