I can certainly share with you on the hate some ministries spread. I do have to say I was treated worse by some ministries than any advertising client ever treated me. There are some good ones out there.
It is true money talks at a station where a single dollar can be the difference between red and black ink. We had rules when we were ministry oriented. Nobody went over, nobody criticized and you treated people well in the building. I cancelled some folks that didn't. I might be the exception, but for me your dollar was just as good as the next guy's. And if I had to chase the money and jump through hoops to get it, you got the heart to heart about being too much trouble than you were worth.
Brokered radio doesn't care about ratings or number of listeners. We let the most fundamental concept of radio prevail: you bring your audience to the station for your program. If you have an audience you will be able to fund it with advertising or support of some kind and if not, you won't be around. It's really no different than the person that went to the station back in the 1950s and said this rock and roll is going to be big. Let me give it a shot on your station (only they usually didn't buy the time but tried to create an audience at a time the station didn't find profitable).
I hear what you are saying about brokered radio taking over what was a fun radio band to listen to. I grew up when AM was king. I'm monolingual and don't understand other languages but in these programmer's defense, many times that program was the only thing that small segment of Houston had on the AM or FM dial. Imagine all radio except one for a couple of hours each week is not in a language you are most comfortable with. During that two hours you hear songs you heard growing up and hear news and information useful to you. Imagine if you will being in Bolivia or China or Russia. Nothing on radio or TV in English except that one little station where somebody shows up each week to play the songs you know, deliver a news wrap-up and teach you how to function in this strange new world. You hear about merchants that welcome you and can understand you when you can't make yourself understood in the language everyone speaks. I think you can see it's more of a lifeline than just somebody that wants to gloat about being on the radio or milk as much money out of them as possible. Sure, there might only be a few thousand of you in the whole listening area but that doesn't make those two hours any less crucial to you coping in the place where you find yourself. Many of these folks looked at it as a labor of love, maybe clearing $50 or $100 a week for all the work. It never was their fulltime job.
Sure, there are some time buyers that are in it because they're vain but most have an interest or a community that is not being covered by radio or media in general. And a few were business folks looking to build a living by doing radio. Like Christian radio there were some bad eggs but like my experience running a Christian teaching and a brokered time station, far more were sincere and honorable.
Some had huge audiences. I used to get griped at by listeners for not getting more line for the requests and dedications on the polka shows. The phone would start ringing 2 hours before. The phone kept ringing after the show another hour or two with people trying to get requests in on the next week's show and some wrote in to avoid the phones. Our Cajun show was almost as popular. In each case the host bought the time and sold ads to pay for it. We even had a guy that did a show on cryogenics. Small audience for sure but he had plenty of experts in the field that he interviewed. One guy simply did a talk show on shopping where he interviewed mom and pop businesses saying how they started and what they stocked, each show centering on a certain area of town. None of the businesses had enough sales to buy ads on Houston radio but for $140 they could get 5 minutes on 4 shows. During that time a guy wanted to do a show on car repair but he opted for a bigger station. He's now heard in several cities on a number of talk stations. We had a lawyer and a CPA that offered free 'advice' to callers that purchased their time. While it was to bolster business, lots of folks got some much needed information. These folks didn't have other options, brokered radio was all that was available and the only option within their budget. If we hadn't opted to allow this, nobody would have had these opportunities.
Radio, like most of the business world, has no 'entry point' for those that are small or just starting out. We simply said, okay, here's your entry, sort of like that little small market station that would put you on the air with no experience so you could grow to the point of entry at a larger station. Sure that's not what AM radio was but it is a harsh reality today. I'd love to do a format. After all I was on air and in programming before sales and management. I understand the reality I face if I did and just what would happen if I did get an audience and financial success. Especially the AM daytimer and AM with low nighttime power have limited options amid the large number of signals in a major market. In the end, it's keeping the lights on that counts over and above ratings and listeners. A million listeners or a 5 share won't pay the bills, only money will do that and listeners does not always equal money and ratings doesn't mean money either. Sure both go a long way toward getting that money but we've witnessed seeming popular stations switch formats for financial reasons, not because of few listeners and poor ratings.
To quote a Ten Years After song...I'd Love To Change The World. I don't know how so I just deal with it as it is and stay watchful for that little opening that's not being guarded.
