For those who don’t know, K-love is a Contemporary Christian music (CCM) service of the non-commercial Educational Media Foundation (EMF). It is targeted primarily at mothers. EMF has another Christian Rock format called Air1, designed to attract angst filled teenagers.
There is not much motivation for EMF to subscribe to Nielsen ratings – they survive by getting listeners to send in money – but it does give an insight to the big swath of radio broadcasters that hide in the shadows because Arbitron stopped publishing numbers of non-subscribers and greedy commercial radio stations don’t want to know The Truth. Radio can’t handle The Truth.
Brian is the czar of Contemporary Christian radio and listens to many different stations. Perhaps I can coax him into providing some insights.
K-Love is a very professional organization that puts on entertaining hosts who play uplifting Contemporary Christian music. I am biased – I really enjoy this music so it fills my ears (from my headphones) all day at work.
Fred is right – no need for ratings. These folks do funding drives and listeners support by donating cash. Between K-Love and Air 1, they have the U.S. covered.
Do they have any competition?
There is a plethora of Christian music. Folks could look to the FISH networks which are as good as K-Love/Air 1. If I feel edgy, I can go to Call FM. Here you get a mix of edgier Christian Rock. You can even find Christian R&B and Hip/Hop if you are of a mind.
Is Christian R&B another name for “black gospel” or is it yet another different variety of music?
I suspect that behind the scenes, copyright ownership is a part of why CCM exists. Just because it is religious music and the station is non-commercial doesn’t mean the musicians have to work for free.
Do these stations promote the idea of people buying the songs for download?
In my experience Christian R&B/Hip Hop is what you expect – if you don’t listen to the words, you would think you on a normal R&B/Hip Hop station. Gospel is as I expect – Gospel singers doing mostly classic Gospel.
Most of the Artists that I listen to are probably Multi-millionaires. Toby Mac, Natalie Grant, etc. all have big followings. The music is professionally produced and sounds just like Contemporary Rock to my ear. It’s the lyrics that make the difference. I would feel quite comfortable buying tickets for one of the Artist’s concerts.
Promotion – depends on the stream. Some have links of cover art to ITunes or Amazon so you could buy a download. The less capable streams will list the song playing and the Artist – an enterprising soul can figure it out 🙂
Maybe Cumulus should convert NASH to Contemporary Christian music. The stock is down to $.49 !