I worked a station that had a format of Christian programming. We were a commercial station versus a ministry. There is a huge difference between the two. I have never seen as much negativity as I saw in Christian radio. Everybody has their 'opinion' of what is acceptable and what is not. In a nutshell, you must subscribe to the beliefs of the ministry oriented station and you'll have certain rules to follow on a commercial Christian format. Going secular radio is a much easier path. In secular radio you can pretty much do your own thing. It is pretty much a given that the radio station has a blanket music license agreement.
Remember radio, both commercial and non-commercial is about money and listeners. If your show can bring in dollars and new listeners, you are fine. If not, you will be cancelled.
There are several ways to approach this. First, on a commercial station, you can buy airtime and sell your own commercials. In ministry oriented radio you should get to know the folks there and get a feel of how to approach them. At the station I worked for we had a guy that worked Sunday afternoons without pay and he got to do a program for a hour or two after the paid programs for the afternoon had aired. In essence he worked a board shift in return for the time for his show.
You will have rules to follow. For example, in our normal music hours jocks were very secular in style meaning no alter calls or expounding on song lyrics and the best way to get off the air in 5 seconds or less was to field callers that needed prayer live on the air. We had programmers that were pastors that were the ones we suggested to callers needing prayer. Another for me, is we made no negative comments about belief nuances. Simply put, the jocks did not preach but hyped the 10 in a row, handled weather, traffic and PSAs and such. Get clear instructions on what you can and can't do and follow that to a T.
Your true starting point is visiting with folks at stations you target. Learn the lay of the land and then and only then talk about your show with an actual sample they can hear. I assume you can do this from a home studio.
In secular radio, I had a youth pastor at one station that did a 7 to 9am Sunday morning Contemporary Christian music program with local Church PSAs and weather at the usual times. If we had a commercial or two he played them as logged. He got no pay and we got a couple of hours of free labor and a show that was good for Sunday morning. The guy was pretty much left alone by the station.
I'm not trying to discourage you. There are lots of people that want to do a radio show. What are you going to do that makes you rise to the top. What makes your show unique and special. If I have ten programs I'm considering, what will you do that grabs my ear?
Your radio program is not the important thing. What matters is how you bring dollars and listeners to the station. If that is playing sound effects of cat screeches, so be it.
Radio is like the chicken and the egg. Without the egg there is no chicken and without the chicken there is no egg. Programming is what a radio station utilizes to get listeners and then monetizes those listeners. You have to have all 3: listeners, revenue and programming because if you don't have all 3, you have nothing. Your program has to get listeners that can be monetized. And your program has to be solid.
Now, get started and you'll be amazed at how quickly you'll sound like a long-time jock. This will be the hardest thing you'll do for now but the reward is there and the sky is the limit.
