[BC] Goodbye Local Radio

[WFIFeng@aol.com]

In a message dated 02/25/2006 2:17:25 PM Eastern Standard Time, 
richwood at pobox.com writes:

> No. However, I've done quite a bit of consulting. There comes a time 
>  when it's just easier by virtue of a sale or signal deficiencies to 
>  take the easy road and go canned religion. It's usually cash up front 
>  and a High School kid to push buttons. I've recommended the canned 
>  religion approach to many stations that really had no options. They 
>  made money. It's like shooting fish in a barrel. You just have to 
>  make sure you keep your cassette machines operating. In many cases 
>  it's the primary delivery system.
>  

Not necessarily. At WFIF, we only have four locals who still use cassettes. 
Those 4 cassettes are digitally recorded and processed before broadcast. This 
ensures better quality control. We are working with them to get them into the 
digital era. One is almost there, and another is slowly moving along. The other 
2 will have to change, eventually. The rest burn CD's or use FTP or e-mail to 
send us MP3's of their programs. Everything else is delivered via digital 
satellite. 

Running a Christian format isn't necessarily "like shooting fish in a 
barrel", either. There are many stations who tried and failed! To be sucessful, one 
either needs a *lot* of local churches with enough money to stay on the air, 
even if they get no response at all, ("dollar-a-hollar" radio) or everything has 
to meet high standards of integrity and audio quality. You also need to see 
how many other stations are running a Christian format. If you're going to 
duplicate one of them, your chances of success are much lower. (It's a smaller 
slice of the total audience "pie.") Better to find a niche and fill that.

If all it's going to be is "dollar-a-hollar" and no care is given to the 
audio quality and content, then you don't even need a human being to operate the 
thing. Just maintain the minimum FCC staffing, and let the computer run it all. 
Listenership will be very low, naturally. Eventually, even those well-funded 
locals are going to get tired of throwing money down a rat hole... if nobody's 
listening, they will eventually drop off the air. (There's a station near us 
doing just this. They have a VERY high "churn" rate among their programmers! 
Their audio is lousy, and programming is all-over-the-map.)

Listeners to good Christian Radio are very loyal and supportive. "It takes 
one to know one" - The most important thing for a successful Christian station 
is the ability to relate to your listeners on their level. Provide them with 
high quality programming and/or music, and consistency in Doctrine. If Doctrine 
is all-over-the-map, so will be the listenership.

I've been fully involved in Christian Radio for nearly 19 years, now, so I 
know a few things about it. :) It's a very specialized format with very 
specialized needs.

Willie...