Does Christian Radio have an On-Air Talent Problem?

The latest Jacobs TechSurvey is out, and there are some interesting findings that folks in our industry may not be interpreting the way they should.

When people who listen to radio were asked why they listen to radio, this chart was the result:

The top responses were expected: "Easiest to listen to in a car" and "it's free."

But the #3 response caught many eyes: "60% tune in specifically for the DJs, hosts, and shows." That's higher than "habit," "connection," and notably "hear my favorite songs/artists."

What?! Personalities are more important than songs? Tell that to the secular groups shedding talent like a dog sheds his winter coat.

But here's the rub: Among CCM listeners that percentage for DJ's, hosts, and shows was only 29% - that's 31 percentage points lower! For our station fans, personalities, hosts and shows are not nearly the driving force that they are for secular radio fans.

So how to explain this, and is it a problem that needs fixing?

First, keep in mind that this study is recruited from your station database and those of every other participating radio station. That is, it's comprised of fans to each station who are fans because of what each station already does.

This means stations built around entertaining morning shows and flashy DJ's will naturally demonstrate that entertaining morning shows and flashy DJ's are more important to their listeners than to ours.

However, fans of CCM stations where music and spiritual values matter most will naturally place less importance on personalities because for our stations, the music, the vibe, and those spiritual values and their benefits are the main reasons to listen and keep listening. Personalities are one way of expressing those values, of course, but values, encouragement, and uplift are also in every song, every chorus.

See, fans of ESPN will value football more while fans of Lifetime will value romance more. The identity of the brand will mirror the appetites of the fan base that embraces that brand.

Now the Jacobs study doesn't ask about spiritual uplift, encouragement, reinforcement of faith, offering an alternative to a chaotic and scary world with values that are eternal, providing content that helps us raise better children, God, Jesus, etc. And of course it doesn't. Those things don't matter to secular radio formats - they only matter to us and to our fans.

So don't jump to the conclusion that our talent is sub-par, because the definition of "better" most secular station fans use includes humor, entertainment, celebrity, gossip, comedy, etc. All things that are not only tough to pull off but much tougher for a brand built to encourage your walk with Christ.

And after all, its our values and our faith-based mission which makes us better and more attractive than any batch of personality-intensive secular stations, right? Isn't that why the format is growing?

Should we demand more from our talent? Of course we should. But Ryan Seacrest, Bobby Bones, and Elvis Duran are not the models we should be chasing.

I think it's unlikely personalities will ever be more important than the music and the "rest of the brand" on our stations. They can, however, be appreciated more deeply for comfort and connection, relevance and authenticity, integrity and faith, honesty and humor.

In an age when AI wants to do impersonations of real people and mimic everything that's human but genuine humanity, our opportunity with talent is greater than ever before.

They are and should be the best of us, flaws and all.

Mark Ramsey Media does audience research for Christian Media - Perceptual research, digital studies, donor studies, underwriter impact studies, music studies, etc. Learn more here. Call Mark at 858-414-4191 or email markramsey@mac.com.

And if you want a strategy to solicit major donors to pay for your research, look here and download this Listener Impact Study solicitation for donors from WAKW-FM.

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