Block Will Be My Official Format

[Stevens]

Yes.

That's what my goal was.

Want to move beyond the past and help revive this city.

Already using a Writing Ministry, to help bring real healing to this place.

The radio station was going to be another step in that process.

Wow…

That is so incredibly admirable. Dan, I'm sorry. In all the years that you've been writing about your dream, I really don't recall you ever being this candid about your goal. Thank you for opening up about this. Please don't misunderstand, but this is about so much more than just radio. And I suspect that most, if not all of us, have been looking at this solely as a radio issue. After all, that's what this forum is for. No wonder it's like we've been speaking in different tongues at times. I am sitting here absolutely thrilled and overjoyed that I finally have understood the fullness of your efforts. I am so sorry for any offense. I hope you understand that I've tried to ask hard questions, but realize that I was only speaking from a limited understanding. Like I just wrote, I'm not sure what a radio station can truly do to advance those efforts. It's only just another tool. But buddy, I pray nothing but God's richest blessings on your efforts.

 

[R.D.P.]

Thanks man. I appreciate it.

Dan <><

 

[R.D.P.]

An Update For Everyone Reading: Variety is where I'm officially going.

(SG/CCM Hybrid Mix)

God just revealed His plans to me.

Hard Praying, about the content, paid off.

Now that God and I have settled the content issue, I can move on and build out WPJB-LP.

Dan <><

 

[R.D.P.]

A few more thoughts, then I'm shutting down shop on this post.

1. Doing all CCM would be a failure.
2. Vise Versa for Southern Gospel.
3. Both styles don't have a big time following here.
4. By combining the two together, this station will be an instant hit.
5. By going variety, I believe it would sell.
6. If I obey God's will, then I know everything will work out in the end.
7. Going variety makes great business sense.
8. Doing it, will please and honor God, since He wants it.
9. Going hardcore at night, would be hard to sell.
10. Doing the mainstream CCM and SG tunes, will attract a big and loyal audience to this radio station.
11. To Mr. Stevens, thanks for the tough questions. I needed them.

Dan <><

 

[rbrucecarter5]

I think everybody needs to let up on Dan ---

Personally, if I had an LPFM, I would program it Christian rock. If I were in Dan's position and the community spoke - and it wants Southern gospel, I would have to sell the CP. God gave me a vision for helping young people, and SG is an anathema to them, so I would have to interpret is as God saying he has an even better plan to reach them (a full power station?). I personally know nothing at all about the SG format, and pretty much despise it, so I couldn't effectively program it. That is another reason I would sell - to a group that knows and loves the format and could do an effective job programming it. I only know Christian Hot-AC and Christian rock, and can only be effective programming those formats. Perhaps Dan knows and likes the SG format, and is using it to financially support the remaining time that will be effective at reaching lost kids. Not an ideal situation, because every single kid will tune out the SG blocks, but it is something. Just because it doesn't fit my vision from God doesn't mean it doesn't fit Dan's.

 

[R.D.P.]

Let's leave it at this.

1. Hardcore Christian Rock won't work here. Too few people, to help support it. I would be stuck with paying for the airtime, myself.
2. Doing all CCM or SG won't work. Not enough support.
3. Going Variety makes the the best sense for me.
4. The Christian market here is very small.
5. By doing a mix format and programming it right, I know it'll sell.
6. This is what God wants for the LPFM.

Dan <><

 

[anotherguyTN]

Dan,
I understand why you may have to carry some Southern Gospel. But be prepared for the negative reaction from SG fans who will try to accuse you of playing "The Devil's music" on what they see as "their" station. Don't let them try to bully you into cutting back on CCM, especially by their threatening to pull donations. Hopefully the donors who are helping you get off the ground will understand your plans. But there will be others who might want to donate once the station is going that will threaten to pull their donations if you play CCM. Don't back down from reaching young people for Christ.

I'm not against Southern Gospel as a musical style even though it's not what I prefer personally. But what does concern me is how a lot of SG fans have the attitude that it's the only kind of Christian music that exists, and anything else is at least inferior, or at worst from the Devil. Don't let them bully you into backing off of CCM.

 

[vchimpanzee]

Someone commented on The Gaithers being considered contemporary. I can remember when that was true. Now it seems ludicrous. Their music fits in the hymnal almost as well as the old songs we've been singing for hundreds of years.

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

Dan,

I'm not against Southern Gospel as a musical style even though it's not what I prefer personally. But what does concern me is how a lot of SG fans have the attitude that it's the only kind of Christian music that exists, and anything else is at least inferior, or at worst from the Devil.

Isn't that a pipe that ends up carrying water both directions.

SG folks tend to be suspicious of the new stuff. CCM people gag at the thought of the old stuff.

I find it amazing how intolerant one group of believers can be about the tastes of another group of believers. What chemical can we pour into the swimming pool to clear up that kind of contaminated water?

 

[Stevens]

I find it amazing how intolerant one group of believers can be about the tastes of another group of believers. What chemical can we pour into the swimming pool to clear up that kind of contaminated water?

Sadly, that's typical in many more areas than just music within the Church.

Look everyone, this is a radio website. "Radio" is part of the name. I'd expect everyone on here to think of things from the perspective of our individual radio backgrounds. But it seems pretty clear from what Dan wrote on Sunday, that his LPFM doesn't fit into the usual radio paradigm. His isn't just a radio station. It's only a part of what he sees as a larger outreach to Selma. Maybe I'm still misunderstanding Dan's vision for this radio station but it seems to me that debating about music fails to grasp or help Dan in any way pursue the real ministry that he wants to bring to Selma.

We can all sit here and hold forth about the rights and wrongs, the ins and outs of CCM or Southern Gospel or whatever genre he chooses to play. We can talk about the programming, the engineering or the fundraising. But I strongly suspect that none of us can help Dan determine how to really integrate that program content into his fuller ministry vision. Because that vision isn't just about radio. It's certainly more than I've ever been involved with. It seems groundbreaking. And in the beginning, it's a road he's going to have to walk alone.

I think what Dan is attempting is really pretty amazing. There are big risks. If I understand his goals correctly, it seems that he's making himself quite a target in his hometown. I don't think Dan needs any more of our input regarding his radio station. I do think Dan needs prayer. And a whole lot more respect than when any of us thought that his LPFM was just about some guy with no radio experience who was trying to run a radio station.

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

Sadly, that's typical in many more areas than just music within the Church.

We can talk about the programming, the engineering or the fundraising. But I strongly suspect that none of us can help Dan determine how to really integrate that program content into his fuller ministry vision. Because that vision isn't just about radio. It's certainly more than I've ever been involved with. It seems groundbreaking. And in the beginning, it's a road he's going to have to walk alone.

I have known people who thought they were doing things that went beyond radio and were carrying on some larger, community-oriented "mission" but I can't tell you of anyone I think is doing that... either on LPFM... or the more powerful classes of stations including Commercial FM. In my younger years I had this mental picture of what that would/could be like. I never did have an opportunity prove or disprove whether it can be done or not.

Dan's major problem is finding someone, somewhere, successfully doing what he wants to do, a place where he could travel once or twice a year and exchange ideas and notes with the "guru" who knows how it is done. In the meantime, you are right. He is attempting to do something that to my knowledge, none of us here are doing.

Then comes the second challenge to work with. Suppose someone came to me today and said: You have the time, and from the flow of words you throw out here you may have the vision and skill-set (or not! ) and I have the funds to set up such an operation. Where should be do it? We want to do this in a community where it has a good chance of success. We want to make it work and then make ourselves available so Dan and others can come and observe, come and play "copy-cat". What kind of community would make the best incubator to test our ideas and plans? Would we want to start in a community like Selma, AL or would we rather be in a small suburb of some Midwestern Metro area, would we rather be in the Northern Bible Belt (rural Michigan?).

Bluntly: Is Dan trying to do this in the most fertile bit of geography you could ask for, or is Dan trying to do this in what is very hostile territory?

I see a lot over conversation here that leads me to believe that people think your game-plan, your business-plan, your programming would be the same whether you were doing this in Houston TX or Madison WI or Bar Harbor ME or Cleveland OH or Dateland AZ or Gettysburg PA.

 

[Avid Listener]

I suspect there's a reason why this sub-forum is titled "Religious/Contemporary Christian". The slash indicates that it's really about two different things. If anyone wants to try mixing them together, more power to them. However, I suspect that the reason why they are regarded as two separate things is because they don't have a track record of working well combined into a single station. That's not to say that it cannot be done, but it does imply that it will take some real skill to pull it off.

 

[R.D.P.]

My creative juices are flowing again. Like WNPT "Catfish Country" 102.9 FM Tuscaloosa, does on their Sunday Gospel program, expect me to imitate them. My 3 blocks of SG, won't be pure SG. Plan on mixing in some Country, Bluegrass, Worship and Soulful tunes, as well. Want these 3 blocks to be a special little gem indeed.

Dan <><

 

[anotherguyTN]

Isn't that a pipe that ends up carrying water both directions.

SG folks tend to be suspicious of the new stuff. CCM people gag at the thought of the old stuff.

I find it amazing how intolerant one group of believers can be about the tastes of another group of believers. What chemical can we pour into the swimming pool to clear up that kind of contaminated water?

I'm sorry if what I said earlier sounded bitter. I don't have a problem with anyone who prefers SG over CCM. Unfortunately those of us who listen to CCM don't always get that same courtesy from some (not all) SG fans. Some CCM fans might "gag" at SG (I don't) but I don't hear very many CCM fans accusing SG of being from the Devil though. I just hope that Dan doesn't have to put up with any of that, and I definitely pray that God will bless his efforts.

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

I'm sorry if what I said earlier sounded bitter. I don't have a problem with anyone who prefers SG over CCM. Unfortunately those of us who listen to CCM don't always get that same courtesy from some (not all) SG fans. Some CCM fans might "gag" at SG (I don't) but I don't hear very many CCM fans accusing SG of being from the Devil though.

In some of these threads, we are dealing with two issues, and sometimes confusing them.

Let's talk about "the music of the church" for a minute. There is a significant possibility that I may be a bit older than you. I remember when a church of 300 people was "a big honkin' congregation". I remember when the typical church may have been 90 to 125 people and there was no running water and an out-house out back. Following WW II there was this consolidation as people began leaving the farm life for city life. Churches were growing in that era because they were abandoning little country churches and flocking into "county seat churches". And there was a musical train-wreck going on in our nation. In an earlier post I mentioned paper-back song-books published by Stamps and sometimes the Blackwood Brothers. That was the music that fit into that era the way CCM fits into today's era. The county seat churches tended to insist on calling a pastor with a SEMINARY training and degree. I attended a church related college and I took "Music Theory" class and boy was I over my head. The focus of many churches in that era was to "get rid of this trashy music that is crippling our effort to raise the theological stature of the church". The Southern Gospel folks of that era felt like they were mistreated, shunned, looked down on. Next time you run into a SG person who seems to be bitter or have a bad attitude, it may be a family tradition handed down over three generations when the "structured church" tried to push them out.

Now, let's talk about Dan's community, Dan's marketplace. Do you live in or have you ever lived in the Deep South. Have you looked up the changes in population and the economy in Dan's market over the last 50 years. Have you studied the racial make-up of Dan's marketplace? (A broker had me look at a radio station and market one time. I drove over and looked at what was supposed to be a single-station market. I called the broker back and told him: I can't go to that market. He asked my why. I sunburn too easily. He muttered something that sounded like a cleaned-up expletive and asked what I meant by that. "If I moved there, and went into my backyard in the evening house to cook a steak on the grill, I would get a sunburn from all the beacon lights on all the broadcast towers visible from my back-yard.) In theory it was a single station market, but there were all kinds of towers belonging to stations serving nearby cities.

Have you gone Radio-Locator and looked up how many broadcast towers you could see if you went up on the roof of a downtown building in Dan's market?

We are all full of advice for Dan... but we all assume Dan lives in a community like the one where we live. He doesn't.

 

[rbrucecarter5]

I'm sorry if what I said earlier sounded bitter. I don't have a problem with anyone who prefers SG over CCM. Unfortunately those of us who listen to CCM don't always get that same courtesy from some (not all) SG fans. Some CCM fans might "gag" at SG (I don't) but I don't hear very many CCM fans accusing SG of being from the Devil though. I just hope that Dan doesn't have to put up with any of that, and I definitely pray that God will bless his efforts.

Dan and all - that was what I was trying to say in my last - horribly mangled - thoughts. Everybody needs to lay off him, he is doing what he has to do for his business to survive.

By the same token - next time I drive through Selma - if I hear SG on his station, I will change the station. I don't listen to it - it grates on my nerves. I hear praise and worship, hymns, or preaching - I change the station. There are plenty of options streaming. In fact, I will probably not tune off of NGEN or "The Rock" or any of half a dozen other Christian rock streams, unless there is a similar station available over the air. All Dan is asking young people and young professionals to do is stream during his SG blocks. The danger is - they won't come back to his over the air station, but that is a risk he is willing to assume.

The other issue is folks who think SG is a "one size fits all" / "God's music" / "it floated down out of heaven" along with the King James translation. No. They did NOT. And "God doesn't listen" to praise and worship formats. I suspect he can rock out to Christian rock, be solemn with hymns, get down with Christian hip-hop, make a joyful noise to SG - as long as all of the styles are done with skill, reverence, respect, joyful, and sincerity of worship. No individual Christian can have that broad of a range of tastes. My preferences are well known. So is everybody else on here. There is no single style of "God's music", and we don't have to like somebody else's style to worship in spirit and in truth. We also don't have the right to criticize somebody else's taste, even if it is disgusting to us.

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

..... as long as all of the styles are done with skill, reverence, respect, joyful, and sincerity of worship. No individual Christian can have that broad of a range of tastes. My preferences are well known. So is everybody else on here. There is no single style of "God's music", and we don't have to like somebody else's style to worship in spirit and in truth. We also don't have the right to criticize somebody else's taste, even if it is disgusting to us.

You were doing great in that post until you got down to the end.

I can't figure out if this last part is intended to be a psychology lecture or a theology lecture!!

No individual Christian can have that broad of a range of tastes? I've known some very talented church musicians, folks that with ease tiptoed back and forth between the keyboard of the piano and the keyboard of the organ with grace who not only could enjoy at some point every style of music you just named, but in their loving performance could make you enjoy a piece of musice you were sure you could never enjoy under any circumstances. I've seen choir directors that one Sunday would recruit a symphonic artist to add breadth to the music, and next week bring in a banjo player to bring a different shade of color to the time of worship.

Don't have the right to criticize somebody else's taste? That is exactly what choir directors and worship leaders are PAID to do!!! Pastors have EVERY RIGHT to criticize somebody else's taste when they want to bring music into an event of worship, or into the style of worship that the pastor and his/her appropriate committees have determined will be the style for a given group or congregation.

One way of reading what you said is: "I have the right to proclaim what I do and don't like, but nobody else has that right." Things that make you say "Hhhhmmmmmmmm!!!!!"

Now, getting back to the basic task of a Discussion Forum on a board devoted to radio: Is the operation of a radio station that chooses to program the music peculiar to a group of people who wish to hear things that express their faith.... an act of entertainment.... or an act of 'divine worship'? And what about the lady sitting at the pipe organ console who is classically trained and on a given Sunday she brings in a banjo player and they enact a novel combination of the two... is that entertainment? Is that worship? Maybe... yes?

 

[rbrucecarter5]

Now, getting back to the basic task of a Discussion Forum on a board devoted to radio: Is the operation of a radio station that chooses to program the music peculiar to a group of people who wish to hear things that express their faith.... an act of entertainment.... or an act of 'divine worship'? And what about the lady sitting at the pipe organ console who is classically trained and on a given Sunday she brings in a banjo player and they enact a novel combination of the two... is that entertainment? Is that worship? Maybe... yes?

Why can't it be BOTH - in a church environment or a radio environment? I don't want a radio station or choir director telling me, in effect: "Now, children, you are having too much fun. Time to take your spiritual medicine and be serious." That isn't going to go over very well. It didn't when Michal - David's first wife - became upset when he was worshipping joyfully, and it won't go over well now. I remember when I finally " had enough" with praise and worship style. Ponderous, 4:4 beat about somebody walking past a catholic church and a priest - uh - BOR-RING. Then Butterfly Kisses. After the 50th time on the radio it turns into Butterfly vomit. To me, I need to clarify. Overplayed, slow, boring 4:4 beat, ponderous, boring, repetitive. To me. And I suspect most of my audience. So I stopped playing stuff like that and had some fun on the air instead. Nothing wrong in the lyrics of the slow boring stuff. Just not for me - or my audience. Make it loud, make it joyful, make it exciting - but keep the integrity of worship in spirit and in truth. You would hate my show. I guarantee it - and that is fine, you aren't my target demographic. You would hate the churches I go to, no matter how good the preacher is. The music would be too loud, not an organ or choir in sight. That's OK, there is a traditional church down the street. Go there, listen to the local hymn station - but please do so without bothering me. I have my taste, you have yours, neither of us has a monopoly on God. I hate to invoke a secular source - but "Let It Be". Or Disney "Let It Go". You will never change me, I will never change you, and that is OK. We will both sort it all out in heaven. I will be there with the kids I introduced to Christ through Christian rock music, you will be there with the adults you introduced to Christ your way. We are both doing exactly what God prepared us to do. Dan will be there with his SG crowd, he's doing what he was prepared to do. All things will be equal.

 

[R.D.P.]

My pot of variety is now fixed.

After all the talking, that's been done, I've reached my final decision on the contents.

This is where I'm taking the broadcast and no one is talking me out of it.

CCM/Modern Worship hybrid.

Have a nice day.

Dan <><

P.S. I'm going to play some Southern, Bluegrass, Country and Soul Gospel too. Those songs will be limited in scope and exclusively heard, during the Celebration of Praise blocks. Made this change because I feel doing Modern Worship will perform better.

 

[Avid Listener]

Here's something else to consider about "block" programming, from the perspective of a radio listener. The idea of one kind of programming at one time of day for one group of listeners, and a different kind of programming at a different time of the day for a different group of listeners presupposes certain considerations. It assumes people decide in advance that they want to hear a particular show, then plan their time to tune that show in. Back in the days when you had to tune in when "Fibber McGee and Mollie" came on, people were used to treating the radio that way. If I want to hear "Prairie Home Companion" nowadays, I have to make it a point to plan to tune in.

That's not how people generally treat radio nowadays. Now, when they want to hear some music, they turn on the radio and hit the station button for the station that plays the genre of music that they want. They expect to hear whatever genre* of music a station plays whenever they turn it on. The only time block programming works effectively is if the two different groups of listeners typically only listen to the radio during different day parts.

If a station plays one kind of music in the morning, and a different kind in the afternoon, listeners aren't going to pay attention and memorize the schedule. They just want to turn the radio on and hear what they want and expect when they do. What tends to happen is that people who like one kind of music hear the other kind on a given station, then turn to a different station, and seldom go back.

If anyone wants to make block programming work, then the task you face is formidable. You will need to use other promotional media to get the word out to listeners that your station has "shows", not just "programming". The audience needs to be educated that if they want to hear the "SG Show", they have to tune in at the time it's on. That's not an easy thing to do, but it can be done.

* OK, to listeners it's "genre", to radio people it's "format".