What Your CCM Station Can Learn From Nirvana, Tupac, & Michael Bolton

There's an aging elephant in the room. Let's call her "Becky."

Actually, let's not.

For some, "Becky" is a loaded word and concept. It (she?) helped CCM radio reach new levels of success, but may keep us from growing any further.

Our audience and world is changing rapidly. Even the most successful Christian AC's see this in their numbers: 25-54 success has turned into 35-54, or even 45-64 dominance. Obviously, there will come a tipping point where that trend just isn't viable. Plenty are asking: "Where are tomorrow's core listeners and how do we roll the red carpet out for them today?"

Let's go back to the days of the first Home Alone movie for a possible answer. Kevin was setting traps and mainstream Top 40 radio was falling into them. Just like Christian AC's 25-54 coalition is aging and fracturing today, Top 40's was aging and splitting then. Michael Bolton was topping the Pop charts. And not even the cool, Office Space Michael Bolton.

Meanwhile, on the streets, in clubs and concert halls, and at record stores, Alternative Rock and Hip-Hop were capturing the passion of Top 40's former core audience.

You know the rest of the story.

Radio outlets followed those movements and gave us artists that defined a generation. Nirvana and Tupac, for starters.

CCM's path forward could be similar. You're surrounded by a movement and potential audience Christian AC is not currently positioned to reach.

This movement revolves around a new generation of Pop and Christian Hip-Hop acts who have amassed gigantic followings over the past decade. Lecrae has put eight songs onto the secular Billboard Top 200 chart, including two Top 10 hits and a #1. In other words, for most of this decade, Lecrae has made more chart and sales noise than Kanye. (And we know how noisy Kanye is!) NF has been certified Gold or Platinum in six different countries. Newcomer Joshua Micah is approaching 10-million Spotify and YouTube streams. These are stats a lot of core Christian AC artists would drool over, if they weren't so humble and selfless.

Just four years ago, one indie label (Reach Records) was truly tapping into this movement. Truth be told, they're owed credit for helping start it. Today: Capitol Christian, Curb-Word, Provident, Centricity, Fair Trade, and other major CCM labels are signing artists exclusively for this movement.

In some ways, it's the early 90s all over again. The above metrics are today's version of having your ear to the ground; the 2018 equivalent of watching the streets and store trends. We're at the cusp of a big shift. We have an opportunity to keep making Christian AC better, and expand CCM radio's reach towards the audiences Christian AC can't hit.

If you're on board, here's what's next: launch a legit FM outlet. I cannot emphasize the word "legit" enough. Like, "Yo dawg, that's LEGIT!" (As the kids don't say these days.) Hip-Hop and Alternative Rock had already been part of the FM dial-on the fringes-for more than a decade before those formats exploded nearly 30 years ago. The game-changer was owners who decided to invest into quality products. Professional programmers, air talents, research, marketing, etc. These weren't throwaway formats or loss leaders. They didn't hand the signals to interns or part timers and say, "You're in the demo, go nuts." They recruited and groomed the industry's finest talent. They treated their new stations the same way most of us hope our owners treat our Christian AC outlets. (Love your new format as you love yourself? Can I possibly twist Scripture to fit my case? Here. Hold my root beer while I try).

But seriously. You get what you pay for. Can't pay though? That's when you team up with somebody who's doing the hard work already. BOOST 101.9 fits that criteria. If you have a signal to spare, talk to me about putting BOOST on it. mikec@boost1019.com

More and more of us are realizing the Gospel is bigger than one target demographic. Let's fill the dial and Internet streams with options for ALL of His people. #Galatians3:28