It All Sounds The Same

[blue67ccm]

When I programmed a CCM commercial station in the late 80s thru late 90s, one of the strongest parts of CCM in those days, in my opinion, was its variety. I mean, with Sparrow Records alone I could get a CD sampler of singles ranging from BeBe and Cece to Charlie Peacock. At the same time, when I heard artists on the radio, I "knew" them by their sound. I knew when Margaret Becker starting singing. I knew Twila Paris. I knew......I could go on.

Nowadays, I simply cannot listen to CCM radio. To me, everything sounds the same. Get a band together to play "Nickelback-y" type music, front the band with a 5 o'clock shadow guy with some gravel-y nature to his voice, and off you go. Song after song after song......

And when I do hear female artists (which is not very often, surprisingly), there's no depth on the sound bench, so to speak. Again, they sound so similar.

Formula, formula, formula. It's so ironic, because so many complained how much "formula" was in CCM, say, in 1995. It was a psychedlic circus of sound then compared to today......

What's happened? All the music companies, owned by large secular companies, decide to play it even safer??

I'd love to hear some opinions on this; don't care if you agree or not. I do think this needs to be discussed. And, as a final point, I also think this has happened, to a lesser extent, in the pop/rock music world, too. For example, you could never compare this era of music to the tons of variety we had in the first half of the 1980s (think of all the different artists and sounds you heard....). Now, if you don't have a rapper do your bridge on your single or use technology to make your voice sound strange, it seems like you don't get played......

 

[quadraphonic]

I agree, all music formats were more diverse up through the late 80s. There was a way wider variety in top 40, and more pop/country crossovers, and more stations that blended styles than today. The same was true in Christian music too.

Today, all the kinds of radio stations seem to be narrowcasting to a much more restricted demographic. There's not nearly as much mixing of styles in one place as there was. I think you can blame/credit the record companies for that to some extent, because they always seem to find a popular style and ride that pony until it's glue. But still, most of the credit/blame has to go to the radio stations and programmers, who seem to completely discount anyone who hasn't "made it" already, or been spoonfed to them by a record company. Plus, in CCM, they're mostly satcasters and translators: there seems to be very few "local" stations who are doing anything outside the ordinary to break any new artists or do anything different like they used to. It's like the record companies have no imagination, so the radio stations are satisfied not having any imagination either.

Instead of CCM (secular) record companies trying something "new" most of the time they go for "palatable." And the stations seem to follow, as much as you can 'follow' without motion. Instead of doing stuff that really, clearly, glorifies God, exalts Christ, AND might show some spark of creativity or package it in too "new" a way, or maybe rock the boat a little bit, they go for "safe" every time.

I think part of the problem is that so few of the stations are commercial these days. CCM would be a lot more interesting with more variety, if they HAD to try to bring in a wider variety of listeners. Some old stuff, some new stuff, some black singers, some white groups, some edgier stuff sometimes. But they're not really selling "numbers" or "results" to advertisers, they are selling a "positive, encouraging, family" vibe to listeners, and maybe some sponsorships to Christian-owned businesses. So they don't really have any reason to do "creative, different, imaginative" to push any buttons or cheese off a listener. Stay the course, bland factor nine.

They think they are much better off sticking to the formula that they know works (and a lot of them probably are, because they don't know their audience enough to know what "new" stuff they might like). They know bland works, because when they take phone calls, the listeners are happy and enthusiastic about the formula. But then again, that's just like most radio stations or other business: they get all their feedback from people who are already listeners, and it's not like the people who listen are going to be familiar with something their station doesn't play, or usually even admit they want something "creative, different, imaginative."

This lack of imagination and variety and openness to new ways of doing things (which is really based on pride and me-centeredness) isn't only a problem for the church in terms of CCM, but I'll limit this post to just CCM for now...

 

[WPHA]

Some excellent points have been raised, so far.

I certainly appreciate the opportunity to chime in, not only as a fellow listener, but also as a former Music Director of 17 years for a Christian station, WFIF. The station's primary format was (and still is) Talk/Teaching. Back when I was the MD, it had about 10% of locally-played music airtime. (Today it has none.) :'( (I was "downsized" 4 years ago, along with about 50% of the overall Company staff.)

One of the things I ALWAYS looked for and played on the air, was music from "Indie" artists! They still exist, and some of them are EVERY BIT AS GOOD (and sometimes BETTER) than the well-known, Label-supported artists. 8)

They were a good percentage of my on-air library. (I forget now, but it was about 10~15%) Another thing I did, was I did NOT limit my on-air play to only 50 or so songs. The entire 1700+ song library was available, and music was played from the whole of it. You would hear new AND old songs, blended together into THEMATIC segments, usually for the entire hour of my music show each morning.

I frequently got calls from listeners saying either, "Thank you for playing that song! I haven't heard that on the radio in YEARS!" or they would say "I never heard that before! It's so beautiful!" ...and it was 20+ years old!!! Guess what THAT means? It means that that listener is a NEW CHRISTIAN (compared to the song, anyway!)

This is one of the areas where I think the Major Labels are MAJORLY DROPPING THE BALL!! They have music that they call "Out-of-Print", so you CAN'T get it, unless you find someone who is selling it (legitimately, obviously!). ;D

There are SO MANY NEW CHRISTIANS for whom Second Chapter of Acts, Twila Paris, Steve Green, Maranatha!, Keith Green, Larnelle Harris, Petra, etc, etc, etc, ARE BRAND NEW!!! They WOULD buy them, IF THEY COULD! So why DON'T the Major Labels make these songs available on Amazon or iTunes, etc, as MP3 downloads for $0.99?! ??? Or even $1.59?

They would certainly make money... perhaps not enough to buy that new mansion in Malibu, ;D but a whole lot more than letting this wonderful, LIFE-CHANGING music sit on a shelf, collecting dust!

For 17 years, I had to tell people on the phone, "I'm sorry, this song is out of print." only to hear their chagrin at such news! The only way I could accommodate them, would be to play the song on the air so they could record it. (On an AM station, no less, yet they STILL wanted it THAT BADLY, and they would thank me for playing it!!!) Why can't this message reach someone with the POWER, AUTHORITY, and ABILITY to make it happen?!

Yeah, I'm a little passionate about this! ;D

To briefly address the "formulaic sameness", that comes from restricting the on-air library to less than 100 songs, and nothing more than 5 years old. That's much too narrow! There is enough THEMATIC commonality among CHRISTIAN music, to EASILY play 2011 songs, 1990's, 1980's, 2000's, etc, together! All it takes is PRAYERFUL and careful selection: AKA, Spirit-led CREATIVITY!

 

[radioboy]

Back in those days, the labels would send LPs to the stations, and we were free to play all the songs that fit the format.

I still have most of those Sparrow sampler discs. When my former employer abandoned the Christian teaching/CCM format, I bought the music library. Lots of out of print songs in it.

I still do the two hour weekly program with it, but it's Internet-only at this point, over Big D Country.

 

[blue67ccm]

Just to clarify, but in my time period referenced in the first post (1988-1997), as a reporting station to CCM and CRR, we couldn't freely pick any song off a album/CD. We had to go with the pushed single of the time. And yes, there were times I felt there were better songs on the releases to play than the ones chosen by the powers that be.

That's when I would wait, and after they released the "final" single from an album, I'd add the worthy song in the next cycle.....before the artist's new release came in and became priority #1.

EXCELLENT responses here so far; thoroughly enjoying them and much appreciated. Keep 'em coming!

 

[nitnitr]

They were a good percentage of my on-air library. (I forget now, but it was about 10~15%) Another thing I did, was I did NOT limit my on-air play to only 50 or so songs. The entire 1700+ song library was available, and music was played from the whole of it. You would hear new AND old songs, blended together into THEMATIC segments, usually for the entire hour of my music show each morning.

There are SO MANY NEW CHRISTIANS for whom Second Chapter of Acts, Twila Paris, Steve Green, Maranatha!, Keith Green, Larnelle Harris, Petra, etc, etc, etc, ARE BRAND NEW!!! They WOULD buy them, IF THEY COULD! So why DON'T the Major Labels make these songs available on Amazon or iTunes, etc, as MP3 downloads for $0.99?! ??? Or even $1.59?

A couple of great quotes. I operate an Internet station, and though automated, I'm constantly looking for good indies to add to the rotation (about 80 percent of the direct submissions from indies to the station just wont cut it-but I know there are some good ones out there too), not to mention that the 3500+ song library gets into rotation. We do, however, watch the charts too, and play the hits and re-currents pretty heavily. So in that regard, not much better than the terrestrial vanilla stations playing CCM. I'm not overly ashamed of it, but the reality is, we've got to have it too to keep the listeners happy. Internet stations also have a rule to abide by the DMCA, and not play the same song more than once in a 4 hour period. This does cause some better separation of music in and of itself.

As for the oldies of Christian radio, there are some alternatives on the web. We run an oldies show called Streets Of Gold every Sunday for two hours, and Jack, the producer of the show, has a station online with Live365 that plays the older CCM as mentioned above 24/7. If fact, a couple of weeks back, SOG ran a great show with a new interview from Matthew Ward (2nd Chapter Of Acts), with some of the older music with a bit of what he is now doing.

I'm sure most of you have seen the blending of the AC and CHR charts over the past couple of years too. I'm actually glad to see some the CHR in the AC mix, but maybe not as happy about the AC crossing over into the CHR chart. Still, the point is that the music is sounding much the same across the board. I will agree and say that an easy fix to this issue is not coming anytime soon.

Go back to the 70's to what we used to call the Top 40, and there was a real blending of music. You had the horn groups like Chicago and Tower Of Power (TOP has the tightest horn section ever, and a nice funky sound) contrasting with groups like Crosby, Stills and Nash, Steely Dan, Steppenwolf, and speaking of Funk, how about the Funkadelics, along with R&B from the Motown group like Marvin Gaye and the like. Talk about blending.

Finally, if you do like a funk sound, and want it in CCM format, there is a guy named Vlada, who put together an album about a year ago, that in my opinion, is quite good, and very different than what is heard on today's CCM radio.

 

[trusty]

I'm sure most of you have seen the blending of the AC and CHR charts over the past couple of years too. I'm actually glad to see some the CHR in the AC mix, but maybe not as happy about the AC crossing over into the CHR chart. Still, the point is that the music is sounding much the same across the board. I will agree and say that an easy fix to this issue is not coming anytime soon.

When every vocal sounds like the singer just got through running the 50-yard dash, it doesn't speak well for the singer's ability to carry a tune. When every song has to have that "heavy-breathy" sound, it doesn't speak well for the church (The "heavy-breathy" sound is the sound of sex - subtile invasion from secular music.) - NOT that the singer "loves" and "worships" God with such intensity that he/she is out of breath singing about it.

About 12 years ago, I worked for a very talented pastor/evangelist who had a good voice and had cut some good albums. His last album I remember was different - all "breathy" - no power - and he wasn't happy about it. I asked him why he did it:
"They told me to sing that way when I walked into the studio. It's supposed to be what people want. We had a hard time"
"But, that's just not YOU."
"I know, and it will never happen again."

It happened again.

---

Also, this "style" is getting into praise and worship in churches. It seems to be what the kids "want", when they deserve a lot better. More songs that are heard on the radio are being offered to church congregations, expecting them to sing their minor chords and millions of words on the screen. : You have more people just standing there - not worshiping, but watching the performance.

Why? Because they are singing "testimony" music (songs you hear on the radio), not "worship" music (songs conducive to praise & worship). Testimony songs are usually about what Jesus did in the singer's life; worship songs are about Jesus Himself. Worship songs invoke praise and worship; testimony songs invoke attention (respectfully paying attention to someone's testimony by not interrupting it with singing or clapping). The human brain & body react this way naturally, and when a "testimony" song is sung from the stage, don't expect a lot of participation in church.

So, quit worrying about your "lazy" congregation, Music Leaders. Just sing the right stuff. You know what it is.

---

Hopefully, CCM will come to its senses. The bland CCM stations will start to go downhill as the urban gospel stations rise sharply with the energy and freshness in its music that lived for awhile in CCM, and its singers have the punch to carry it through. All the stations need to be covered with prayer. Joy is found in music. Joy is our strength. We don't need to be weak and out of breath.

 

[WPHA]

Wow! Just... WOW! and AMEN!! At what "Trusty" said.

 

[Fido]

So in other words, if it's a style that I like it must be God's style but if I don't like the style than it's evil or compromised. C'mon, folks, you sound like a bunch of old men. I've been hearing this for 30 years. In the 80's people complained the music lacked the "passion" of the 70's. In the 90's the music lacked the creativity of the 80's. etc,etc,etc...

It's not about you. If you like a certain style that's great. But please stop trying to justify your preferences as more Holy or Godly than newer or different styles. Check out Romans 14.3.

WPOZ in Orlando is the top rated station among all radio in Orlando - not bad for a Christian station that plays all that bland, breathy, it all sounds the same music. And yet they do everything wrong according to some people on this board.

Look I understand this is a place to air opinions and have real discussion but I get so tired of people tearing down other ministries just because they personally don't like the music they play or produce. If you don't like it, get an iPod.

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

Look I understand this is a place to air opinions and have real discussion but I get so tired of people tearing down other ministries just because they personally don't like the music they play or produce. If you don't like it, get an iPod.

The origins of "Christian Radio" was an effort to evangelize using radio. It was more spoken word and less music. It was "mission". (Want to have fun? Get appointed/elected to a committee in a church that has the task of putting the "mission" of that congregation into words!)

Contemporary Christian radio appears to be 98% entertainment, may 2% worrying about "What is mission? Do we have one? What is it?"

In spite of the fact that today's "mega-churches" are quite visible (and some of them have to struggle with the definition of entertainment vs. the definition of mission) the majority of worshipers in America fragment when it comes time to sit down next to another human being in a building. If I don't like people around me shouting, standing a lot with their hands in the air, I don't go to a Pentecostal church. If I don't like long, detailed sermons I don't go to certain Baptist Churches. If I don't like old, old musical styles, there are some Presbyterian and Methodist churches I am going to avoid.

But radio.... we are trying to create one big, giant room where everybody can listen together and they figure out some way to not offend anyone if possible.... and from the discussion here, it sounds like maybe we have learned to offend EVERYONE.

Contemporary Christian Music broadcasting has found that it has to play by the same rules as secular radio. That, my friends, is the picture to be used in the dictionary to illustrate the word: dilemma.

 

[nitnitr]

So in other words, if it's a style that I like it must be God's style but if I don't like the style than it's evil or compromised. C'mon, folks, you sound like a bunch of old men. I've been hearing this for 30 years. In the 80's people complained the music lacked the "passion" of the 70's. In the 90's the music lacked the creativity of the 80's. etc,etc,etc...

May I remind everybody that Martin Luther wrote a song entitled "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God" that was considered blasphemy in his time because the lyrics were paired to a German bar tune.

It isn't about the sound, it is about the lyrics. I will admit some of the songs being presented in today's CCM music are less than evangelistic, encouraging believers or even uplifting Christ by any means. This is where a change needs to be made for those programming Christian music. Let's uphold the faith my fellow programmers.

trusty, reaching the youth for the future is a worthy aspiration for CCM radio (churches too), and if the current CCM music can offer a lending hand, I believe it to be good. The youth is the future of Christianity. If a "breathy" sound is what is needed to reach the younger generation for Christ, then so be it. You can expect styles or the overall sound of music to be constantly changing over time, as it has since Martin Luther (way before his time as well). For your own purposes, there are so many options available to listen to your preference of Christian music. I don't think you will have a hard time in finding avenues to listen to your preferred music style to help build your faith; for that matter, a church that will provide you with your preference of "worship music" that you can relate to and superb teaching from the pulpit as well.

By the way, I'm an old guy, and I have been a Christian most of my life. I have heard the various changes to Christian music over the years and embrace some of the changes to the sound. I'll admit, not all of the CHR and Christian Rock are my cup of tea, but that is my preference, and for others it is right up their line.

The changes in music have always been a conflict in the churches where I have attended, either in my capacity as a worship leader or as a congregant. It is a fine line that churches have to walk as it pertains to music. Some churches opt for a traditional service along with a contemporary service, while others go one way or the other. I say, whatever builds up the local church is the best way, if the style of music in the service is honestly a factor.

All I am saying in my last few comments, is that it is hard for the local church to determine where to draw the line on music styles. I've been there, as a former worship leader, and why I mention this at all.

As far as radio is concerned, as mentioned before, if the youth can be reached with the current sound, and remember this is the future of our faith, all power to it, as long as the lyrics are honestly evangelistic, nurturing the faith or exalting Christ.

 

[WPHA]

As far as radio is concerned, as mentioned before, if the youth can be reached with the current sound, and remember this is the future of our faith, all power to it, as long as the lyrics are honestly evangelistic, nurturing the faith or exalting Christ.

AMEN!!

The LYRICS truly are the KEY! In my 17 years as a Music Director for a Christian station, lyrics were #1. Style was a close 2'nd. It wasn't just my own personal preference to NOT play rock or rap, or even Country, it was the Station policy... a policy which I not only agreed with, but adopted as my own.

Now that I have been listening, quite constantly, to K-Love for the last 2 months, I must say that my preferences have widened slightly. When I see young people "complain" that K-Love isn't playing their harder styles of rock music, I direct them to their sister network, AIR1, which does. Why? Because it will minister to them, in their language! Music, itself, is a language. If we look at it that way, I think we do it, and ourselves, a favor. 8)

 

[trusty]

trusty, reaching the youth for the future is a worthy aspiration for CCM radio (churches too), and if the current CCM music can offer a lending hand, I believe it to be good. The youth is the future of Christianity. If a "breathy" sound is what is needed to reach the younger generation for Christ, then so be it. You can expect styles or the overall sound of music to be constantly changing over time, as it has since Martin Luther (way before his time as well). For your own purposes, there are so many options available to listen to your preference of Christian music. I don't think you will have a hard time in finding avenues to listen to your preferred music style to help build your faith; for that matter, a church that will provide you with your preference of "worship music" that you can relate to and superb teaching from the pulpit as well.

Thanks for the input. But if you look at the title of this thread and read the first post, you must realize that there HAS to be some of todays youth that will not settle for bland, uncreative, cookie-cutter STYLE when the opportunities are wide open. It sounds like everyone's afraid of breaking new ground - all in the name of saving money, and if it continues the way it is, we will lose the very ones we are trying to reach

I know where "A Mighty Fortress" and "Amazing Grace" came from - and it did reach the general public where the chants of the church would never go. (I can't help it if the Lord has been giving me praise words to Doobie Brothers and Blues Brothers songs (and I'll release them when the time is right.), but that's "classic" rock that may not speak to today's youth, either. ). We'll have to see...)

We all have preferences - some are wide; some are narrow. But, when "it all sounds the same", it's frustrating to the ones with preferences that are slightly outside the box.

 

[WPHA]

(I can't help it if the Lord has been giving me praise words to Doobie Brothers and Blues Brothers songs (and I'll release them when the time is right.), but that's "classic" rock that may not speak to today's youth, either. ). We'll have to see...)

That sounds like the group, "Apologetix". Look them up. You may be surprised by what you hear! 8)

 

[landtuna]

Contemporary Christian Music broadcasting has found that it has to play by the same rules as secular radio.

As an ordinary, and unwilling CCM listener (when wifey is driving), I think GRC has hit the nail succinctly on the head with that one liner. To my unappreciative ear the music I hear on the chain godcasters is nothing but amped-up noise very similar to what was once called Heavy Metal. It is as repulsive to me as rap. Every "song" sounds almost identical to the last.

 

[nitnitr]

trusty, reaching the youth for the future is a worthy aspiration for CCM radio (churches too), and if the current CCM music can offer a lending hand, I believe it to be good. The youth is the future of Christianity. If a "breathy" sound is what is needed to reach the younger generation for Christ, then so be it. You can expect styles or the overall sound of music to be constantly changing over time, as it has since Martin Luther (way before his time as well). For your own purposes, there are so many options available to listen to your preference of Christian music. I don't think you will have a hard time in finding avenues to listen to your preferred music style to help build your faith; for that matter, a church that will provide you with your preference of "worship music" that you can relate to and superb teaching from the pulpit as well.

Thanks for the input. But if you look at the title of this thread and read the first post, you must realize that there HAS to be some of todays youth that will not settle for bland, uncreative, cookie-cutter STYLE when the opportunities are wide open. It sounds like everyone's afraid of breaking new ground - all in the name of saving money, and if it continues the way it is, we will lose the very ones we are trying to reach

I know where "A Mighty Fortress" and "Amazing Grace" came from - and it did reach the general public where the chants of the church would never go. (I can't help it if the Lord has been giving me praise words to Doobie Brothers and Blues Brothers songs (and I'll release them when the time is right.), but that's "classic" rock that may not speak to today's youth, either. ). We'll have to see...)

We all have preferences - some are wide; some are narrow. But, when "it all sounds the same", it's frustrating to the ones with preferences that are slightly outside the box.

I'll agree with you here. If there is no variety, then some will not be reached. It does seem like most of the current music is generic, in today's terms. One of the reasons I like music from NewWorldSon, Chuck Hebbing and Glenn Kaiser is that I love the blues sound. That is one of the reasons I enjoy the variety of the independent artists (though NWS isn't an indie anymore).

If you have noticed, the blending of the CHR and AC charts has been a lot more common recently (in the past year). Does this mean the end of variety? I hope not.

For those of us on the Internet, offering something other than what is programmed on terrestrial radio (regardless of format), does give us the opportunity to offer something different, as most Internet stations are willing to add indies and others that don't fit into today's traditional charted music.

On the other hand, Internet stations in general have a hard time promoting themselves, due to a general lack of funding, and a local audience that identifies with the station. This makes it hard to program only what is outside of the "mainstream" or different than what terrestrial radio generally programs in the way of music. We do have to reach an audience that will make our efforts viable (if not identifiable in our own way). Charted music allows us to do so in some ways.

Thank you for your reply. Know I feel where you are coming from, and also know I appreciate your comments.

Looking forward to your new lyrics to the Doobie Brothers sound along with others you have been contemplating. Feel free to PM me with them. I know a few musicians that may be able to put them to music. Could be fun.

 

[trusty]

One of the reasons I like music from NewWorldSon, Chuck Hebbing and Glenn Kaiser is that I love the blues sound.

Appreciate your comments and will respond in more detail when I get a chance (kinda swamped now). Until then, get down and enjoy THIS.

 

[nitnitr]

One of the reasons I like music from NewWorldSon, Chuck Hebbing and Glenn Kaiser is that I love the blues sound.

Appreciate your comments and will respond in more detail when I get a chance (kinda swamped now). Until then, get down and enjoy THIS.

Thanks for the hook up to Landon Spradlin. Love the sound.

 

[MikefromDelaware]

Lyrics are key. There are CCM songs out there that try to be "Christian AC", chick love songs, so those CCM songs sound like "Jesus is my boyfriend". That's disgusting. Definitely a turn of for a guy and I would hope for the women listeners too. The lyrics need to be solid, about Christ, who Christ is, what he's done for us, calling us to turn from our sins, King Jesus, Lord Jesus, etc, etc. Then on top of that, many of today's CCM songs have made Jesus into "Mister Rogers". Where are the Keith Green's of today?

By the way, there are many hymns that used popular bar room melodies to go along with the words. The Jesus Freaks of the late 1960's and early 70's did that with pop music of that time. Seems I recall (that was a long time ago) the words to Amazing Grace being sung to the music of "The House of the Rising Sun" (an interesting choice as the original words were about a house of ill repute), but you get the point. Political talk radio does "parodies" all the time using pop music and changing the words to fit their purpose).

The musical arrangements also are important. It all sounds the same, just like chick oriented AC FM radio. Boring and bland. The only CCM station in our area is WXHL (The REACH FM). They are a TOP 40 CCM. They'd rather impale themselves than play any CCM song older than last week, much less ever play Keith Green, Twalia Paris, Silverwind, Scott Wesley Brown, Carmen, David and the Giants, etc, etc. WPHA said it well when he talked about all the great music that's NOT being played on today's Christian stations.

Even churches today won't play older Praise songs, because as I've been told, the youth wouldn't like those songs and might leave. As I told that pastor, gee are those youth and college kids tithing, because IF you don't have adults supporting this church, you'll no longer have a ministry. You need to minister to adults too or you'll lose the adults as they'll not be fed and will move on to get their spirits nourished. We did leave shortly after that discussion as this church was totally focused on youth and college students and essentially ignored the adults. I felt out of place like I had sneaked into youth group service. Three years later, that church was gone as eventually all the adults over 30 moved on. So there is balance. A church can't just minister to the adults and ignore the youth and younger adults either. A church must minister to the youth, the young adults, and the middleaged adults, and yes should also be bringing the love and message of the risen Christ to older adults. I know many older adults (baby boomers and yes even geezers) who do not know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. We are called to make disciples of all nations, so all types of people, ages, both genders, etc, we are to be reaching, both in church and yes IF your Christian station actually is about trying to reach folks for Christ, then yes the radio too.

Radio of course is a different thing than a church. What should be happening is a few Christian stations in a market aimed at different demos in that market. Say a rockin' CCM station, an Oldies CCM station, an Urban Gospel, a hymn/mellow music formated station, and some markets could support a Country Gospel station. The problem with that plan is are there enough listeners in each format group to be able to support their station. The problem is most markets, at least in the Northeast usually have only one CCM station, and if they only play the latest top 40 CCM hits, then there's a ton of great worshipful, teaching music, soul inspiring music that is not getting any air time. I don't understand why CCM stations won't rotate in some of the older CCM songs, or do a special show on the weekends or evenings called CCM Gold, etc.

In our market (Wilmington Del) we have 1 Top 40 CCM and 1 urban gospel, plus we can get two preaching/ Christian stations from the Philly area, and a fundamentalist preaching station that plays really old hymns from Elkton MD. It's gotten to the point when I want to hear CCM music, I listen to my cassette tapes and CD's. I tried going on line and haven't been very successful in finding an CCM Oldies format online. All those Christian stations on my radio and none of them target the boomer musical audience. Today's Christian music radio doesn't want me as a listener, so I don't tune in any longer. Why go to where you're not wanted, except at the "begathon times".

Funny how NPR and many college or community stations will use block programming so they reach all sorts of audience. For example the Univ of Del station WVUD-FM airs Bluegrass, Rap, Classical, Indian as in India, Jazz, plus U of Del football and other formats. They do well at fund raising time. From where I sit they and the local NPR station from Philly, that airs all sorts of NPR block programming, do a far better job of reaching the community with THEIR message than the Christian radio stations do here in reaching this community for Christ. Frankly I wonder whether Christian radio really is trying to reach the lost for Christ or just promote their home church as WXHL only airs their pastor for preaching programs; or are simply make a living playing Christian music, and there is a difference.

 

[WPHA]

Lyrics are key. There are CCM songs out there that try to be "Christian AC", chick love songs, so those CCM songs sound like "Jesus is my boyfriend". That's disgusting.

WOW!! Dude... we are so totally ON THE SAME PAGE, it's frightening! (I could quote your whole post! LOL!) When God raises up my station, would you come work for me? (I ask in FAITH, believing GOD for a MIRACLE!)

I worked at WFIF for 20 years, and served as its Music Director for 17 of them. My philosophy on those "You" songs was simple: "FRISBEE!!!" and out they went. Once online distribution started to replace physical CD's, it was better... because 90% of the time, songs had the printed lyrics on the WEBsite! I could read them in seconds, and not even bother downloading the song if His Name wasn't used anywhere! (After all, how many DOZENS of Names does God have in Scripture?? ??? Come on, music writers: PICK ONE!!) ;D

I believe that stations really are missing out by NOT playing any of the "Classic CCM" so many of us in our 40's and up, have been blessed by over the years! While I was at WFIF, not only did I keep those older songs playing, I was also adding new ones! The sound remained a prayerfully balanced MIXTURE of FRESH AND Familiar!

My Wife and I do enjoy listening to K-Love for more than just the music, though. Not only are they doing good "Personality Radio" (something all too many Christian stations are totally or severely lacking) they are also doing MINISTRY where they take listeners calls, and put them on the air! They also PRAY FOR PEOPLE right then and there! I eat that stuff up!!! (I used to have a prayer segment at the end of my music show on WFIF for years, and the listeners LOVED it.)

SO MANY opportunities for real, LIFE-CHANGING ministry are being missed, because too many stations rely too much on research, and not enough on KNEE-SEARCH!!!