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Question About A Non-Profit and Commercial Program Being On In The Same Market?

R

Retro

I was listening to Hope In The Night this week and they mentioned that they were on 2 stations in Dallas: KCBI-FM and KWRD-FM as well. KCBI-FM is non-profit, while KWRD-FM is commercial. I was just wondering why they are on 2 stations, and how it works with the 2 stations being different classifications as well.
 
Don't the stations pay to air those programs. So my guess is, whether or not the station is a non-comm or commercial station doesn't matter to the supplier of the programming as long as the check doesn't bounce.

Is it possible that both stations are owned by the same owner? One would think that neither station (if owned by different people) would want their competition airing the same programming.
 
MikefromDelaware said:
Don't the stations pay to air those programs. So my guess is, whether or not the station is a non-comm or commercial station doesn't matter to the supplier of the programming as long as the check doesn't bounce.

Is it possible that both stations are owned by the same owner? One would think that neither station (if owned by different people) would want their competition airing the same programming.
Click to expand...

I highly doubt that could even be possible. The Commercial station is owned by Salem, and the non-comm is owned by Criswell Center for Biblical Studies instead. Why would a ministry pay to be on 2 different stations (airing) at the same time?
 
Retro said:
Why would a ministry pay to be on 2 different stations (airing) at the same time?
Click to expand...

The producers of paid religious programming have sophisticated tracking programs. They monitor very carefully which stations have listeners that send contributions to the ministry. The listener contributions must exceed the cost of the time plus a share of the ministry overhead or the station is cancelled.

The producer of a religious program will put it on 5 or 6 stations in a market if they all produce income from the listeners in excess of the cost of airtime and overhead. (I can't name a market where anyone is on six stations.)

In the past I have negotiated with program producers as to what kind of promotional events and extra announcements our station was going to provide the program ministry during the ramp-up period before their income from listeners reached the target amount. I don't know about today, but a typical "promotional event" then was to find a local church that was compatible with the broadcast ministry and arrange for the 'prime personality' or speaker on the broadcast ministry to be a guest in the pulpit of that church and I would be there as manager of the station to lead the "pep rally". Of course we spent a lot of announcement time promoting the event. If you can ever get the followers (listeners) to an event where they can meet the speaker, the preacher, it does marvels for their loyalty to the ministry.
 
You are correct Goat Rodeo Cowboy, the program provider (local church or national preacher ) pays the station.

In the secular realm, the station pays the program or they do a barter, or the show is provided free with local avails for the local station to make money by selling local spots as the program makes money from the national spots it sells.
 
As I drove back from a tornado damage repair mission project today, I tuned across a Christian radio station and hear them promoting a John Rivers program... I think it was. There are some syndicated programs like this where a personality hosts a program with interviews and records. A program like this parallels some of the syndicated secular programs that a radio station would purchase as an "audience building" program. Maybe it was this type of program the orginal post was talking about.

That type of program was not a part of the mix back when I did Christian radio so I have no knowledge of who pays whom in that case.
 
Focus on the Family is on at least three stations in my market (not to mention the "minute" on the news/talker which makes four). "Point of View" is on 3 (will be losing one) and most of the other major preacher shows are on at least two if not three.
 
Here's a little more information..gr8oldies' post made me think of it.

Many of the programs like Focus on the Family used to buy one station in a market.
The second and third stations would have to run the programs either on a revenue-sharing basis,
or by having it sponsored and paid for by another party.

I don't know if they still do it this way or not. I used to sell the preaching/teaching time blocks for
Tallahassee's first Christian station. It would be a lot tougher now with so many more stations
airing Christian programs in theis market.
 
Most of the major ministries are on revenue sharing. They no longer pay a rate to be on a station. Years ago, they paid to be on stations. Now some of them think that they are so big, that you should be honored to have them on your station with revenue sharing. In my 20 years of experience, dealing with paid and revenue sharing programs. The paid programs usually made you more money. Unless you were a Focus on the Family, Charles Stanley or Joyce Meyer. Everybody else was a hit or miss, A lot of the time, you would not make, what you would have charged the local ministries. Especially if you were in a small market. Egos of the ministries have grown, a lot more than the profits of the radio station that they were on.
 
Now, how does revenue sharing work? You mean that the station gets paid based on the ministry takes in? Or does this mean that shows such as Focus On The Family are so popular that the radio station pays them to be on instead?
 
Re: Question About A Non-Profit and Commercial Program Being On In The Same Mark

Retro said:
Now, how does revenue sharing work? You mean that the station gets paid based on the ministry takes in? Or does this mean that shows such as Focus On The Family are so popular that the radio station pays them to be on instead?
Click to expand...

The station is paid based on listener response.

I prefer a flat fee myself ... charge the ministry by the show. It is easier to budget the income and makes it easier to "let a program go" that isn't pulling it's weight with listeners.

Of course, for a non-comm station they may be more interested in having the ministry on the air ... if only to fill time that would cost them an operator or X minutes of someone's workday that is normally spend doing something else. Some stations like the diversity of programming (I'm not against that). Many voices with one goal. Certainly better than "dollar a holler" programming where anyone with money is played.
 
Depending on the ministry, as the previous post mentioned, you get a certain percentage of what the listeners in your area send in. Of course, they get the larger percentage. You have to take their word on the amount of money that is sent to them. They may be on five days a week, but sometimes what they send you is only worth one day a week or possibly less. So its either you take their name recognition, or try to fill the spots with local programs who will pay your actual rate.
 
Now it might be me, however it sounds almost unethical for a ministry to do that with a station. I am assuming that the station in theory gets more money from popular ministries that way?
 
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