Re: what he meant
> Not sure how long you have been living in Austin, but it is
> apparent that you are not that familiar with it. You don't
> need a demographics study to see how liberal most of the
> population is compared to other cities here in Texas.
> Having lived there before, I resent your assertion that
> Austin is “the heart of the bible belt”. Austin is a liberal
> and deep thinking city that happens to be located in a very
> conservative state. That’s not to say that Austinites
> aren’t faithful. Also, you have your pockets of
> conservative Christians in the central city. Even those
> conservatives are quite liberal compared to other
> conservative Texans and are somewhat tolerant of others who
> may not fall in line with their beliefs.
Ethan is a friend of mine, and this liberal/conservative thing is something we've never seen eye-to-eye on. He spent a substantial part of his life in California, which has become one of the most liberal places in the US. Anything more conservative than California and Massachusetts is conservative to him. I happen to disagree with his liberal/conservative definition having grown up in, mostly, Texas and Oklahoma with a couple of stops in New Mexico and Arizona along the way.
However, regardless of what people consider to be liberal or conservative, it doesn't really mean much when it comes to predicting the success of a contemporary Christian station. As an example, Nashville has a pretty good chunk of the contemporary Christian industry. However, AMFM/Clear Channel tried it on WZTO 101.1 a few years ago. It had sub-par ratings at best. CCM fans blamed it on a rimshot signal that was marginal in much of the market. However, the format was more marginal than the signal. Since dumping CCM for urban, 101.1 in Nashville has been number one 12+ several times and is always in the top-5. However, in Atlanta, if you add the 12+ shares of the two CCM stations, they would actually have beaten the top AC twice in the last year. The two markets are relatively similar to one another, but CCM succeeds in one and failed (and a new incarnation is struggling at about the same levels as WZTO) in the other. My point? It goes back to what one of my old PD's once said to me, "It's the quality, Stupid!" If Clear Channel puts a quality product on The River, it will succeed. Contemporary Christian stations, in general, target 25-54 females just like AC stations, and 80% of Americans classify themselves as belonging to some denomination of Christianity whether or not they attend church regularly. Even Salem stated they expect their "Fish" stations to appeal to 25-54 family women who don't put going to church at the top of their priorities. So, it's not a liberal/conservative issue.
> Not sure how long you have been living in Austin, but it is
> apparent that you are not that familiar with it. You don't
> need a demographics study to see how liberal most of the
> population is compared to other cities here in Texas.
> Having lived there before, I resent your assertion that
> Austin is “the heart of the bible belt”. Austin is a liberal
> and deep thinking city that happens to be located in a very
> conservative state. That’s not to say that Austinites
> aren’t faithful. Also, you have your pockets of
> conservative Christians in the central city. Even those
> conservatives are quite liberal compared to other
> conservative Texans and are somewhat tolerant of others who
> may not fall in line with their beliefs.
Ethan is a friend of mine, and this liberal/conservative thing is something we've never seen eye-to-eye on. He spent a substantial part of his life in California, which has become one of the most liberal places in the US. Anything more conservative than California and Massachusetts is conservative to him. I happen to disagree with his liberal/conservative definition having grown up in, mostly, Texas and Oklahoma with a couple of stops in New Mexico and Arizona along the way.
However, regardless of what people consider to be liberal or conservative, it doesn't really mean much when it comes to predicting the success of a contemporary Christian station. As an example, Nashville has a pretty good chunk of the contemporary Christian industry. However, AMFM/Clear Channel tried it on WZTO 101.1 a few years ago. It had sub-par ratings at best. CCM fans blamed it on a rimshot signal that was marginal in much of the market. However, the format was more marginal than the signal. Since dumping CCM for urban, 101.1 in Nashville has been number one 12+ several times and is always in the top-5. However, in Atlanta, if you add the 12+ shares of the two CCM stations, they would actually have beaten the top AC twice in the last year. The two markets are relatively similar to one another, but CCM succeeds in one and failed (and a new incarnation is struggling at about the same levels as WZTO) in the other. My point? It goes back to what one of my old PD's once said to me, "It's the quality, Stupid!" If Clear Channel puts a quality product on The River, it will succeed. Contemporary Christian stations, in general, target 25-54 females just like AC stations, and 80% of Americans classify themselves as belonging to some denomination of Christianity whether or not they attend church regularly. Even Salem stated they expect their "Fish" stations to appeal to 25-54 family women who don't put going to church at the top of their priorities. So, it's not a liberal/conservative issue.
