Where is Best Market to add Christian Music Station?

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

But, be sure it is God saying come. All in his timing. He does the saving by giving away his grace and love freely, he may use us as instruments in his will, but he does the saving. It's always exciting to be used in such a great way to reach people for Christ.

In addition to following threads like this one on Radio Info, I also participate in an on-line forum for people tho do sound, video and lights in churches. Many of today's churches have very elaborate A-V-L installations. In that other forum I watch as young people who are young Christians develop their technical skills and mature their knowledge of what equipment is needed to "produce" spectacular worship services. And I watch as these very young people being operating ABOVE THEIR PAYGRADE by demanding that church leadership buy all the toys they need.... for after all "WE (the a-v-l people?) are getting people SAVED." Suddenly they are above their paygrade in trying to be "theologians". They know more than the pastor or the worship leader or the chairman of the finance committee about evangelism.

Thank you, MikeFromDelaware, for reminding us all..."but HE does the saving."

 

[rbrucecarter5]

In addition to following threads like this one on Radio Info, I also participate in an on-line forum for people tho do sound, video and lights in churches. Many of today's churches have very elaborate A-V-L installations. In that other forum I watch as young people who are young Christians develop their technical skills and mature their knowledge of what equipment is needed to "produce" spectacular worship services. And I watch as these very young people being operating ABOVE THEIR PAYGRADE by demanding that church leadership buy all the toys they need.... for after all "WE (the a-v-l people?) are getting people SAVED." Suddenly they are above their paygrade in trying to be "theologians". They know more than the pastor or the worship leader or the chairman of the finance committee about evangelism.

Thank you, MikeFromDelaware, for reminding us all..."but HE does the saving."

I don't quite get your point, unless it is a very underhanded and subtle rebuke of some sort. Of course the Holy Spirit is the one drawing people. My constant prayer is for me to get out of the way, so that His work can be done. Anybody in ministry that does not have that attitude needs to get out of the way.

The converse of this is - disruptions. The Bible is clear on the subject of disruptions to the order of worship. If an AV person is pointing out that a piece of malfunctioning equipment is disrupting the order of worship, then they are quite in order when they point that out to designated authority. They should do it in humility, but their words should be heeded. A wise boss - or leader - is a servant to their employees or volunteers. Our big boss washed the feet of his volunteers. The job of the person over the AV people is to get them what they need to do their job, and not be difficult or overbearing about it. If you got kids working in your AV department, teens are very emotional. They do not need to hear a single word of criticism. EVER. Even adults - there really is no such thing as constructive criticism. Nobody who is mentally healthy wants to hear themself trashed. EVER. You don't have that authority from the Lord. Deal with it.

I notice somebody on here was getting all huffy about people majoring in music being in charge of church PW bands. You either have musical talent or you don't. Four years of college don't give you talent. They give you music theory, but if you can't execute on that theory, you are making noise. People with talent don't necessarily need college. They need to perform. The more they perform, the better they get.

 

[MikefromDelaware]

I reread my posts and Goat Rodeo Cowboys post and my eye does not see any rebuke intended. It is easy for any of us to get so excited about what we are doing in the kingdom of God that we forget that we all are tools the Lord uses, but the Lord still does the healing, the saving, the giving of his grace and love. He gives us the privledge and honor to be apart of his work and to get to witness the results. How thrilling for you to have had the opportunity to do the work you did at that radio station. You should be excited about what new adventure God has in store for you.

I understand completely what Goat Rodeo Cowboy was saying about the AVL and sound board personnel. Many of these types of churches can sometimes fall into a rut of making their church service appear to be like a show rather than a time of meditative worship, prayer, silent confession of sins, forgiveness of sins, scripture readings, a solid sermon based on the scriptures, and Holy Communion. The praise bands are putting on a performance rather than leading the congregation in worship and there's a big difference (I've also seen choirs fall into this pit as well). I know as I've lead and have also played in praise bands, choirs, and orchestras in churches since 1970. I've been in churches where the praise band's show was very good and I felt like I was watching a "christian version of the Tonight show" and was waiting for christian version of Jay Leno to come out and do the monologue, whoops I mean the sermon. Yes, the AVL people can get too caught up in the theatrical aspects of their job, just as a pastor can too, where he slips into that showman attitude rather than a pastor/minister of God's word. These are pit falls that can and do happen in many of today's more modern type services. Yes the AVL people should want to do the best job possible, but Goat's point was correct as people can get carried away, be they teens or adults and some can and will make demands, etc and forget what and why they are doing what they are doing. Bottom line, its all worship, it's part of our gift we place at the altar to honor our Lord.

Church should be a place where if the music isn't concert quality, be it hymns, chants, or praise and worship no one notices, because they all are taken up with Jesus and are focusing their heart and spirit on him as they worship him. Some of the best worship services I've been to were when something went wrong, like at this one church, they lost electrical power just as the service was beginning. Thankfully the gym this church met in had windows so enough light got in. The all electric praise band / sound system, lighting, etc, was of no use, so the one accustic guitar played and the congregation had one of the best worship times ever. The music was very simple, no elaborate arrangements, harmonies, guitar solos, wild drumming, etc. Just simple mellow praise that lifted that small church to the heights of worship.

Sometimes we all need a wake up call to remind us what and why we go to a church service on Sundays. If we are worrying that the music sucks, to use your word, then we've missed the point. There's no rebuke intended in my words here either. I speak from experience as there has been times during my 39 years of playing/leading music in church where I've been guilty of this very same thing and had to repent of my attitude. As a musician it too is very easy to get swept up in the music and get into a performance mode and lose sight of the fact that thankfully, Our Lord isn't a music critic, and isn't looking for a performance that would rival a Carnegie Hall concert, but is looking at the heart and attitude of the musicians and singers. What our ear might call mediocre music, to the Lord could be sweet music and world class music could completely turn the Lord off due to the heart attitude of those musicians. The Lord looks at our hearts, be it with music, when we put our offering in the collection, when we receive the Lord's gift to us in Holy Communion, to all aspects of our lives. So I'd take mediocre music that's really offered up with a servants heart offering praise to God over the best musicians who's heart isn't right with God. It's the spirit in which the music is offered that counts, not how musically perfect it is.

 

[rbrucecarter5]

I reread my posts and Goat Rodeo Cowboys post and my eye does not see any rebuke intended.

I think this thread has departed very far from radio. PW music designed for a church setting is very different from what is appropriate or will attract an audience on radio - much less what music will attract unsaved kids.

As for media workers - I will continue to defend my teenage media volunteers. They are the most dedicated workers I know, and have the right attitude.

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

I don't quite get your point, unless it is a very underhanded and subtle rebuke of some sort.

I reread my posts and Goat Rodeo Cowboys post and my eye does not see any rebuke intended.

I think this thread has departed very far from radio. PW music designed for a church setting is very different from what is appropriate or will attract an audience on radio - much less what music will attract unsaved kids.

Subtle? I hope so. I try very hard not to be blatant and fire-breathing. I don't always succeed.

Underhanded? I try very hard to be "above board"... on top of the table. Openly visible.

It was not my intention to "depart far from radio"... only to point out that in our enthusiasm over our faith we sometimes try to merge church and technology and we loose track of which one should DRIVE our mission.

IF... note the emphasis, the capital letters... IF it is indeed true that PW music designed for a church setting is very different from PW music that will attract an audience on radio... My internal radar jumps in gear and says: "Why?" Then my internal radar says: "Why is the church continuing to change it's PW music so that it matches what is being played on the radio?" And in a church staff meeting the answer will come back: "If we don't use what the kids are listening to on the radio, we cannot draw a crowd of youth at church."

Those who do "Christian Radio" have to decide which way it is. If you do Christian Radio to "bring kids to Jesus" then you are not doing pure-play radio.... you are making radio into church. Then your radio problem is you must decide which theology drives your radio. Is your radio Baptist, is your radio AOG, is your radio Catholic, is your radio Methodist, is your radio Presbyterian?

What is the title of the "officer" in the radio station who examines the lyrics to see if the words are theologically "orthodox"?

Subtle? Yes! Underhanded? No! Folks in radio need to quit kidding themselves by thinking THEY are doing the function of church and that they have a quota of how many they are going to bring into "church". They need to realize that what they are doing is providing a wholesome form of entertainment. Having said that: the people of the church are "being church" as they live their faith in the accounting office, at the car dealership, or in the practice of law in the courtroom. The people of the church are "being church" by they way they live their faith as managers, personalities, programmers of Christian music on the radio.

Bruce: In thread after thread you bemoan this problem you see that an entire generation of young people is going to be lost to the church because Christian radio is playing the wrong kind of music. Many threads on this board and commentators like Jerry del Colliano are pointing out that if radio (as a whole, ALL genres of radio) does not find itself and reinvent itself, the industry will die... maybe as quickly as 10 years from now.

So, if radio dies, including Christian programmed radio, does that mean the church will die because no young people can ever be reached by the church without radio to tell them what music to use?

 

[rbrucecarter5]

Bruce: In thread after thread you bemoan this problem you see that an entire generation of young people is going to be lost to the church because Christian radio is playing the wrong kind of music. Many threads on this board and commentators like Jerry del Colliano are pointing out that if radio (as a whole, ALL genres of radio) does not find itself and reinvent itself, the industry will die... maybe as quickly as 10 years from now.

So, if radio dies, including Christian programmed radio, does that mean the church will die because no young people can ever be reached by the church without radio to tell them what music to use?

Lets see if I can hit some points you made. We had a panel of kids we could trust screening new CD releases, finding radio worthy cuts that were scripturally correct. You either trust your interns, or you don't make them interns in the first place. I had a good group of kids - they never made a mistake. Our biggest problem was the artists that slipped up in a public way. It was better to pull them until they made public repentance, and that wasn't the fault of my volunteers. It was the artist's fault. We only had a couple of incidents like that, and in one case it was one of the kids who heard about it, another time a youth pastor clue'd us in to the problem. No worry - there were lots of other artists to play.

I try not to over emphasize the importance of radio in kid's salvation. It is a form of entertainment, and if its not fun, nobody listens. No listeners = no ratings = no contributions = no POTENTIAL salvations = off the air eventually. Notice I emphasized potential. It is the lifestyle of Christian friends, first and foremost, which seems to be the most influential in leading kids to Christ. Parents a close second. Not preachers, not church, not youth pastors, not radio - it is the Christian friends. With that said - we don't abandon all the others. Kids are much better off spiritually listening to Christian radio than secular, because all the un-godly lyrics won't be pouring into their subconscious. I think the core disagreement on this board is whether we can force feed kids praise and worship music on the radio, or whether it really takes something more like the secular music stylistically to get them to tune in of their own free will. Obviously I am in the second camp. A local station can blissfully advertise that their music is safe for whole families, call their music CCM (well maybe it is the PW style of CCM), runs spots saying that kids sing the songs, etc. It doesn't make it true, nor does it mean that teens are tuning to the station in vast numbers as opposed to merely having no choice as their parents play the station in their cars and homes. Give the kid their own radio and iPod, and they discover secular music in minutes. Lets face it - secular music is fun to listen to. The beat is lively, the artists tremendously talented, and so forth. We have Christian artists who make the same style of music, are just as creative (if not more so). All that is lacking is the desire on the part of Christian radio to play them. Teens are unserved by Christian radio, and it is just one more obsticle - among many - that the devil throws at them to keep them away from the Truth of the gospel. It is my particular area of ministry, so I don't talk a lot about the others. I let other folks fill in those aspects of ministry. I just don't want secular garbage pouring into the minds of teens, when the Christian counterpart exists. Not a lot of people love youth ministry and teenagers. They are a difficult group to relate to. Certainly in my community the Christian radio stations don't love teens - oh well. That is common among Christian broadcasters, and even a lot of churches. I can't blame them - why bother enriching the lives of teens when they won't send in the large contribution checks each month? Gotta have that return financially - right? Some of us don't think like that. We love kids because they will be the church in the future, and if we don't show them we love them today, they will turn their back on the church when they are adults. How does that fit the long term business plan of a radio station? I really prefer it if our local Christian station would just be honest and tell kids - this isn't the station for you, we don't really want to program to your musical taste - go listen to KRBE or something - instead of pretend they are reaching kids, because they aren't!!!

 

[MikefromDelaware]

Certainly in my community the Christian radio stations don't love teens - oh well. That is common among Christian broadcasters, and even a lot of churches. I can't blame them - why bother enriching the lives of teens when they won't send in the large contribution checks each month? Gotta have that return financially - right?

In Wilmington, we have WXHL aka The Reach FM network of stations. They play CCM top 40 music. This station isn't aimed at adults, but young people. They are the target audience. Check it out and see if it is cool enough for the kids you are trying to reach. I don't listen as I don't like the music. The station must be doing something right as they now have a boat load of repeaters all over the East Coast, so someone is listening and someone is donating, possibly parents of the kids who listen, but the station's aim has always been the youth.
http://www.thereachfm.com/

As far as churches not aiming for youth, I must disagree, more and more churches are doing just that, especially the non-denominational/Charismatic type churches (those generally are the one's with the rockin' praise bands) and offer no hymns, choirs, organ, or even Praise Oldies. These churches only use praise songs written after 2004. They even try to have only young people in the praise band, anyone with gray hair is generally not encouraged to be up front in the praise band unless they really need what that person plays. Dress is extremely casual - jeans, shorts, etc. Even the pastor isn't wearing a tie (one church even on Christmas and Easter the pastor wears a tee shirt and jeans). The extreme causalness almost seems disrespectful to the Lord. They are targeting the youth so much that many, if not almost all of the "older" people start to drift away to a more traditional type of church, which may also explain why there has been some resurrgance of interest in hymns and a more traditional type of worship by some adults in some churches. It's what drew me almost a year ago to leave the Charismatic church I was a member of and search eventually discovering the blessing of the Lutheran Mass, hymns, Gregorian Chanting, plenty of scriptures read in the service (not just a line or two as the text for the sermon), and of course receiving the Eurcharist each week in Holy Communion, not just once a month, etc. Even the Lutheran Praise Mass is more traditional using the elements of the Lutheran Mass, but with praise music that is far more mellow than the rockin' praise in the Charismatic churches. Of course smart churches offer both types of services or Masses in the case of Lutheran churches. That way the youth are served and the "older" folks are served.

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

We had a panel of kids we could trust screening new CD releases, finding radio worthy cuts that were scripturally correct. You either trust your interns, or you don't make them interns in the first place. I had a good group of kids - they never made a mistake.

Excellent response, Bruce. We have had our little side-trip excursion and I think you have brought us back to discussing RADIO.

I wonder if the world of Religious/Contemporary Christian radio has to deal with the same topic that is continually bounced around by the News/Talk discussion forum.

They discuss whether people who listen to the conservative programs on Talk Radio are ever "converted" to a new political thinking, or is Talk Radio "only singing to the choir". Even with MY SPLENDID CONTRIBUTIONS <insert big grin> they get nowhere in resolving the question. But the big oft-repeated mantra there is: People who own and program Talk-Radio are not in it as ideologues... they are only there to make money.

What, if anything, does all that yow-yow say to us about "Christian Radio"? How much of Christian Radio energy, effort and expense results in changed thinking, how much of management and programmers in Christian Radio are ideologues primarily and how many are simply good stewards of capital investment.

Going back 30 or 40 years, it was possible for people, even people of middle to modest means, to build or acquire a broadcast property as a labor-of-love and use it as a tool to foster their favorite ideology. Today that has become almost impossible. To pay today's price for a license, to pay today's price for land and buildings and equipment means only a few of the very wealthy can own a station as a hobby, as a cause. Mere mortals can only operate a station that sustains itself with revenue.

I understand what you have done, what you want to do again, and what you wish "the industry" (if we can use that term,) would do. What is your game-plan to deal with the fact that programmers are going to chose music for the largest possible ratings over "theological correctness" as we go forward under today's market circumstances. Spell out your vision of how a Christian programmed music station deals with life in the 21st Century.

 

[Elkhosen]

This may have already been stated in this thread or brought up in another. But, IMHO, Richmond, VA needs a real Christian music station. They are already semi-served by a Washington, DC suburb rimshot at 90.5 (sister of WPER 89.9 Culpeper), but the signal is bad to worse anywhere except Richmond's northern suburbs. The remaining local Christian music stations are run by AFR and are not all music and not all that great. The music on the AFR ones (88.1 and 89.7) will never be heard by anyone younger than 50. There's a HUGE gap in this town.

Another market is Tampa Bay. There are rimshots out of Sarasota, New Port Richey and Orlando that do a great job, but again, no real signal to most of the population there. Nothing targeted at Tampa, St. Pete, or any Tampa Bay city at all.

Baltimore, MD is another. Washington, DC has one in town and rimshots all around in the suburbs, but Baltimore has nothing. There's a good one way up in Lancaster, PA (90.3 WJTL) that barely makes it to the northern areas outside of the city. Amazing how there's so much population and nothing at all except a preaching station in Baltimore itself.

I'm from Knoxville, TN. I'm spoiled by a great Christian "top 40" station here (Love 89.1 WYLV) and now it's "contemporary" sister, Life 88.3 WDLF. I've taken this for granted until traveling for work and/or pleasure have taken me to places like Richmond, Tampa and Baltimore.

 

[rbrucecarter5]

The music on the AFR ones (88.1 and 89.7) will never be heard by anyone younger than 50. There's a HUGE gap in this town.

Another market is Tampa Bay. There are rimshots out of Sarasota, New Port Richey and Orlando that do a great job, but again, no real signal to most of the population there. Nothing targeted at Tampa, St. Pete, or any Tampa Bay city at all.

Hey - don't insult us over 50 listeners (J/K)! We don't listen to AFR, Moody, and the rest of that stuff either! I don't know anybody who does, and some people in my Sunday school class are a lot older than me!

Tampa Bay is a really sad situation. They had one of the greats until 1996. Now I just tell people down there to put up a huge antenna for WAY-FM. Unfortunately there is a first adjacent that makes reception hard.

 

[xmusicmatt]

The music on the AFR ones (88.1 and 89.7) will never be heard by anyone younger than 50. There's a HUGE gap in this town.

Another market is Tampa Bay. There are rimshots out of Sarasota, New Port Richey and Orlando that do a great job, but again, no real signal to most of the population there. Nothing targeted at Tampa, St. Pete, or any Tampa Bay city at all.

Hey - don't insult us over 50 listeners (J/K)! We don't listen to AFR, Moody, and the rest of that stuff either! I don't know anybody who does, and some people in my Sunday school class are a lot older than me!

Tampa Bay is a really sad situation. They had one of the greats until 1996. Now I just tell people down there to put up a huge antenna for WAY-FM. Unfortunately there is a first adjacent that makes reception hard.

http://www.spiritfm905.com/


Tampa area has Spirit FM 90.5 which is a AC station by day but in the evenings does program to the youth with their Real Life Radio...

 

[Elkhosen]

LOL! Didn't mean to be an insult at all -- I'm not too far off from 50 myself No one my age or younger listens and even my "church-attending, born-again" in-laws (age 61+) and grandparents (age 79++) don't listen to Moody, AFR or BBN. They do listen to either their own CD's or the southern gospel or CCM music stations in their areas. Not sure I've met anyone at my church or my family's churches that listen to these other stations -- and I've asked! Now, for "CCM" stations... there are tons that listen. Again, just one middle-aged man's perspective.

 

[rbrucecarter5]

http://www.spiritfm905.com/


Tampa area has Spirit FM 90.5 which is a AC station by day but in the evenings does program to the youth with their Real Life Radio...

I forgot about that station - and I haven't checked to see how well WPOZ or any of its translators get in there. It sounds like Tampa Bay may be covered.

I do know that Miami lost a major CCM station a couple of years back - hopefully WAY-FM's new signal out of WPB gets down there. A few years back, the Sarasota 88.1 was severely interfering with the WPB WAY-FM around the Miami airport. Maybe the new signal has corrected that. I also think that the CALL-FM folks may have gotten on the air for the South part of the Miami area.

While on the subject of Florida ---- Jacksonville may be another underserved market. I know Pensacola used to have a pretty good CCM coming from Mobile on 88.5, but the last few times I went through there it had really wimped out.

 

[xmusicmatt]

I do know that Miami lost a major CCM station a couple of years back - hopefully WAY-FM's new signal out of WPB gets down there. A few years back, the Sarasota 88.1 was severely interfering with the WPB WAY-FM around the Miami airport. Maybe the new signal has corrected that. I also think that the CALL-FM folks may have gotten on the air for the South part of the Miami area.

Yes Call FM serves the southern part of Miami down to the Keys with their 50kw signal on 91.7 FM (they do have a CP to move to 91.9 and further north into the mainland and cover more of Miami). (they also have various translators too).

 

[xmusicmatt]

I know Pensacola used to have a pretty good CCM coming from Mobile on 88.5, but the last few times I went through there it had really wimped out.

WBHY is still on air serving Mobile/Pensacola.. Running mostly Salem's Todays Christian Music format last check but they do have local drive shows, and I am pretty sure last I check do reach out to the youth with some outreaches and programming.

 

[Elkhosen]

I, too, thought WHBY Mobile/Pensacola sounded pretty good last winter when there for work.

Some other locations that could use a good signal of "real" Christian music radio:
- Gulfport/Biloxi, MS (Pensacola or New Orleans signals are bad there)
- Memphis, TN (too large of a town to just have weak signaled K-Love piped in)
- Los Angeles, CA (barely served by a Class A "Fish" in Anaheim)
- New York, NY (a good rimshot from NJ does come in a bit in Manhattan, but not great)

There are many others, I'm sure, but these are places I've been recently (in addition to the previously mentioned Richmond, Miami, Tampa, Jacksonville) that seem lacking. The Miami signal from Call FM is very weak north and northwest of downtown. Way FM also doesn't make it into Miami, but does come in down to Ft. Lauderdale very nicely though.

 

[brian.marchand]

The K-Love in Memphis has a CP to greatly increase coverage.

http://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=WKVF&service=FM&status=C&hours=U

Jacksonville, FL has a ccm station with a strong signal in WCRJ 88.1.

 

[GR8 Local Radio]

Suffolk Va. Large growing area!!!
Needs real ccm not to hot and NOT like Z 88 out of Orlando way to many repeats!!

 

[joshzz]

Thanks for all your great replies!

Houston probably wouldn't play well for us as they have a very popular Christian station in KSBJ.

YOu can listen to the format we would bring at http://www.liftfm.com

josh

 

[rbrucecarter5]

Thanks for all your great replies!

Houston probably wouldn't play well for us as they have a very popular Christian station in KSBJ.

YOu can listen to the format we would bring at http://www.liftfm.com

josh

Sorry to hear that! Apparently I am not alone in my frustration - people have been hearing about the initiative start something new here and stepping up in droves! Fundraising for a new station would be very easy, at least three large churches would provide close to 50% of the backing required. I've even had offers of equipment --- the market niche is here, people are hungry for Christian radio "for the rest of us", which is kind of the tag line I've been using. I'm almost tempted to dive into the effort myself! But I may contact the good folks at WAY-FM with the information and see if they want to work on it. When God decides to move - He is amazing!