Maine nicknamed plaintiveness:wolves.unalienable seizures …

thanks for the blog.
may I add you to my “blog roll”?

Second, my point about Matthew 7:1 was not meant to be applied to anyone’s motive for leaving one radio station and going to another. I know you’ve walked carefully on that one, and I commend you. What I’m talking about is judging others’ motives concerning how they “do” radio…their methodologies, etc. You’ve made judgments about people being too personality driven, and have suggested or at least intimated publicly that certain individuals were too self-centered, making it about them, rather than Christ, by the way they did their jobs. You may not care for what actually goes out over the air, but I don’t think it’s fair to assume you know their motives. And that’s kind of how it came out.

And that’s too bad. Jesus said, “If they’re not against me, they’re for me.” You may not like their methods, but to suggest or intimate that they are not interested in having “Christ in Christian radio” is itself unchristian in my mind. Again, it doesn’t strike me as having the Spirit of Christ. I wish you would just let the issue drop. They did a good job when they were at “our” radio station, and they’re doing a good job at the station they’re at now. Let’s just leave it at that and move on, OK?

And I agree with your last paragraph, just to show that I’m not disagreeable about everything!

I don’t believe I was ‘bashing’ anyone. I mentioned their names only because I blogged about it months ago and want to give some reference. In terms of ‘issue’ — I stuck with the issue. “Do Christian radio stations put too much emphasis on personalities?”

In terms of Matthew 7:1 — I don’t believe I condemned anyone here. I didn’t suggest the two left for any other reason than they ‘were called’ to go - which is what they told me in an email. I believe I wrote that in a previous blog. I just remember there were many who thought their departure would hurt WCSG. While it hurt internally, I didn’t think WCSG would see fewer people listening because of it. The only tool I have to prove that point is Arbitron. If I had another source, I would use that. I said in a previous blog that I would look at the next book to see if my theory was correct. That’s what I did.

I’ve NEVER said numbers don’t mean anything. What I DID say is numbers shouldn’t DRIVE what we do in Christian radio. The message of the Gospel is offensive. That will push people away. There are a few things in Christian radio that are measurable — Arbitron, Sharathon, website visits and how the station is motivating people to be involved in outreach. The last one isn’t always visible…but you can see it if you start looking.

I totally understand what you’re saying! I wish I could have gone, but I won’t be able to for another few years until it comes back to California.

I appreciate you comments. Yes, I’ve listened a half hour here and a half hour there. Those are my listening habits on those types of radio stations. I listen the same way to most Christian radio stations. I’m a big talk-radio fan. While entertaining, for me it’s compelling. That’s just my preference. It doesn’t make it right or wrong — it’s just my preference.

Perhaps Clear Channel ‘got this one right’ and that’s great. I’m glad we have one more radio station in the market that’s ‘family friendly.’ That’s what many, many radio stations are striving for. In terms of speaking from the heart with conviction — great! I’m glad they’re doing that, too. I’m happy for them — I really am.

My point of this blog has never been to criticize individuals, it’s been to highlight issues in ‘Christian’ radio and provide a platform for Christian radio professionals to discuss Christian radio issues — especially non-commercial Christian Radio. Christians radio has gone through some serious changes in the last 20 years. We’ve gone from just a few formats to many formats. We’ve gone from a philosophy of just talking about Christ to reach non-believers that happen to be listening, to talking about Christ little to attract non-believers to listen to their stations.

I’m not saying one way is right or wrong — but, what I am saying is you can’t take Christ out of Christian radio. If you do that, you’re losing Christian radio.