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CHARTED Christian Hit Radio Doesn't Work in Northeast

J

joshzz

As you know many Christian Hit Raido Stations are flipping to AC or
other formats. There is an obvious reason this is happening but it just
doesn't seem to matter to the record labels. They just keep pumping out that
doesn't appeal to a wide audience.

Without getting long-winded I believe the problem is that Christian
music is based in Nashville. There is a mind-set there that it's got to be
Country, Southern Gospel or Rock. Very few groups with a rhythmic sound get
any attention. The exception Toby Mac had already established himself with
DC Talk. There are others but they are far and few in between .. examples:
Stacie Orrico, Group One Crew, Zoe Girl etc.

Look at Billboard's Top 100! The charts are loaded with artists
that offer an urban pop sound without the rap... Alicia Keys, Natasha
Bedingfield, Fergie, etc. This is what people want to hear!

Sure it's possible to peddle a pure rock format and call CHR in
areas of the South etc, but it's not going to work anytime soon in the
Northeast and in many other parts of the country.

Realistically, it's time some new record labels OUTSIDE OF
NASHVILLE (I'm right near Philly) were formed and really took the "Bull By
the Horns".

Think about it, where did Motown Sound start? Detroit! The
Disco Craze of the seventies and 80s: Philly, New York and California.....
We will never get any substance with urban pop music from the likes of
Nashville...


My listeners want a mix of urban and pop. As it is, I have to
search the continents to find music that fits that criteria. One of my
favorite artists is from Australia, Tania G. I don't expect to hear her on
WAY-FM or Air One anytime soon...


If you are a station owner and want to join me in making BETTER
Christian CHR Music, please write to me at [email protected]. If we
can get enough owners together, we can really make a difference.

We can also work as one to give exposure to these Nashville
rejected artists and help our stations experience huge financial growth at
the same time.

Joe Burke
 
Re: corrected

SORRY, BUT I MADE A FEW ERRORS IN MY PREVIOUS POST... ALSO, PLEASE NOTE THAT I AM NOT TRYING TO SOUND MEAN. I'M JUST MAKING A POINT

As you know many Christian Hit Radio Stations are flipping to mostly AC or
other formats. There is an obvious reason this is happening but it, in my opinion,
doesn't seem to matter to the record labels. They just keep pumping out that
neglects a wide audience.

Without getting long-winded I believe the problem is that Christian
music is based in Nashville. There is a mind-set there that it's got to be
Country, Southern Gospel or Rock. Very few groups with a rhythmic sound get
any attention. The exception, Toby Mac had already established himself with
DC Talk. There are others but they are far and few in between .. examples:
Stacie Orrico, Group One Crew, Zoe Girl etc.

ON THE OTHER HAND: Look at Billboard's SECULAR Top 100! The charts are loaded with artists that offer an urban pop sound without the rap... Alicia Keys, Natasha Bedingfield, Fergie, etc. This is what people want to hear! Why doesn't Christian Nashville set that?

Sure it's possible to peddle a pure rock format and call it CHR in
many areas of the South etc, but it's not going to work anytime soon in the
Northeast and in many other parts of the country.

Realistically, it's time in my opinion that others got involved with Christian music making, producing, etc.


Think about it, where did Motown Sound start? Detroit! The
Disco Craze of the seventies and 80s: Philly, New York and California.....
We will never, in my opinion get any substance with urban pop music from the likes of Nashville...


My listeners want a mix of urban and pop. As it is, I have to
search the continents to find music that fits that criteria. One of my
favorite artists is from Australia, Tania G. I don't expect to hear her on
WAY-FM or Air One anytime soon...


If you are a station owner and want to join me in making BETTER
Christian CHR Music, please write to me at [email protected]. If we
can get enough owners together, we can make a difference.

We can also work as one to give exposure to these Nashville
rejected artists and help our stations experience huge financial growth at
the same time.

Joe
 
Admittedly, it's on HD2, but Z88.3 Orlando's Y Hot offers a great rhythmic station. Granted, it does include the rap. But not to the exclusion of other artists.
 
Johnathan said:
Admittedly, it's on HD2, but Z88.3 Orlando's Y Hot offers a great rhythmic station. Granted, it does include the rap. But not to the exclusion of other artists.
Click to expand...

that is the second problem, which amplifies the first. No disrespect but the fact is that Christian PD's don't have a clue on how to program for the northeast so they take bad music and air it and when it doesn't get response it's blame on the format not the fact the the selection and or programming was horrible.

Christian radio need a PD who is with it. A pd who is in touch with todays hits and there again is the problem all pd's are older and not into what Z100 and all the other top rated station are playing. they simply are out of touch and that circles right back around to my first paragraph. its a vicious circle!!!

just the other day I heard WAWZ playing kirk franklin's Stomp and Mary Mary Shackles... as if it was cool... don't they know thats why it fails. the people who don't like that music shut it off cause they don't like it & the people who used to like it turn it off cause it's old and shouldn't be played as if it was a hit now. so the result is low ratings and the format gets the blame not the fact the the programming of these songs was all wrong.
 
I think the two songs mentioned might not be a bad fit for WAWZ's primary Christian AC format, especially given the nature of the market.

But they, too, provide a CHR stream, on 99.1 HD3, The Energy.
http://991-3theenergy.com/

Granted, it's not really a hip-hop format. And, admittedly, it might not be as hit-based as it could be. But they are making an effort.
 
Yes, Mary Mary and Kirk Franklin work for the 25+ demo. I do not think a Christian hip hop station would work for 2 reasons: 1) A lack of sufficent product, and 2) There isn't really a large enough audience for it anyway.

I'd like to see a CHR that programs along the quality lines of Z-100 or other Clear Channel "Kiss" stations as well.
 
Help me understand this genre called Christian Hit Radio. Does it have a life of its own that has no relationship to Christian churches?

No where in this discussion have I seen anyone make reference to churches in the Northeast being different than churches near Nashville and that the establishing of a 'network' with the church locals would be critical to understanding the music that would work.

In what markets has CHR been most successful?
 
Traditional Christian CHR (i.e., sounds like a mainstream Hot AC, or a very AC-leaning Top 40 such as WSTR/Atlanta) has had most of its success come through two national networks, Air1 (the sister network to K-Love) and Colorado-based (previously Nashville-based) WAY-FM. WAY-FM has done pretty well in Florida and Nashville (more on Nashville in a bit); their affiliates in Huntsville, Louisville, and west of the Mississippi are still pretty new, so I'm not sure how those have done. Air1 pretty much owns the format in their home state of California, as well as the bulk of the western United States. East of the Mississippi, Air1 has seen some of its strongest support come from Kentucky and Florida; the bulk of their recent expansion has been in the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic (especially Ohio, Illinois, and North Carolina).

Mainstream-competitive Christian CHR peaked a few years ago when KAFC/Anchorage, WONU/Chicago, WNAZ/Nashville, and WAYK/WAYG Kalamazoo/Grand Rapids all running such a format. KAFC has flipped to Christian AC (even using the "80s, 90s and today" positioning on air). WONU and WNAZ have cut practically all of their rhythmic music. This leaves WAYK/WAYG, who kept the "WAY FM" name despite no longer being part of the national network, to carry the torch. I have heard WAYK/WAYG has been competitive in their target demographics.

WONU and WNAZ both are run by Nazarene colleges (Olivet and Trevecca), whle WAYK/WAYG is run by inter-denominational Cornerstone University. Any involvement I've seen from individual churches has been on the LPFM side, and it almost always entails running CHRSN-which is a neutered version of Nashville's WAY-FM.

Nashville, along with Valdosta, Georgia, are the only two markets I'm aware of with two Christian CHRs (WNAZ and WAY-FM in Nashville; Air1 and WAY-FM in Valdosta).
 
There's a slight crossover in Northwest TN as well. Air 1 has a station in Union City and WAY-FM has translators in Union City and Dyersburg, along with the full power stations in Clarksville and New Johnsonville reaching into some areas.
 
Johnathan said:
I think the two songs mentioned might not be a bad fit for WAWZ's primary Christian AC format, especially given the nature of the market.

But they, too, provide a CHR stream, on 99.1 HD3, The Energy.
http://991-3theenergy.com/

Granted, it's not really a hip-hop format. And, admittedly, it might not be as hit-based as it could be. But they are making an effort.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't call the HD-3 Channel a CHR stream it's more of a rock format with Urban/CHR with a little indi music mixed in. I've been sort of following this HD-3 Station since back in October when my HD-Radio in the car landed on it on my quest for Z-100 HD Stream. It sounds really good for a HD radio station and it's only sounding better. At first it sounded like a weird CHR/Urban mix with some bad R&B thrown in for good measure. I remember laughing because it ad these cheesy Avalon Techno Mixes before and after a Audio Adreneline cut, hardly music that inspired "ENERGY". Now it's pretty consistant with a nice mix of Rap and Rock.
 
Great post, William Yeager - a great summary of the situation. I would like to add that the Air1 network is nowhere near as Mainstream CHR as it was before (and for a couple years after) it merged with K-Love's owners, the Educational Media Foundation. Before the merger, and for a couple years afterward, there was a fair amount of rhythmic material being played, both R&B and dance-pop.

But, as EMF has taken Air1 in a more "Adult CHR" direction, which I do think is research-based, partly on what listeners are asking for, and partly on what kind of format will garner financial support - they are less and less rhythmic and seem to have a much more narrow focus than the original Air1, which would play hits, and pay less attention to specific categories or genres.

And, perhaps Energy is not the best name for Star 99.1 HD3, then. If it's mostly Rock/Rap, perhaps The Edge would work better. I haven't really listened to it a great deal. So I will defer to Passafist on the subject.
 
I'm listening to WAWZ HD3 right now, and the music rotation does seem to be a bit thick on the rock and pop side of things:

Everyday Sunday - Apathy for Apologies
Run Kid Run - The Modern March (doesn't sound good at low bit rates)
Thousand Foot Krutch - Absolute
Skillet - Comatose
Chasen - Crazy Beautiful
Delirious - In The Name of Love
David Crowder Band - No One Like You (Remix)

Except for the Crowder remix, though, this could be Air1 (although I did hear the Natalie LaRue/T-Bone collaboration "King of My Life" last night, which I believe Air1 never played)

Meanwhile, on ChargeRadio.com we played:

Ifeanyi - The Block Iz Hot
Cadia - Trust In Me Now
Manafest - Bounce
J.R. - Not a Slave
The Fold - Medicine
Plumb - Better
Mary Mary - Dance Dance Dance
 
I wouldn't call the HD-3 Channel a CHR stream it's more of a rock format with Urban/CHR with a little indi music mixed in. I've been sort of following this HD-3 Station since back in October when my HD-Radio in the car landed on it on my quest for Z-100 HD Stream. It sounds really good for a HD radio station and it's only sounding better. At first it sounded like a weird CHR/Urban mix with some bad R&B thrown in for good measure. I remember laughing because it ad these cheesy Avalon Techno Mixes before and after a Audio Adreneline cut, hardly music that inspired "ENERGY". Now it's pretty consistant with a nice mix of Rap and Rock.




[/quote]

Actually, I'd have to disagree with your statement. It was back in october that WAWZ's HD-3 channel sounded more like a "Hit Music" station not to mention it sounding more like a Northeast or should I say New York station than it does now. The station now has a very Nashville/South Jersey sound to it, a confused one I must say as the mix of rap music is only confusing and pushing the target listener away (that is if there is a target doesn't seem like much programming thought goes into the channel). The programming seems to be aimless as how many "indie music" listeners care for rap? if it's going to be rock/indie there is no need for rap.

It has an underground sound to it that although may have some listeners it does not have any commercial and or revenue value to it. It is more like a hobby station than a station that is attempting to be successful. Z-100's HD-2 is already making money, due to its decisiveness to be a $ maker. I'm surprised that a listener supported station wouldn't try to cash in on a possibility for some unconventional revenue. but then again It just brings me back to lack of programming in the northeast knowledge and apparently business knowledge too.
 
Retro said:
Yes, Mary Mary and Kirk Franklin work for the 25+ demo. I do not think a Christian hip hop station would work for 2 reasons: 1) A lack of sufficent product, and 2) There isn't really a large enough audience for it anyway.

I'd like to see a CHR that programs along the quality lines of Z-100 or other Clear Channel "Kiss" stations as well.
Click to expand...

The only reason for a lack of product is because of the fact that no programmer is willing to say "forget the Nashville rules" lets be a leader (as the rest of the northeast stations are) and begins playing it. Actually there is product there's just no marketing done for it cause again the "Nashville rule".

The first month or two of WAWZ's HD-3 it had a very z-100 feel to it.

As for there not really being a large enough audience for it, I'd have to disagree my friend especially again in the northeast. Listen to Z-100 yes it plays rock but it has a very strong Pop/R&B presences it's all you see atop of the music charts.
 
I have 1 more thing to mention or should I say ask.

Kind of weird for a rock station to take a signature dance/pop (actual "chr"/rhythmic) format name "Energy", Which leads me to wonder, based on the start that HD-3 had does anyone know if that's what it was going to be? If it was going to be dance/pop/r&b why was it changed? Did WAWZ start getting some heat from nashville labels?
 
I agree PSA_MAN, it is a silly name for a rock radio station.
 
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