There are a few stations around in southern states that run Teaching/Preaching formats that center on local churches buying time versus the national ministries. The most plentiful churches are the congregations of 100 or fewer and not the A list denominations. By that I mean Free Will Baptist or Primitive Baptist versus Southern Baptist or Cumberland Presbyterian versus First Presbyterian in your town. There are many, shall we say, 'B list' denominations and they want to evangelize just like the A list do. Enter stations like WMCH in Church Hill, Tennessee. You can listen online.
Such stations have mostly a steady diet of small church pastors doing their 15 or 30 minute programs with whatever sound equipment they have. Some come to the station like a small market where I worked that had a piano in the production studio where a small group of people would take positions, sing, play piano and let their preacher belt out his fire and brimstone message. A few were always those ministries or churches where the pastor's message was recorded on a portable cassette deck with built in microphone that allowed you to hear a background of the cassette's motor drive and an automatic level control that was having a tough time negotiating the vast differences in volume. Then there were those that recorded their sermon, usually the practice run, from a microphone at the pulpit which would be fine except there was nobody at the board to prevent the needle spikes or when the pastor would pace as they went through the message. Frequently these programs added a song, usually sung by a church member or two without the instruments being miked. The sound was always much less than desired not to mention some singers were so bad they could only carry a tune with a bucket and that bucket had better have a lid.
There's still a few on the AM dial doing the homegrown preaching/teaching format and actually making it financially. Certainly they are after the older population, mostly. The person with few years left or has seen a spouse die or many family members pass. Some might lack the mobility they once had or they just don't get out as much as they did. Such a format is a comfort to them. It does serve a purpose.
I suspect, however, thanks to Covid-19, lots of pastors had to learn how to do virtual church services, so it is likely the portable cassette deck might be in it's last days as a device to record that radio program. In the meantime, a listen to WMCH is a modern day version of the above. It's the message, not the audio quality, I suppose.
Such stations have mostly a steady diet of small church pastors doing their 15 or 30 minute programs with whatever sound equipment they have. Some come to the station like a small market where I worked that had a piano in the production studio where a small group of people would take positions, sing, play piano and let their preacher belt out his fire and brimstone message. A few were always those ministries or churches where the pastor's message was recorded on a portable cassette deck with built in microphone that allowed you to hear a background of the cassette's motor drive and an automatic level control that was having a tough time negotiating the vast differences in volume. Then there were those that recorded their sermon, usually the practice run, from a microphone at the pulpit which would be fine except there was nobody at the board to prevent the needle spikes or when the pastor would pace as they went through the message. Frequently these programs added a song, usually sung by a church member or two without the instruments being miked. The sound was always much less than desired not to mention some singers were so bad they could only carry a tune with a bucket and that bucket had better have a lid.
There's still a few on the AM dial doing the homegrown preaching/teaching format and actually making it financially. Certainly they are after the older population, mostly. The person with few years left or has seen a spouse die or many family members pass. Some might lack the mobility they once had or they just don't get out as much as they did. Such a format is a comfort to them. It does serve a purpose.
I suspect, however, thanks to Covid-19, lots of pastors had to learn how to do virtual church services, so it is likely the portable cassette deck might be in it's last days as a device to record that radio program. In the meantime, a listen to WMCH is a modern day version of the above. It's the message, not the audio quality, I suppose.