05.31.07 An Insider’s Look At Christian Radio Pt.8: Who Is Becky Really

"Becky” is the name the industry has given to the listener targeted by Adult Contemporary Christian radio stations.  Here’s what radio stations freely admit about Becky:

She’s a Christian 35-40 year-old mother

She does the buying in her family

She’s in the mini-van a lot

Becky is an easier target than, say, her daughter (Brittany) or her husband (Bob), for advertisers to hit with radio ads

Several years ago when I was on AC radio a great deal my audience was packed every night with Beckys.  And I got to know her.  We e-mailed back and forth.  We stood in book stores and in church lobbies and shot the breeze.  She introduced me to her kids.  I played free shows at her favorite mall.  We spent a lot of time together.  There’s more to Becky than those four bullet points suggest.  And radio stations know it.

I’ve seen industry research, spent time with radio program directors and consultants and they paint a more complete picture of Becky - they know what I know and they have the numbers to prove it.  Becky is not all Christian women 35-40 years old driving a mini-van, listening to commercials and doing most of the shopping in her house.  She can be described in even more detail.

One industry study commissioned by a network found that Becky (the woman actually listening to Christian radio) is more likely to be from the most conservative end of the Christian spectrum than the average church goer.  It used Barna’s method of dividing all self-professing Christians in America into several groups from most liberal (all ways lead to God, the bible isn’t God’s Word, Jesus may not have actually existed, etc) to most conservative.  The study said - and I’m having to post this from memory because now non one will let me see the study again - that lest than 15% of self-professing Christians in America are in t the most conservative category.  BUT - and this is when the light bulb came on for me - they are the MAJORITY of Christian radio listeners.  Just over 50%.

Now, this was three years ago.  Things may have changed.  And how scientific the study was I don’t know.  But I know my experiences with Becky confirm the assertion that, in general, Becky is far more conservative than the majority of Christians in churches every Sunday.  And, here’s the rub, far more conservative than me and the rest of the music folks in Nashville.  Not just in their faith, but in all things: parenting, politics, gender roles, etc.

Consider this. 

Becky probably doesn’t drink or like those who do. If a morning show host were to even allude to drinking on his show, what would happen?  I’ve been on a dozen artists’ tour buses though and ALL OF THEM had alcohol in the fridge.  Every industry party I’ve been to - after Dove parties, Christmas parties - have had open bars.

Becky reads Lucado.  I love Lamott.  She’s stretched by Rick Warren.  I’m stretched by Beuchner and Bonhoeffer.  I’m not superior, not smarter, not more spiritual, just different.  We’re not interested in or thinking in the same way about the same things.

Becky doesn’t cuss and would not consider a cussing person to be godly - someone she should listen to.  But she does without knowing it.  Let’s just say that artists on AC radio aren’t always safe for the whole family - just when they’re in public.

Becky’s more likely to have strong feelings about the flag, patriotism, our rights as Christians, the evilness of Halloween and “Happy Holidays” and to subscribe to James Dobson’s newsletter.  I’m, um, not.  At all.  I refused once on the air to say the pledge of allegiance.  I wasn’t a jerk about it.  I just said I’m thankful to live in America and for all that affords me but I just don’t pledge allegiance to the flag. I tried to laugh it off.  I offered to pray and thank God for America instead but it didn’t matter.  Becky was already ticked. Becky likes to hear patriotic songs and patriotic songs on the radio.  She confuses love of nation with love of Jesus.  Why else would songs like “There She Stands” and “Letters From War” be played?  What do they really have to do with the mission of the station?  Everything.  They attract Becky.  Then Becky buys stuff.

Even the denominations Becky tends toward are different from those of industry folks.  There are a lot of Baptist Beckys.  And Assemblies of God and non-denominational Becky’s.  She’s what some would call “Evangelical.” For the longest time the two churches where most artists living in Nashville went were Presbyterian.  That’s changed some in recent years but still, you get the idea when talking to artists about their faith and growing up in church that they don’t worship alongside Becky on Sunday morning.

For longest time I didn’t get this.  I didn’t understand that Becky isn’t all females 35-40, she’s all very conservative white evangelical patriotic too-busy-or-lzay-or-tired to think females.  So, I went around telling radio guys that I don’t know any 35-40 year old church going females who like Christian music.  I told this to Matt Austin, station manager of WAY-FM in Nashville.  He was my Sunday school teacher at the time and we were having a party.  Our entire class of 25-40 year-olds were there, grilling hot dogs, throwing frisbees, relaxing and listening to the radio.  The host had turned it to WAY-FM, she told me, because Matt was there.

I married a woman who fits the simplest description of Becky.  She’s thirty-seven.  She has three kids (6, 4, 2).  She’s white.  She drives a mini-van. She’s too busy driving and negotiating peace in the back seat to change the station when commercials come on. She handles our finances and does most of the shopping. She attends church regularly.

But she doesn’t like Christian radio.  Nor do any of our many many friends who also fit the this description of Becky. (And no, none of them are musicians or married to any.)

For good reason.

She’s not the Becky radio is after.  She loves God.  She loves people.  But she doesn’t see how Christian radio plays any part in making her better at either task.  She doesn’t like that it’s humor is sappy, its agenda is sometimes political and it’s music all sounds the same. If anything, it tempts her to consume more crap she doesn’t need, care about things that aren’t truly important to Jesus, and fill her head with what she thinks says the same things over and over again.

My Becky isn’t interested in Christian radio.  And radio doesn’t care.  Nor should they.  She’s not the real target.