Put the power of adult contemporary Christian music programming to work for you!

There's no doubt that most forms of radio programming can be used to powerfully impact lives -for good or for bad. There's also little doubt that the formats having the most positive impact come from the Christian programming niche.

Christian radio is just that - a niche. And because it's a niche format, in order to flourish with it, it becomes very important to reach as big a portion of that niche as possible. In other words, if you're going to have a small pie to begin with, you want to have as much of that small pie as possible. Getting just a small piece of a small pie won't give you enough to survive.

So when it comes to sustaining your outreach and impacting as many lives as possible, some Christian programming forms make more sense than others.

Whether you're financially dependent upon commercial advertising sales or upon listener donations, you'll need to reach the broadest spectrum of people possible. You'll need to reach a wide range of people who are actually able to spend money with your commercial advertisers or who have the wherewithal to support your station financially.

Which Christian formats give you this wide range; that is, the biggest piece of the pie?

The following chart answers that by comparing how large of an audience the average station in each of four different Christian formats builds. The chart's rankings show each format's relative performance in 15 different demographic categories.
 

Reaching Key Demographics:  Format Rankings

As seen, among Christian formats, the adult contemporary Christian music format delivers the broadest range of individuals capable of supporting your station or its sponsors directly. Interestingly, it's also number one among teens which is not surprising when you realize all teens aren't "rockers". Half of all Christian teens are girls and if you have one in your home, you know they're more prone to listen to Point of Grace, Michael W. Smith or Jaci Velasquez than Skillet and Silage.

Additionally, the adult contemporary Christian format continues to reach more people right up through the mid 40s. Teens to mid 40s is quite a broad spectrum; the broadest spectrum delivered by any Christian radio format.

Here's a summary of age groups each format performs best in:

Specific age groups in which each Christian music format outperforms the other Christian music formats:

Our advice? When it comes to formatting the radio station you've got so much tied into, don't play around. Though it may not offer as much sizzle as some other formats, the adult contemporary format is consistent, solid and sound, delivering the most people time and again; and more importantly, the most people able to financially support your advertisers or station.
 

Notes:

1. The above material is a summary of a presentation made to the 1995 NRB convention.
2. Ratings information summaries account for all Christian commercial stations in markets of 70,000 or more people.
3. Core artists for each format are as follows:
• Adult contemporary core artists: Michael W. Smith, Point of Grace, 4 Him, Jaci Velasquez
• Southern Gospel core artists: Gold Cty, the Kingsmen, The Cathedrals
• Inspirational core artists: Steve Green, Sandi Patty, Babbie Mason
• CHR core artists: Newsboys, Supertones, Jars of Clay, Smalltown Poets