Best Christian station

[R.D.P.]

To answer your question Mr. Lamont, this radio station will be a LPFM that will only cover Selma.

I want to fill in a format hole that currently exist here.

Tired of listening to same old stuffy, stodgy and staled presentations that are already being represented.

If you're hinting at me going the Mass Choir/Spiritual route, forget it.

Selma already has 4 radio stations that cater to those songs.

They are: WJAM 96.3 FM/AM 1340, WBFZ 105.3 FM and WHBB AM 1490.

To have a fifth presentation of those songs would be an overkill and I would have to take the hit.

Been doing my homework and it would be a wise move for me to go the CCM/Hardcore route.

My good friend from WRNF Selma, Brother Rob Moore, thought it would be the best route for me to take.

Because of his vast knowledge of this market and great advice he's still offering me, I will run with his idea and see if it will work out.

R.D.P. <><

P.S. I also thought that the intended purpose of a LPFM was to cater to a niche audience and do things that no one else was already doing. Maybe someone with more knowledge on that subject can come along and help out this 41 year old something. I want this station to be obedient to all the rules and cater to something that I know will succeed.

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

P.S. I also thought that the intended purpose of a LPFM was to cater to a niche audience and do things that no one else was already doing. Maybe someone with more knowledge on that subject can come along and help out this 41 year old something. I want this station to be obedient to all the rules and cater to something that I know will succeed.

I rate that as a very healthy summary of what LPFM is intended to be. It should serve an "underserved audience" and it must be crafted in such a way that it will have success in support, funding and maybe programming content provided by the community.

 

[R.D.P.]

Thanks for agreeing with me.

I knew I was right.

R.D.P. <><

 

[Lamont Lester]

If you're hinting at me going the Mass Choir/Spiritual route, forget it.

R.D.P. <><

P.S. I also thought that the intended purpose of a LPFM was to cater to a niche audience and do things that no one else was already doing.

Ouch.

And my apologies Mr. R.D.P. No, traditional black gospel is not the format I was thinking of.

Have you heard Hot 95.9 / Orlando? It's a 99 watt translator relaying the HD-2 of WPOZ with a CCM Top 40 / Rhythmic format that is impacting Orlando young people for Christ. With the racial make-up of Selma, doesn't an LPFM with that type of niche format seem like one worthy of consideration? 70 percent of the total population African-American. Almost 40 percent of the total population under the age of 24. There isn't a young person in Selma who wouldn't have that station cranked on their car radio. I can't imagine any church with a glimmer of interest in reaching youth that wouldn't support such an outreach.

By the way, it appears that the FCC database shows WBFZ as deleted. Is there any possibility of filing on the frequency?

 

[MikefromDelaware]

Goat Rodeo Cowbow said: Where is it written that fundamentalism and CCM are incompatible as room mates?

I must confess I haven't been in a fundamentalist church for some time (I prefer United Methodist and Lutheran), but my experience in fundamentalist churches was King James ONLY, and the organ / choir hymns is the only acceptable musical style in a worship service. I can remember fundamentalists preachers saying that CCM wasn't God's music, etc. Anything with a beat was evil. But that may have changed since then. So if I miss-spoke I apologize, wasn't trying to offend anyone's church.

 

[R.D.P.]

They're trying to get their license back.

As of this post, still trying to get my final plans in place.

I know for certain that CCM will be heard on here.

May do some Gospel Hip-Hop on here too.

Might even play some songs for the older crowd too.

R.D.P. <><

P.S. Not too familiar with that station but that sounds like a great idea. Love LeCrae, KB, Trip Lee, Tobymac, Flame, 'da truth, Cross Movement, Tedeshi, The 116 Clique, Michael Peace, Original Gospel Ganstaz and so on. I want to make sure that the money comes in too, so that I can make a real go of it.

 

[R.D.P.]

My tentative schedule may end up being like this:

6 A.M. till 6 P.M. Monday-Friday (The Best CCM From Yesterday and Today)
6 P.M. till 6 A.M. Daily (Alternative/Metal/Dance/R&B/Rap/Reggae)
6 A.M. till 6 P.M. Saturday-Sunday (Southern Gospel/Bluegrass/Hymns) or (The Best CCM from Yesterday and Today)

R.D.P. <><

P.S. I believe if I went that route, this LPFM station would do very well and work out for me.  Thanks to all who continue to give me ideas for this, as I continue to work on getting it established.  Many Churches here in Selma tend to do more for the adults anyway.  The youth do get some attention but it's not too much.  Hope to change that with this LPFM. 

B.T.W. Now some will wonder why list two different types of programming for Saturday and Sunday between 6 A.M. and 6 P.M. Good reason for that. As I build out this station, I may get some of my support money from the SG crowd. If I get any, I want to make sure they have a spot on here too. If I don't get any money from them, then I will leave the SG tunes behind.

 

[xmusicmatt]

My tentative schedule may end up being like this:

6 A.M. till 6 P.M. Monday-Friday (The Best CCM From Yesterday and Today)
6 P.M. till 6 A.M. Daily (Alternative/Metal/Dance/R&B/Rap/Reggae)
6 A.M. till 6 P.M. Saturday-Sunday (Southern Gospel/Bluegrass/Hymns) or (The Best CCM from Yesterday and Today)

Wont work -- You'll cause everyone who listens to any given group of music mentioned above to not listen at all.. You need to find a format and stick with it -- listeners who like Rap will be confused when they tune in on Saturday and hear Bill Gather.

 

[rbrucecarter5]

Goat Rodeo Cowbow said: Where is it written that fundamentalism and CCM are incompatible as room mates?

I must confess I haven't been in a fundamentalist church for some time (I prefer United Methodist and Lutheran), but my experience in fundamentalist churches was King James ONLY, and the organ / choir hymns is the only acceptable musical style in a worship service. I can remember fundamentalists preachers saying that CCM wasn't God's music, etc. Anything with a beat was evil. But that may have changed since then. So if I miss-spoke I apologize, wasn't trying to offend anyone's church.

I would say I am fundamentalist - although I am not afflicted with the brain deadness also call creation so-called science. That AV1611.org site is still on. 90% of the stuff I agree with, but they are about as anti-CCM as it gets. They also slam my preacher. Along with loving the classical hymns in church, I also rock out to NGEN on the radio. So I'd probably run afoul of the fundies on creationism and music. Yet doctrinally on every other issue I'm totally with them.

 

[rbrucecarter5]

Have you heard Hot 95.9 / Orlando? It's a 99 watt translator relaying the HD-2 of WPOZ with a CCM Top 40 / Rhythmic format that is impacting Orlando young people for Christ. With the racial make-up of Selma, doesn't an LPFM with that type of niche format seem like one worthy of consideration? 70 percent of the total population African-American. Almost 40 percent of the total population under the age of 24. There isn't a young person in Selma who wouldn't have that station cranked on their car radio. I can't imagine any church with a glimmer of interest in reaching youth that wouldn't support such an outreach.

I agree - Hot 95.9 is amazing. I'm not a big fan of hip-hop, but I listen to Hot 95.9 sometimes for a change. They have an iPhone app along with streaming, so you can check them out at http://www.radioy.com/. I actually have an insight into African American demographics on music. When I go to Lakewood, I ride the bus in - it is safer than walking across Richmond. Houston used to have a full time southern gospel station, and the bus played it. Lakewood is at least 1/2 African American membership. The older AA loved the gospel, kids and younger - they had iPods because they absolutely couldn't stand it! So if you want to trend younger, you won't do it with black gospel. It doesn't reach black youth and young adult any more than CCM reaches white youth and young adult. I'd classify black gospel as a dying format, like oldies.

 

[rbrucecarter5]

My tentative schedule may end up being like this:

6 A.M. till 6 P.M. Monday-Friday (The Best CCM From Yesterday and Today)
6 P.M. till 6 A.M. Daily (Alternative/Metal/Dance/R&B/Rap/Reggae)
6 A.M. till 6 P.M. Saturday-Sunday (Southern Gospel/Bluegrass/Hymns) or (The Best CCM from Yesterday and Today)

R.D.P. <><

P.S. I believe if I went that route, this LPFM station would do very well and work out for me. Thanks to all who continue to give me ideas for this, as I continue to work on getting it established. Many Churches here in Selma tend to do more for the adults anyway. The youth do get some attention but it's not too much. Hope to change that with this LPFM.

B.T.W. Now some will wonder why list two different types of programming for Saturday and Sunday between 6 A.M. and 6 P.M. Good reason for that. As I build out this station, I may get some of my support money from the SG crowd. If I get any, I want to make sure they have a spot on here too. If I don't get any money from them, then I will leave the SG tunes behind.

I'm not as pessimistic about this plan as the other poster. I will say that the dual format stations of the 60's and 70's - like KNIT Abilene (beautiful music day / album rock night) had a complete, absolute change of audience. The moment their format went off, the audiences swapped. Abilene is a lot larger than Selma, so there better be enough people in the separate audiences to make a go of it. The only listener you can count on to listen to the complete range of music you are going to play is probably one person - you! As far as I know, there are very few mixed format stations out there other than public radio. And even there, when talk comes on, classical fans depart and vice versa. Fragmentation like that is an absolute guarantee. When we were on WAPN, the phone lines were jammed. Almost the second we walked in, the calls began. Almost to the second when we walked out, the calls stopped. People were only tuning in for Christian rock, they wanted no part of the other music.

You are competing with iPods. When people turn on an iPod, music comes out - their music - dependably. Radio is a music appliance to people. Flick the switch, they expect music to come out. Their favorite music. So - fragmenting with too many formats may not be a good thing, unless you promote heavily in churches about what is going on. I know a lot of top-40 stations in the 60's and 70's slowly switched to more and more album rock at night. But the key is - it was all rock. Nothing that would shock and awe the listeners. No opera screeching out of the speaker when the Beatles were there 20 minutes before. Praise and worship and Southern gospel is as irritating and an anathema to younger Christian listeners as opera is to secular kids. I'd be very careful not to stray too far from your core audience for fear of alienating them.

Oldies CCM is something KSBJ used to do in better days. They targeted it on Saturday night, when they knew kids would be out on dates and socializing, and probably not listening to the radio. It was an amazing show. The problem you will have is finding the music. A lot is out of print and not on iTunes. I had a lot of luck at garage sales and flea markets, but that was in the early 90's. My biggest break was a flea market vendor who wanted to get rid of 400 Christian albums that took up shelf space and wouldn't sell. Unfortunately, 95% of it was traditional and Southern gospel, which I gave away. But that left 5% vintage CCM oldies. I could make .wav files of it if that would help. Still, the play list would be small, albums usually only have one or two radio cuts on them. You would have to go do some scrounging like I did.

WAPN went harder and harder rock as the night went on - there were other shows after us - Christian industrial metal, etc. All gone now, but they do have one Christian rock show on the air still - Mix 180.

 

[R.D.P.]

Will leave the SG behind period. 

Will more than likely do a Christian Hit Radio format

(Something Like WAY FM but a bit harder than them)

I believe that idea will have the best success for me.

R.D.P. <><

P.S. Still trying to get everything in place, as I post this.  Hope to have the building of this new LPFM going within the next year or two.

 

[anotherguyTN]

Goat Rodeo Cowbow said: Where is it written that fundamentalism and CCM are incompatible as room mates?

I must confess I haven't been in a fundamentalist church for some time (I prefer United Methodist and Lutheran), but my experience in fundamentalist churches was King James ONLY, and the organ / choir hymns is the only acceptable musical style in a worship service. I can remember fundamentalists preachers saying that CCM wasn't God's music, etc. Anything with a beat was evil. But that may have changed since then. So if I miss-spoke I apologize, wasn't trying to offend anyone's church.

I wanted to get this in earlier but my browser locked up. This is still the case in a lot of independent Baptist and Pentecostal churches. Some have started to accept softer CCM but still not Christian rock, and definitely not in church.

I talked about this in an earlier thread but the term Fundamentalist as it was originally meant was to teach the fundamentals of the faith, or what some now would call the basics or essentials, that Jesus is God's son, that he came to Earth as a man to die for our sins, and that if we believe in him we can have eternal life. But too many times now it means churches that push being anti-CCM, KJV Onlyism, strict dress codes, claiming to be the only true Christians, or combinations of all of these, and it gets abused by people who use it to push an "Us Vs. Them" attitude. I've gotten to where I don't like the term because of that. I'd rather just be known as a Christian.

 

[rbrucecarter5]

I talked about this in an earlier thread but the term Fundamentalist as it was originally meant was to teach the fundamentals of the faith, or what some now would call the basics or essentials, that Jesus is God's son, that he came to Earth as a man to die for our sins, and that if we believe in him we can have eternal life. But too many times now it means churches that push being anti-CCM, KJV Onlyism, strict dress codes, claiming to be the only true Christians, or combinations of all of these, and it gets abused by people who use it to push an "Us Vs. Them" attitude. I've gotten to where I don't like the term because of that. I'd rather just be known as a Christian.

I distill it down to:

(1) Jesus as God (or co-exist with God and the Holy Spirit) from the beginning of time.
(2) Jesus as the only path to salvation and fellowship with God.
(3) The inerrancy of the Bible on doctrinal issues.

Anything else is non-salvation issues. This was the doctrinal basis of all music we played - anything that did not fit that was not allowed on the air. Christian rock or Christian hymns - it makes a really good test of what passes for Christian, and what does not. Some traditional hymns, by the way, don't pass the test. Every fan of every Christian genre of music should be comfortable with song lyrics that don't violate those principles. Some hymns and Christian rock do not touch on any of those issues. That is when I look at the intent of the artist and their lifestyle. Nothing wrong with a love song on Christian radio, as long as it isn't a lust song.

Which leads to another issue - secular songs and artists who meet those three principles? I got in a lot of trouble at WAPN for playing "Hold on Loosely" by .38 Special. Personally, I think it is the best expression of I Corinthians 13 ever put into a song. Properly chastized, I never played it again. But I still don't have a problem with it. Secular artists can occasionally stumble onto scriptural truth and as long as they aren't massive partiers, satan worshipers, cult members or something I don't have a problem. What do you do with somebody like Cat Stevens, who did the most brilliant rendition of "Morning Has Broken" ever performed, but who now has abandoned the truth of God for the lie of Islam? Judy Collins who did "Amazing Grace"? Children of Day - one of whose members turned Lesbian? Do you play their music or not? After protests, I didn't play these songs, but I personally wouldn't have a problem with them, because they were performed by artists who - at that point in their lives - were Christian believers or valued Christian principles.

 

[R.D.P.]

My plans are to go Christian Hit Radio with the main part of the LPFM station. Will set up a HD broadcast, should God allow it and after I get the main station established. That broadcast will cater to the Southern Gospel, Bluegrass and Hymns type of music. And yes I know that I'll have to build a repeater station for it, since so many of us are still without a HD radio.

R.D.P. <><

P.S. My main station will be known as "The Light" and the HD station will be known as "Hallelujah Radio or Hymn Time Radio".

 

[Pebble]

I have to give props to Effect Radio and Radio U for playing Christian music that rocks, not wussy K-LOVE material. I used to like Air1, but now they seem to have softened a bit. Christianity's not for sissies, and Christian rock shouldn't be, either.

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

Christianity's not for sissies, and Christian rock shouldn't be, either.

Where in your theology is that documented?

 

[R.D.P.]

I've gotten everything finalized concerning my LPFM dream.

I will be know as:

Handle: We're Proclaiming His Glory to all of Selma, this is

Branding: 93.3 FM His Glory Radio

Calls: WPHG LPFM Radio Station

COL: Selma Alabama

Format: The best variety of Contemporary Christian music from yesterday and today.

WPHG calls are not being used by anyone else. 

Did a check yesterday and discovered it.

Still waiting for the door to open and for God to see me through.

Hope that 2013 will be my year to finally get things going.

R.D.P. <><

P.S. Thanks to everyone that has assisted me so far.  I appreciate it. 

 

[onetake]

Funny we're crediting or blaming various stations for sounding a certain way and maybe a better question is...does CCM music make as much impact now as it did 5 years ago? 10 years ago?
Any conversation about sales being down gets the argument that all music sales are down. The labels seem to be in a comfort zone and creative vaccum. They aren't signing groups like they used to. EMI being swallowed by Universial has that Christian division a bit forgotten...etc.
But too many stations it seems lean heavily on newer content...and the newer content seems more shallow in many ways.
The real definition of which Christian station is better should strongly consider what these guys do BETWEEN the music...quality of jock station. Creative production elements. Interesting relevant listener hit points and genuine seeming contests. Which Christian stations make Christmas ..and Thanksgiving ... reflect a Savior not a sale at the mall.
With that, Klove wins.
I'm not convinced more than a handful of the PD's truly know why their audience listens to them, more than a secular station.

To take emotion out of this, look at ratings. Get past KLTY and WFSH which basically have peaked anyway, you're not seeing real station growth expect maybe a station that switched and is less than a year old. But we need better product and we need better stations to give us solid format growth. For now, NOBODY really is best. Good maybe but with plenty of room for imrovement.

 

[rbrucecarter5]

Funny we're crediting or blaming various stations for sounding a certain way and maybe a better question is...does CCM music make as much impact now as it did 5 years ago? 10 years ago?

I'd trace the decline to more like 15 years ago, maybe more. Up until that point, CCM stations were making a real impact. There was an active, committed audience, concert tours, charts were being consolidated nationwide. We had a real shot at a parallel format to top-40, with Christ centered songs, artists committed to their walk, etc. There was opposition, to be sure, from Jimmy Swaggart, other conservative groups, but they were marginalized for the most part as being extremists, with the mainstream of Christian believers satisfied in the spiritual direction of the format.

I think the damage came from the labels. WAPN got these compilation CD's from labels like Dove - songs I guess they wanted us to push. And - for the most part they were good, solid contenders in the format. Not Christian rock for the most part, but they were playable. We supplemented with our own money, buying CD's at a Christian record store in Orlando. The labels stuff were filler, the format was Christian rock but we had to give the listeners room to breathe - you can't just rock harder and harder all evening.

One day - the label's CD's changed. The songs were ALL what I would classify as "praise and worship" That was all the labels were sending to stations - therefore what they wanted us to play. The Hosanna Integrity praise movement was devastating to CCM, because it was unpalatable to the very audience that made up the CCM format as it existed 20 to 25 years ago. We kept playing CD's we bought, and abandoned the praise and worship stuff. 99% of the CCM stations around the country blindly got into the Hosanna Integrity stuff. It infiltrated churches - devastating traditional hymns with this lukewarm, singer friendly, light theological garbage music. It is terrible. I don't like it as a Christian rock programmer, other posters on here have seen their hymns disappear, southern gospel fans have seen it replace their music, and I suspect it devastated Christian country as well. It was obviously meant to be a "one size fits all" music everybody can agree with. It is not - it is TERRIBLE. Any chance CCM had of capturing a young audience was lost - a whole generation of Christians who grew up with no alternative to secular music. Unless they were so mellowed out on prozac they actually like praise and worship. I find it to be Christian elevator music. So does just about everybody else.

Now - with Z-88, NGEN radio and Radio U, along with other stations making headway on the internet and HD-2, Christian music has a chance to return to the mainstream. It will be slow going - people are so used to Christian radio being completely irrelevent in their daily lives. But the music is good enough it is starting to be noticed. After a generation long slumber, Christian music and Christian radio just may be ready for a revival. I certainly pray it is. Pioneers in Christian rock radio like me were long since hounded out, but there are younger people taking our place. I guess we were right - but at the wrong time. God is moving, and I hope the aging opponents get out of the way, because we need to make up for lost time. I know of several opponents to Christian rock that have passed away, so maybe as they go, we will not have to contend with resistance any more and finally get on to the work God called us to - so many many years ago.