Susan, Hold on to your hat! I AGREE WITH YOU TOTALLY.
Susan, you wrote… “Our problem is a lack of good stations and too many mom and pops that don’t put out a quality program.” I couldn’t agree more, too many folks in local or regional radio have no idea what they are going, with few exceptions.
We keep being to told that the main reason why we aren’t getting air play is that we are too traditional Southern Gospel
A record promoter told us that… “Jim, Do you mind if I just say “WoW!” You all do some really good traditional Southern Gospel singing. “I’m serious, I doubt there are many groups traveling that could hold a light to what you all do. There are few that can sing the real “old traditional” style, and you all do it so well.”
No matter how much acknowledgment we get, we know that we are not going to get air play. It is not what we are all about, but it would be nice for our music ministry to get a wider fan base. For anyone interested we have some new sound clips on our web site http://www.evidencemusicministry.com give us a listen sometime, I think you will find a variety in music styles too. I hope you enjoy
I really think we could appeal to a younger crowd than we currently have, but I agree that the majority of the 12 to 25 crowd isn’t going to listen. Groups like Austins Bridge are doing a good job reaching a new audience. However, we can’t mix groups like Austins Bridge and the Martins with the Primitives or McKameys. We’ve got to specialize our stations and target an audience of listeners. We can’t have a one-size-fits-all station because we are just too broad. It is being done and just ain’t working.
I disagree. It is being done, it just isn’t being done on a large enough scale to make an impact. And it isn’t being done well. A good radio station that knows how to program, has good DJs can do it. Our problem is a lack of good stations and too many mom and pops that don’t put out a quality program.
I don’t understand. What do you mean by a “quality program?”
I really think we could appeal to a younger crowd than we currently have, but I agree that the majority of the 12 to 25 crowd isn’t going to listen. Groups like Austins Bridge are doing a good job reaching a new audience. However, we can’t mix groups like Austins Bridge and the Martins with the Primitives or McKameys. We’ve got to specialize our stations and target an audience of listeners. We can’t have a one-size-fits-all station because we are just too broad. It is being done and just ain’t working.
I totally disagree. The He’s Alive Radio Network does it everyday and we are growing (Our signal now overs over 4 million people) I mix groups like the Inspirations up against Everyday Driven. The blend is great. Hey folks - the electric guitar doesn’t frighten people anymore! Just think....people that went to Woodstock are now listening to SGM!
People can be trained to open their minds to new things. A slow moving of the boundries over the past few years has enabled us to reach a place where Lillie Knauls, Doyle Lawson, Jason Crabb, Quinton Mills, Austins Bridge, the Hoppers, McKameys, Jeff and Sheri Easter, Kingsmen, Dove Brothers,Michael English etc,can exist side by side and people love it. Balance, proportion....its in the mix.
I’ll take a song by the Primitives over some foul twangy, poorly produced , emotionless,mainstream sounding quartet anyday. Quality is what counts. If its quality, they will listen. I even mix in - gasp!, George Strait, Randy Travis and Vince Gill - and people love it!
No specialization is a poor idea. The genre is to narrow now to draw a mass audience. “All Quartets All The Time” would bomb over the airwaves.
I really think we could appeal to a younger crowd than we currently have, but I agree that the majority of the 12 to 25 crowd isn’t going to listen. Groups like Austins Bridge are doing a good job reaching a new audience. However, we can’t mix groups like Austins Bridge and the Martins with the Primitives or McKameys. We’ve got to specialize our stations and target an audience of listeners. We can’t have a one-size-fits-all station because we are just too broad. It is being done and just ain’t working.
I disagree. It is being done, it just isn’t being done on a large enough scale to make an impact. And it isn’t being done well. A good radio station that knows how to program, has good DJs can do it. Our problem is a lack of good stations and too many mom and pops that don’t put out a quality program.
I don’t understand. What do you mean by a “quality program?”
They don’t program good music. They play anything and everything instead of filtering out the bad music.
I really think we could appeal to a younger crowd than we currently have, but I agree that the majority of the 12 to 25 crowd isn’t going to listen. Groups like Austins Bridge are doing a good job reaching a new audience. However, we can’t mix groups like Austins Bridge and the Martins with the Primitives or McKameys. We’ve got to specialize our stations and target an audience of listeners. We can’t have a one-size-fits-all station because we are just too broad. It is being done and just ain’t working.
I totally disagree. The He’s Alive Radio Network does it everyday and we are growing (Our signal now overs over 4 million people) I mix groups like the Inspirations up against Everyday Driven. The blend is great. Hey folks - the electric guitar doesn’t frighten people anymore! Just think....people that went to Woodstock are now listening to SGM!
People can be trained to open their minds to new things. A slow moving of the boundries over the past few years has enabled us to reach a place where Lillie Knauls, Doyle Lawson, Jason Crabb, Quinton Mills, Austins Bridge, the Hoppers, McKameys, Jeff and Sheri Easter, Kingsmen, Dove Brothers,Michael English etc,can exist side by side and people love it. Balance, proportion....its in the mix.
I’ll take a song by the Primitives over some foul twangy, poorly produced , emotionless,mainstream sounding quartet anyday. Quality is what counts. If its quality, they will listen. I even mix in - gasp!, George Strait, Randy Travis and Vince Gill - and people love it!
No specialization is a poor idea. The genre is to narrow now to draw a mass audience. “All Quartets All The Time” would bomb over the airwaves.
I really think we could appeal to a younger crowd than we currently have, but I agree that the majority of the 12 to 25 crowd isn’t going to listen. Groups like Austins Bridge are doing a good job reaching a new audience. However, we can’t mix groups like Austins Bridge and the Martins with the Primitives or McKameys. We’ve got to specialize our stations and target an audience of listeners. We can’t have a one-size-fits-all station because we are just too broad. It is being done and just ain’t working.
I disagree. It is being done, it just isn’t being done on a large enough scale to make an impact. And it isn’t being done well. A good radio station that knows how to program, has good DJs can do it. Our problem is a lack of good stations and too many mom and pops that don’t put out a quality program.
I don’t understand. What do you mean by a “quality program?”
They don’t program good music. They play anything and everything instead of filtering out the bad music.
Makes perfect sense. But, a station can play only the best southern gospel—and I mean good songs, good vocals, good music, no bad notes, no twang,—and people who don’t like southern gospel still aren’t going to listen to it.
I was afraid you meant that good quality programming had to cross lots of bridges and play all genres to try to “reach” everybody and I don’t think that works either because purists look it as watering down.
I still think Deon had the right idea—appeal to the younger crowd that likes country music and show them the similarities to southern gospel. There must be lots of country music lovers. Country stations seem to outnumber all other kinds many times over.
Marketing to the Country crowd is a good idea. However to assume that it is a “younger” country crowd is misleading. Many older people can be broughtin from Country, esp. those that are not at ease with the modern country sound.
A second rock that I like to turn over to find listeners is the disenfranchised Inspo listener. Inspo music has alienated those that loved the vocal driven music of Sandi Patty, Twila Paris, Michael English, etc. These folks have lost their home on the air. I try to include songs similar to these. Beautiful, vocal driven soloists and groups with a mellow enough sound to fit in.
Music by Michael English, Point of Grace, Hopes Call all fit the bill. They sound great next to the core music. They don’t chase people off, and they broaden the net to catch more listeners.
It is very difficult to draw listeners from Christian AC/Inspo radio to the SG format. The two are light years apart. Even the groups that we in SG consider AC aren’t that close. The diction and harmony just don’t match up.
The SG music that I program has allowed us to cultivate a younger 35 - 45 yr old crowd without alienating the senior crowd. This is accomplished by playing music that is of the highest quality - zero tolerance for twang or poor sound quality regardless of who it is. We are not afraid of the electric guitar and realize that it takes more than just great vocals to draw a crowd. The music is important and lackluster cookie cutter tracks don’t make it.
We also pay attention to the tempo of the music that is played. We are up tempo 3/4 of the time. Radio can’t afford to put people to sleep at the wheel. The younger audience appreciates this.
When I go to concerts I see a great age mix. We are attracting younger people and the older crowd is still there as well.
Sometimes its not what we play - its what we don’t play.
Tim,
You are so right. I have been saying for years that we waste our time worrying about trying to influence the CCM crowd. We are trying to mix water and oil with the two. It’s never going to happen.
We do have a huge Country audience that has tons of young people in it, who would love good SGM if they heard it. Same chord structures, same vowels, the harmony, just a lot of things alike, but we still sit around and argue why we can’t draw the young people from the CCM crowd.
You are also very right about the music you play. People like upbeat material for the most part when they are listening to radio. The also like quality. There is a ton of quality to be played, yet I still hear questionable music played even on some of our big named stations.
IF COUNTRY RADIO COULD DO IT YEARS AGO, SO CAN SG, IF OUR INDUSTRY LEADERS WOULD GET THEIR HEADS OUT OF THE SAND AND THEIR HANDS OUT OF EVERYBODY’S POCKETS WHO CAN’T SING.
I don’t think we can forget that commercial radio is still an advertiser-supported medium. No matter how great the quality of programming and the number of younger, country-crossover fans listen, if the advertisers are not supported, the station will fail. Of course you could go the “listener-supported” model, but nothing turns me off a station (TV or Radio) than their nearly monthly ‘pledge drives’.
Southern California once had a popular country radio station KZLA. From what I heard, they had decent ratings, and it was one of my ‘presets’ in the car. All of a sudden they changed to “moving 93.9” - a hip-hop and modern pop station. They could attract more money from advertisers because the new station targeted a mostly younger, female audience that was more loyal and more desirable to marketers. Just go to http://www.kzla.com, see the website message, and see where you are directed.
In larger markets the airwaves are a precious commodity. No matter how great the southern gospel mix is and how appealing it is to a crossover audience, it will never make it in major markets given the demographics of the core audience.
