Great post Shaun.  I wondered when we’d get the next installment.  I’m the Christian radio “Becky” in some ways, but a lot less ways than I used to be since getting to know you over the last 4 years.  I readily admit to listening to Christian radio when I’m in the car unless the ride is more than 15 minutes in which case cds or the mp3 player are the norm.

I grew up extremely patriotic and discussions we’ve had on this and similar topics have given me many a headache.  I haven’t made any dramatic changes in my thoughts as yet, but they are slowly coming.  You have to give me time ‘cause I’m old and these new-fangled things take me awhile.  You’re usually patient with me in explaining things though so thanks.

I consider myself more conservative than my parents who were very conservative.  My dad was a big supporter of the death penalty, took me to register to vote on my 18th birthday, etc.  I served in the Air Force and can claim combat vet status.  I’m married to a career airman as well and all 4 of our kids have “General Issue” stamped on their butts.  I’m proud of my military service and my husbands too.  I know your dad served and you’ve struggled with aspects of that, but are proud of him too.

All this to say that I’m not the Becky the radio market tests either and that’s OK.  If I was, things would be different on Christian radio.  “Bullet Proof” would’ve gone gold in the first week!

Beth

Shaun, I totally agree with Beth’s comments that I wondered when you were going to post this.  Thanks for posting it and this may be the most telling post of your series relative to where Christian radio is missing the mark.

I’m also married to a Becky, her name is Jennifer and she is turning 36 and has 3 kids (7, 3, 1) and drives a white mini-van.  She also handles our finances and attends church regularly.

She and I also don’t like Christian radio, mostly due to the repetition and lack of originality.  Your examples of Mark Schultz and Smitty are good ones of how as recently as 3-4 years ago, those songs hit the mark and made more sense than they do now yet radio hasn’t caught up. 

Maybe it’s time to re-release “Twilight”.  I have a 17 song promo CD called “Blur” from 2003 which included “Twilight” on it along with the only songs which became hits, “Here I Go Again” by Casting Crowns and “I’ll Join the Rocks” by FFH.  I think some of the other songs would resonate with people better now, “Amazing Grace” by Jars of Clay and “Real Life” by Silers Bald for example along with “Twilight”.  They are more reflective tracks as opposed to “worship songs”.

Anyway, relative to Christian radio, I think the number of “happy songs” based on trying to please “Becky’s” is still too high, and yet people fitting that demographic do in fact like songs with more substance.  I posted on the message board that I love the song “All I Want” by Future of Forestry and yet my local station has never played the song.  Too dark and reflective, I suppose.

Kevin

You guys might want to reread this post.  I made some very necessary changes.

It posted sooner than I wanted it to.  My mistake.  I thought I saved it to come back to and edit for the millionth time but instead I hit the post button.  oops.

I edited out stuff that could be taken the wrong way I think.  This is a provocative enough post without making it more hurtful with my bad communication.

SG

Beth, I think you are very much the target listener of Christian radio.  And there’s nothing wrong with that.  I’m curious though in what ways you think you are not their target listener.

I’m no “Becky”, and I never will be for many reasons besides the gender thing.  I’m pretty close in to the demographic, otherwise: fairly conservative, evangelical, mid-thirties, mini-van in the driveway, two kids in the back.  I’m patriotic, and will gladly say the pledge - but I will never confuse to whom I own first and eternal allegiance (I think, Shaun, that you are right that people blur these and miss the important distinction).

I listen to a great deal of Christian music (including Silers Bald, shaunfan), but rarely to Christian radio.  I also listen to many other artists/genres than CCM; one commonality being that I will avoid perverse, derogatory, demeaning, self-glorifying music.  I want music that is “safe for the family” and safe for me, though that often has nothing to do with happy-sappy.

Shaun, you are also very correct that radio does not care about every “Becky”.  Their formula has been working fairly well.  However, if they care about the future, they should start caring more.  There is a point of diminishing returns, where you miss a demographic shift and are left hanging as the audience moves on.  But, then, there will likely be something moving the audience, so it is probably a zero-sum game.

No one wants to be disillusioned about their heroes or idols.  To find out that your favorite CCM artist does not toe the line with your exact theology could be crushing to the audience, and not so good for the artist, either.  I can recognize that we are all human, all struggling to attain the unattainable goal of a sin-free life.  And we may disagree on just what and when some things are sinful (drinking and language are prime examples over which arguments arise).  I try to allow those artists whose professed goal is to exhort the body to encourage and teach me; I certainly hope that the artists can keep that a two-way street, taking encouragement and wisdom from their fans rather than standing on a pedestal while hiding their true beliefs.

I’m sorry, I started rambling there.  What were we talking about?  Oh, yes, an insiders look at who “Becky” is.  Good information.  Looking forward to future installments.

Shaun, thanks for the clarification.  My wife freely admits to being “Becky”.  She’s very patriotic and her father is very conservative and very political and dare I say it, she likes country music (which other than “Need You More”, I’ve never said yee haw).  All that being said, from 3-4 years ago until now her taste in music has changed.  She used to like “Letters from War”, it was an example of her favorite type of song.  Today, if she hears that artist she asks me to change the song because every song sounds like “Letters from War”.

Her change in taste gives me hope for more appreciation for diversity in Christian music and radio.  That was really my point relative to how she probably would have rated “Twilight” lower in 2003 than she would now.  In fact, after hearing your story in person of how you were inspired to write the song, she’s even a bigger fan now.

Anyway, I don’t actually listen to Christian radio but the more human an artist becomes, the more interested I am in their music and their message.  That’s why I’m shaunfan.  Thanks again for the post.

Kevin

I am Becky as far as their target goes, they just miss the mark terribly with me.  Right now, I’d rather be anyone besides me anyway, so Becky will have to do for now.

Beth

Sorry about length ahead of time…

Having worked for two Christian radio networks, and having done mornings for the most-listened-to Christian station in the country:

They, in fact, deliberately do NOT target the “crusader”, the stridently anti-Santa Claus, anti-the-word-"Halloween", anti-real world person.  It’s a matter of stated policy to NOT target this person.

So no, that’s not the Becky profile, actually. Quite the opposite.

Shaun, I don’t think you’re interpreting the numbers fairly.
Yes, evangelical radio will tend to appeal to evangelicals, rather than mainlines, the UCC, etc. 

In fact, as Barna confirms, the vast majority of people in America count themselves as “Christian”, and the people who tend to listen to evangelical Christian radio tend to be the minority of professed Christians who are...evangelicals. 

What’s the percentage of the “Christian” population that’s evangelical/churched/born-again/relatioship-God-types?  Around 10-15%? 

To me, far more scandalous is that churches, themselves, have taken on an attractional model and try overtly to attract people within a very short cultural distance of Becky.  Churches are instituted by God to be Jesus to the ethnos, the world.

All this said, here’s what happens that gets back to what you’re saying:  Even at the “big” stations and networks, non-profit Christian stations can’t pay as much as their mainstream counterparts for on-air talent. 

At ANY radio station, the DJ gets complaint calls that can make you shudder.  When you are relatively inexperienced, are insecure at all, these shake you.  People who work at Christian stations have to have a tremendous amount of resolve to appeal to who’s ACTUALLY listening, rather than complaint callers who are offended that you just said, “heck”, for instance. 

1-2% of listeners will ever call a radio station.  But they can be brutal, regardless of format, and in Christian radio, the criticism is spiritualized.  You get positively beaten down, judged, and you wind up just not wanting to have to deal with it anymore, or a false idea of who’s really listening. 

You wind up with a lot of very, very cool people (in real life) sounding very, very milquetoasty and lame on the air, which is very frustrating for thoughtful artists and reflective listeners who wonder, “Why is this so lame?  WHO ARE THEY TALKING TO?  I don’t know these people...”

Again, sorry about the length.  Thanks for another provocative and well-written post.

Some of the research I’ve seen on this topic, the stuff I base this post on, was conducted by the network you currently work for Brant.  It was done about three years ago and since then your network has made massive changes in the way it does business.  AT the time your network was programming more like a hot AC station than a CHR station.  Remember those days?  You actually lost CHR reporting status because of it.

WHEN YOU GUYS WERE BEING RUN LIKE AN AC STATION you did in fact attract the crusader.  That’s why the change happened.  So says a big dog at your network.

I should have been clearer in this post that I"m talking about AC (Adult Contemporary radio here).  Of course ROCK or CHR radio isn’t targeting this same kind of Becky.

My fault.

Brant and Shaun, thanks for further clarification relative to format.  I also appreciate Brant’s comments about DJ’s not showing their true personalities on-air.  What I’d like to know is who is the target demographic today?  If it’s not the conservative evangelical, is it in fact “the ethnos, the world”?

Brant, I think you are absolutely right about the real shame being who churches are targeting being too narrow, however as a music fanatic who came to Christ through music, I’d love to know that AC, CHR and ROCK radio formats are all able to lead people to Christ and challenge believers at the same time.

My brother is 28 and not a believer.  I love that artists like Snow Patrol, The Fray, Dashboard Confessional, etc. are able to help bridge my and my brother’s taste in music as Christian “emo” like Future of Forestry, Sanctus Real, Relient K, etc. have great similar music styles and reflective lyrics.  Since I’ve never heard your station Brant (it sounds like I’d enjoy it), who is your “Becky”?  Is my brother someone on your radar at all?

Shaun—I don’t know whom you could have heard that from.  Our strategy has changed in the last few years?  That’s actually false.  Please tell the refereced big dog they need to chat with the other big dogs, at least about terminology.  My guess is that he understands it, but there was a breakdown in explaining it to you.

We haven’t veered an iota from the stated strategy when I started, four years ago.  It was made plain from day one—in fact, before I was hired—the strategy was NOT to court crusaders, but talk to real people.  Otherwise, I wouldn’t have taken the job.  It was explained to me verbally, graphically through power-point, on paper, every way you could imagine. 

When I’ve stumbled into old habits, and red-meat territory to make the activist few cheer, I’ve been quickly corrected, which I’m thankful for. 

Changes are always going to happen to say, “How can we better implement our strategy?”—but never has the strategy changed since well before I got here. 

Shaunfan—I’m more interested in whether your brother is on the radar of his Christian neighbors, and his family, like you.  A radio or TV station is a great seed-planter, but it’s not incarnational relationship. 

Radio stations, books, TV stations—all wonderful.  But people have fractured tastes, so to exist, niche stations have to find a consensus within their charter.  For Christian radio, that usually means appealing to the broad middle.  The top mainstream music stations with the most listeners are almost always targeted to females, but also have male listeners. 

If people gave billions to Christian stations, we’d have stations that could play all sorts of niche-of-a-niche-of-a-niche tight formats.  It would be cool.  But there are other things to spend billions on, too, that would be cool.

Brant, absolutely!  I love my brother and respect our differences (he’s very liberal and I’m pretty conservative).  We both share a love of music and by no means do I have any expectation of Christian radio to help me with his walk.  I’ve listened to the secular station he listens to and what I mentioned before is that some of the artists getting airplay (Snow Patrol especially) are giving me better bridges in music over to the gospel.

Unlike me, he doesn’t have an iPod and doesn’t collect (buy) music so he’s an avid radio listener.  In that way (and because he doesn’t change the channel during ads) he might be a target demographic (28-40), and he’s about to become a father for the first time so he’s thinking about values a little bit more these days.  It sounds like your radio station would give him an alternative, but my local station would turn him off. 

That’s part of why I’m so passionate about this topic, combined with my own strong support of so many deserving artists (like Shaun) who don’t get radio airplay due to such blatant programming to appeal to the “broad middle”.  Your money point is right on however I have hope that strong messages, whether mainstream or Christian tend to rise above tried and true formats.  I think that’s what is encouraging about some current trends.

Thanks for your opinion and viewpoints, your listeners are very fortunate to have you to listen to.

Brant, I think I’ve figured out where the communication is breaking between the two of us.  Let me explain.

WAYFM didn’t go after the crusaders.  But a few years ago their own research showed they had attracted them in large numbers.  The numbers showed that a slight majority of WAYFM listeners were crusaders.  This was a surprise.  It had not been the intent.  But it was the outcome.

Yes, WAYFM, for the last decade I’ve listened, has talked a lot about being “real” and has done that, I think you’d agree, with varying degrees of success.  So, I was told, the research made the brass at WAYFM scratch their heads and figure out if they minded those numbers, if they wanted to change them, and why and how and… You get the idea.

The station sounded like a HOT AC station.  That is no longer true.  I think that change was IN PART because of that research.

I don’t think any says “Hey, let’s get far right wing crusaders to listen to us.” I think it happens sometimes because that culture is more likely to view Christian music as a necessity.  Sometimes it happens because of the personalities on the air.  And sometimes it just happens.  I think that’s where WAYFM - a CHR station that at the time sounded more AC than it does now - found itself.  They wondered how it happened to them.

I don’t know what they discovered as the answer to that question.  I don’t know.  What I do know is what I’ve reported here.

Does that clarify anything for anyone or have I muddied the waters even more?

A little grace please.  I haven’t eaten in 24 hours and so I’d like to claim mental weakness.

More clarification…

I don’t think radio stations went after the crusader as the target BUT I do think now that she’s listening some find it easier to keep hitting the target they’ve attracted instead of moving to a new target.  And a couple guys I know (PDs) are trying to shift targets slowly by playing music that tests better for P2s than P1s but isn’t disliked by P1s.  I’m sure it’s more complicated than that but that’s how they describe it to me.

So an AC station may have an audience that’s 52% crusader and not know how they got that way but prefer continuing to please the crusader rather than risking losing the crusader in going after another kind of listener and possibly even failing at doing so - therefore leaving them with neither as an audience.

I’m tired.

Must nap.

You’re right—that’s where I was misunderstanding.

You defined “Becky” also as the women who are “actually listening”—and she’s a crusader.

Well, “Becky”, is the target profile, and I’m here a-sayin’ Becky’s anything but a crusader.

So, given that delineation, I totally see where you’re coming from and appreciate it. 

I’ll add there are a THOUSAND little things a radio station can do to cater to the crusader, at the expense of everyone else.  A thousand subtle things that have nothing to do with the music whatsoever.  It drives.  me. bananas, and many others, too (like the people you talked with.)

It’s so hard, Shaun—and you can relate to this better than practically anyone—especially if there’s insecurity:  At any moment, you can be a hero with these people.  Just “take a stand” on school prayer, or over-spiritualize something in Christianese to make everyone else feel like you’re the most Christian Person Alive, and you’re an absolute hero.

It takes resolve and focus to say, “I’m not in this for that,” and try to stretch people, when it might leave them silent, wondering what the freak you just said.  It takes resolve, and a good sense of humor, so you can start laughing about it on your drive home.  I doubt Jesus laughed about it, but I can’t start taking myself too seriously. 

Leaving people going, “Wha--?”, and looking around while clapping half-heartedly is pretty dang funny.

Well, before my head explodes I just want to chime in.

I’m not Becky, and wow am I relieved! The person you have described sounds like a paper doll. I know you imply several times that you’re not trying to be superior, but honestly you sounded superior several times while you were implying that very thing.

Still, while I know I am not Becky, I wonder, if I had been a part of the studies, if I would have been stuck in the demographic anyway?

I’m 38. I am slightly patriotic (okay, so I love Letters From War. But I hate, loathe, and despise “The Christmas Shoes”. Not that they’re related by subject, but by smarm, you might say. The first is from the heart; the second is the kind of tripe that is written when a group sits at the table and says “hey, let’s write a sappy Christmas song that will make all the Beckies cry!").

I homeschool my children. I have 11 of them. I’m definitely conservative. But I cuss. I drink (when I’m not pregnant or nursing, which is...infrequent) and I have no problem with others drinking. I love Monty Python and Steve Martin. My music tastes run to Relient K and Switchfoot and David Crowder. And Mark Schultz, but you already knew that.

I listen to the edgy Christian station, and occasionally the smarmy one. Sometimes 80s music, as long as I’m confessing.

I have no idea why I started this ramble, but I just wanted to say that I’m so grateful for the vast diversity of each and every soul and I hate demographic studies that turn entire groups into Beckies. I am VERY uncomfortable with conversations that refer to any brothers and sisters in Christ as “these people” and “the same kind of Becky”, as though now that we have the term no one is allowed to veer from it. If they don’t fit exactly, they are a different kind of Becky, but still Becky. I’m really starting to abhor the name Becky now. Good thing I didn’t name any of my children that!

Oh yeah, I think Lucado is sappy and Rick Warren is milktoast.

Thanks for the honesty, Jenni.  I’m lying if I say I don’t feel superior to the crusader in some ways.  I do.  I’m not more useful to God, more valued by God, closer to perfection.  I’m not.  But I think some of my thinking is superior to some of hers.  I do.  I’m guilty.  I actually do think certain beliefs are more correct than others.  Pegged me.  I think believing music played somewhere else on the dial is less imbued with divinity than music played on K-LOVE is an inferior belief to hold, a dangerous belief even.  That’s just one example of how I believe I am, by virtue of certain beliefs about how God speaks to humanity, superior - if we want to sue that word.

But I’ve also, over seven years of singing for her, learned quite a bit from Becky.  I homeschool my kids now - something I looked down on Becky for years ago.  I get why she does it and I agree with her.  And there’s more.  Becky holds some thoughts that are in fact superior to some of my own.

There’s enough superiority for us all I suppose. ; )

As far as labeling people goes…

You sound a little like Derek Webb who once quipped that the Gospel doesn’t have a target demographic and therefore radio stations shouldn’t either.

Every product (music, books, aluminum siding, baby food) has a target audience.  EVERY PRODUCT.  It’s unavoidable.  The product stations are pedalling is not God.  People can get God without a radio station.  I’m not sure what they’re selling actually.  An experience with God?  An education about God?  A retreat with God? Or an advertising channel for Christian businessmen?  I How would you describe the product, Brant?

Back to Jess.  Jess, I think your blog has a target audience.  You may not have set out to have one but you do now.  When you sit down to write you, to some degree, wonder if your audience cares about what you’re writing, whether they’ll get it, whether they’ll be offended by it.  These questions indicate to me that you have a target of some kind.  You have a person or people in mind when you ask these questions.  Your mom.  Your church friends.  Your neighbor.  Somebody comes to mind.

That’s not so unlike what a D thinks about when hosting a morning show.  They’re asking themselves “Does Becky care about what I’m saying?” That’s targeting a market.  And I don’t see a problem with doing that.

Am I understanding your disgust accurately or can you help me to?

I’d say the “product” ("benefit", really) for most believers is the reminder of the Kingdom.  Since our culture does everything to try to distract us from it (I’d say some consumer-driven churches do, too) and to glorify ourselves, it’s a chance to integrate a reminder into our daily lives.

Radio’s good for that.  Real good. 

I’m not sure, Shaun, you know the Christian radio audience as well as you think you do.  (I’m literally meaning, “I’m not sure...")

I heard the guy on ESPN radio say today, “There’s that 10 percent of ‘fans’—fanatics, really—that will always email, call, show up for events, and they have lost their minds...”

And that’s mainstream radio.  Anyone who’s a big “fan” of a radio station is not typical.  I love them, but people are not typically going to call a radio station, or show up at a radio station event, or write an artist.  I’m not sure how you’re interacting with them, but most radio listeners do not interact, besides listening.

In mass-media, it’s a self-selecting group of fans that will generally interact.  At ESPN, this will mean complete sports freaks that like to show off their knowledge of sports insider culture.  In Christian radio, it’s going to be the same thing—different culture.

Shaun, I want to clarify that you get that “Becky” and “Crusader” are not interchangable terminologies.  They’re two separate things.

“Becky” is the taget demographic of many Christian radio stations--the 38 year old chick, bla bla bla. Some stations don’t even put their “Becky” demographic inside the Christian subculture.  It varies a bit from station to station. 

The “Crusader” is the small percentage of Christian radio listeners (who may be Beckys or may not.  Crusaders can even be--gasp--male!) that are hyper critical and very vocal when the station does anything that varies from their rigid belief structure.

I want to make sure that that separation is clear. “Crusaders” are found on the far right and on the far left politically and morally.

And the inside-the-subculture “Becky” you describe ...she’s not a bad gal.  She just feels safer in the Christian subculture because

--she’s lived on the wild side, has decided to commit or recommit to following Christ and feels more stable right now “erring” on the side of conservative.  She knows what she’s been saved from and is grateful for a place to be safe and heal. 

Or

--she’s never wandered too far from the shadow of the steeple to begin with, and the world outside of the Christian subculure feels dangerous to her and a threat to her kids. 

I have been that latter kind of inside-the-subculture “Becky.” Saved at age four.  Always the good girl.  World=scary.  But then I ventured out of the subculture, a lot braver but still a “good girl,” and turned around to sniff superiorly at the people who stayed behind inside the subculture. 

But who I am now is ashamed of the contempt and superior attitude I showed toward my brothers and sisters inside the Christian subculture, once I started living outside of it. I feel worse about that than I do about my years hiding shyly inside the subculture.  My freedom became bondage when the fruit it bore no longer resembled love.  And my focusing more on superiorly setting myself apart than on how I could embolden people inside the subculture to venture out and experience and minister in the greater world that God made was anything but love on my part.

Agreed, Nancy.

Except…

The crusader is a large, not a small, percentage of AC radio listeners at SOME stations.  I don’t know how many.  I know of three stations that have researched this and let me see their research.  At each of those three stations (one of them being WAY-FM, a CHR station) the crusader percentage of P1 listeners was over 50%.

It’s a large percentage, I’m guessing, at most AC stations.  But that’s all it is:  An informed guess.

Just for the record:  That’s no way that’s true—the 50% thing.  We’re clearly dealing with different definitions of “crusader.”

Completely false.  Half our listeners object stridently to mentioning Santa Claus?  Half our listeners won’t let their kids trick-or-treat?  Half our listeners object to us saying the word “darn”?  Half our listeners object to the mere mention of American Idol, or Carrie Underwood?  Half our listeners hate (total core bands) Switchfoot and Relient K for selling out?

No way.  We’re dealing with different definitions of crusader, so whoever explained that to you needs to try again, seriously.  They explained it clearly to me, and my experience has borne out the stats.

Aw, Shewt, I know there’s a target audience for everything. I know it’s so...I just prefer not to think about it in such clinical terms. ;o)

I don’t want my ears tickled. I want thick, juicy ribeye with plenty to sink my teeth into when it comes to sermons, poetry, or music. Goofy and irreverent is okay too, and sometimes necessary, just to keep us from taking Us too seriously.

The bottom line is that we human beings are Complicators. We complicate everything, and demographics only prove that to me, although I can see their merit for Those Who Run The World. But Jesus is simple. He’s simply looking for the best in each of us, and giving Him my best is what I’m after, no matter what demographic I’m shoeboxed into.

I guess as long as my eyes are fixed on Him I won’t notice my label.

Sorry Shaun, I can’t go with the the 50% Crusader thing either. 

My notes from GMA Week radio workshops over the years--including one led by a big fish from a Christian radio network (not WAYFM)--quantify Christian radio’s Crusader listeners as being 5, 7 or 10% of total listenership depending on the station, but no more than that.

And the way Brant is defining Crusader behavior and thinking is the way I understand it to be defined as well.

Nancy,
So, you’re saying that men actually listen to music?   No way!

Well yeah, when you fellas aren’t scratching and burping and yelling at the talk radio host, I hear some of you actually listen to music.  LOL

And I’m so glad!  Some of the most consistently encouraging people I’ve encountered over the years that I’ve been doing my little radio show have been guys who love Christian music.

There’s always the option to forget about either musical industries…