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It's September! Baseball's pennant races are heating up. The kids are finally back in school and your listeners are easing back into their post-summer routines. The Fall book is only days away and after that, CHRISTMAS!
This is one of my favorite times of year. We're on the cusp of one season giving way to the other. No, not summer to fall but baseball to Christmas. Those are the real seasons, the ones that truly matter. Baseball and Christmas.
Baseball itself is life, or at least the most accurate metaphor we have for life. Its 162 game regular season, the hopes of the spring, the grim realities of late September, the ability of an individual to shine even on a last place team, and the need for each individual to sacrifice for the greater good of the team all have application for life, especially the Christian life.
Yes, baseball reflects life as it is. And Christmas shows us life as it can be, as it was meant to be. The mystery of the Creator becoming the creation. The one being given for all. The one who was wronged making the ultimate sacrifice to once again be in fellowship with those who have wronged him.
Christmas embodies the hope and peace and love that we can find only through a relationship with Christ. And it is a tremendous time of joy and opportunity.
Those of us in Christian radio have a unique opportunity to take this time of year and share the joy of the good news of Jesus Christ. We can encourage our listeners to share that good news and share it ourselves, through our music and what we do between the songs, with those who are seeking and especially vulnerable at this time of year.
With that opportunity comes a grave responsibility to hold ourselves to the highest professional standards so that those who we might reach will not be turned away because we package this message of hope in a sub-standard way. We must, especially at this time of year, do the best radio we've ever done.
And it's with that in mind that during the month of September RELENTLESS RADIO will feature several articles dedicated to the Christmas season, in an effort to help you prepare yourself and your station for this marvelous time of year. And the reason we present this focus in September is in the hope that you'll find several items of use and have time to fit them into your unique situation.
Exciting Times
It's going to be an interesting and exciting fourth quarter for Christian radio. Salem Communications is well into its plan to enter and dominate the music end of Christian radio. They brought in a real radio guy with George Toulas coming over from AMFM, and finally acquired powerhouse KLTY. Both of these moves show that, for the time being, Salem is serious about this music radio thing. The Fish has signed on in LA, and another music outlet is expected to hit the air in Atlanta by October 1. And Salem says they're just beginning.
Whether they can keep these and as yet to be announced markets cash flowing enough to justify the big dollars they've already spent is the big question. Salem's track record is to pull the plug if the billing isn't there to sustain an endeavor. The folding of CRR into the CCM Update is only the most recent example of Salem's limited patience.
With Salem's launch in October of an Atlanta music station Christian radio will see real competition in a major market for the first time. Atlanta already has two music outlets, J93.3 WVFJ, and WWEV. Those two have been far enough apart formatically and geographically to minimize any competitiveness, but Salem's entry into the market should heat things up.
It's been rumored that Salem will eventually flip it's music outlet in Louisville to a locally originated format. Right now they carry Today's Christian Music (the former Morningstar), which hasn't been much of a factor against the market heritage station, WJIE.
Two other markets have been experiencing competition of note, and surprisingly neither involves Salem (as least not yet). In Birmingham Reality 101 and WDJC have been taking turns in the lead among Christian listeners. Currently WDJC has the advantage, thanks in large part to their dominance in the evening with their Southern Gospel block. Listeners have reported to RELENTLESS RADIO that Reality 101 has had a major impact for the better on the sound of WDJC. If Reality can solve their cash flow problems Birmingham is in for a hot fall and winter.
The competition in Nashville isn't as head on as it is in Birmingham. But CHR outlet the WAY-FM has felt the presence of AC The ONE since they signed on last year. The ONE is worth watching for a couple of reasons. It's Nashville's first taste of good Christian AC radio, and it's one of the first forays into the format by a major mainstream player, AMFM. With the recent Clear Channel AMFM merger, and The ONE's reported light billing, office pools are already springing up around the country on how long Clear Channel will let the format remain.
And it looks like St Louis will finally get another Christian AC outlet. WCBW was flipped when Jacor acquired it back in October of 1997. Since then a small group of former WCBW staffers and local businessmen have been leading the effort to return the format to the market. The latest word is that they'll sign on a new station on November 1.
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