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Re: Sunday, March 28, 2004
Do not kid yourselves regarding the goals of religion-format radio stations. They are not peddling influence, or even change. They are peddling themselves, pure and simple. They sell brokered airtime. They call for donations. They have fund-raisers for various ministries. Almost all of the time these fund-raisers include a commission (aka, the heavenly kickback), or a percentage of the earnings. In some cases these commissions are based on a Lehman Scale, as various stations, chains, networks, or ad-hoc blocs can generate some huge monies. Some of the networks may be part of station ownership groups, or work as a network created by virtue (strange choice of word, eh?) of having bought up oodles of brokered slots on pay-for-pray religious outlets. Further, even if the operators of these stations were, indeed, in favor of accomplishing social or political influence, they would be hard-pressed to have any impact of note. First of all, they are preaching to the choir. Or, to be specific, to the pockets of the choir. Their listeners already get the, er, message. Second, religious stations, with the exception of some gospel stations playing a mostly music format (found in the Carolinas, Georgia, Mississippi, Tennessee, Alabama and thereabouts in the South, in markets with significantly high Black populations) are barelay listened-to. Their audiences are very small. The problem, the very reason for such low incidence of audience base, is, in fact, the programming itself (and, in some cases, dial position, or signal strength). There are far more listeners for crafted programming products designed for mass audiences. If anything, the most interesting statistic about religious stations is the very number of competitive stations comprising their high shared-listenership returns. Religious stations, while usually appealing to an older listening audience (particularly among stations of primary appeal to White listeners) show that they will share audience with all sorts of formatted stations. In this manner they defy stereotype. Rock Stations, Classic Rock, Top 40, Adult Contemporary, Oldies, Talk Radio, Sports Radio, News Radio, you-name-it -- listeners to religious-format radio come (and return to) all stations of all sorts of other formats. But most important of all, and this may seem like pouring water on the discussion, or pulling the proverbial (har har) plug, is this: the audience estimates for religious stations are so low as to not even worry about in terms of significance, influence or impact on the public at large. Those who tune in, or who are the regluar listenership, are already buying the hype. Religious radio is not making any converts, to political or spiritual thinkers. Their audiences have already bought into the messsage. There are responses to this message:
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