What To Do When That Big Radio Network Moves Into Your Market

Don't freak out.

That's step one.

But I have a few other ideas, too. Contemporary Christian music radio in America is weird. One of the many ways it's weird is our perceived competitive landscape. Our format has small, medium and large stations. We have some small and large networks. And then we have one huge network that dwarfs every other Christian broadcasting organization in the nation. Maybe it's a major signal increase, or maybe they're moving in for the first time - either way, when they plant their flag in your neighborhood, you sit up and take notice. The question smacks you in the face, and hangs around in your office like a ticked-off donor. It rides shotgun with you on your commute. It wakes you up at 3 a.m. The question dances mockingly on your shoulder, whispering into your ear: "What are you going to do now?"

STEP ONE: Don't freak out. Yeah, I know I said that already. But be warned - there may come a time when freaking out seems like a perfectly logical response. Blow up your format, come up with some new alchemy of AC and CHR that nobody really likes. Fire your morning show, hire the local mainstream guys (yeah, if only you could afford them). Become so intensely localized that you forget to actually be interesting and entertaining. Complain to your board, and spread nasty rumors among your major donors about the big network people. I've seen each of these 'tactics' implemented, and none of them work. Except for firing your morning show. If it's time, then hey, it's time. But that's a totally different issue for a totally different article.

STEP TWO: Keep being you. Your station, I mean. I don't mean you personally. Actually, yes I do. You personally need to keep being you. The same dedicated, humble, servant-model leader that you've always been - that's who you should keep being. But I also mean your station. If you care enough to read this article, you probably care enough to have created an internal culture and an external brand identity in your market. You are YOU. You have a particular sound, and a particular thread of passion in your promotions and outreaches. Your station imaging has a particular voice and sense of humor. You have a heritage, a history of ministry in your market. You have relationships with your listeners and with community leaders. Take some time to pray over these aspects of your identity. Ask God to show you who your station is in His eyes. By the way, this is another thing that makes Christian radio weird. We ask God about our stuff. And He answers. So weird. So cool.

This is important, because the first key to thriving in any highly competitive environment is having a solid sense of identity. Virtually all of your strengths, and many of your opportunities, will flow from your identity. Which brings me to...

STEP THREE: SWOT Analysis time. Yay! Who doesn't love a good SWOT, really? Brew that big ol' pot of coffee, throw some donuts in the conference room (I never eat donuts, but if there's ever a good time to start the habit, this is it) and get your SWOT on. It's time to review your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Remember that the first two are internal - strengths and weaknesses are within your realm of control. The last two - opportunities and threat - are external. You can manage your response to them, but you cannot directly control them. Now go and SWOT safely.

STEP FOUR: Shore up your relationships. Your ministry does not exist for the people who operate it, right? Of course not - your ministry exists to serve the people in your community. So, go meet with them. As a member of management, you should be updating your Rolodex and reaching out to schedule lunches with key ministry partners. The purpose of these lunches and conversations is NOT to warn them about this terrible network that's coming in, and you really still love us, right? You wouldn't betray us and work with them, right? Please? Because I wrote up this 5 year agreement that I wanted to show you, and... NO. Stop it. Take a deep breath. Remember the whole 'being YOU' thing we discussed? That's where you're going to start. The purpose of these conversations is simply to express gratitude to these people for their role in making you, YOU. Help them to see how vital their role is in your ministry. Help them to understand that it isn't even YOUR ministry as much as it is theirs. At the end of the day, they shouldn't have to 'pick sides' anyway, because this isn't as clear-cut as that. I'll talk about competition in a moment, but first, you should...

STEP FIVE: Take a look at your programming and fundraising mission. Wait, Dan, didn't you just make this huge deal about how I should keep on being me? Now all of a sudden we're looking at our programming? Darn tootin'. Keep being you - but don't be the lesser version of yourself. Be the best YOU possible. Man, I'm starting to feel like I'm writing an article for Oprah magazine or something. But I digress.

Grab that SWOT analysis and go over any programming-related items. If you've never spent the money on a full auditorium or online music test of your library, this is a good time to find that money. If you're not quite sure what to do with the results of that test, find a reputable consultant to help. A word of advice: you may find that you have less room for risk, when it comes to your overall music strategy. And yes, the act of NOT adding new music includes risk, just like adding new music includes risk. Listen to the big network. Analyze their programming fingerprint. Find the overlap with yours, and also find the places where you are truly unique. Build on those unique points.

That big network will eventually raise funds in your market. So, this is a great time to review your fundraising mission statement and strategy. Many stations have great mission statements and vision statements. They hang on the wall in the lobby, and they help guide and direct all of the decision making in your day-to-day operations. But we often neglect to have a fundraising mission statement, or even a fully developed strategy for how the ministry raises funds. Time to fix that.

Aircheck your talent at least once a week. Make this a priority. Do NOT only schedule an aircheck when you hear something you don't like. That makes airchecks equivalent to being called to the principal's office. Use the aircheck as an opportunity to praise and encourage your talents, as well as to eliminate weakness. Also, don't use the actual words 'eliminate weakness' in your airchecks. Sounds a little too, uh, final. Anyway, your on-air hosts are some of your most visible storytellers for your ministry, which is vital, because the most important thing you'll need to do externally is...

STEP SIX: Become a better storyteller. Of your own story, I mean. I believe that at the top levels of operating a ministry, two concerns should be paramount: allowing God to use the ministry as He wishes, and then telling the world the story of how He is using the ministry. Your listeners will not pick this up through osmosis. You need to be constantly celebrating how God is reaching people through your radio station. Your website. Your outreaches. All of it.

When you plan an outreach, make sure a key part of it is the post-campaign promotion. Too often we finish the big campaign and move on to the next one without taking enough time and energy to really tell the story of what happened. Produce promos about the campaign that are evergreen, so you can occasionally bring them back into your on-air mix. Encourage your production director to become the Keeper of the Archive of all the audio related to each outreach. Organize this audio in such a way that you can easily re-use it when it's time to tell that story again in a new way. In radio, we're excellent at moving quickly and thinking in-the-moment, but that can hurt us when we fail to think long-term as we tell the story of our ministry impact.

STEP SEVEN: Don't become myopic. Don't let yourself slip into the fallacy of thinking that your top threat is competition from a big Christian radio network. This is another area where Christian radio gets weird again. We don't just have competition, we also have an enemy. We need to understand the difference.

Your competition includes every media option your listeners have. Video, streaming audio, everything. My point here is that if you're so concerned about the big radio network that you forget about the complete competitive landscape in which you operate, you're headed for disaster.

Your enemy, however, is the same one that every human being battles. The same one that fell from heaven like a bolt of lightning. I won't capitalize his name here, but you know who I mean. And this enemy will sink your ministry faster than all of your competition combined. When you call out evil by name on a 100,000 watt transmitter, he notices the poke, and he pokes back. The void is not alive, but it is awake. And if not for the power of our God, he would be worthy of terrible fear.

See, when people get stressed by a new competitive situation, they sometimes find they're willing to do things they wouldn't have done before. Sometimes these are professional decisions, steering the ship into waters previously off-limits. Sometimes these are personal decisions, finding temporary refuge from our worry and fear in something that promises instant gratification. And it won't just be you, the leader, feeling that pressure. Everyone in your organization will feel it. The day you became a Christian, a target appeared on your back. When you entered into full time ministry, that target became a flashing neon light. When you become stressed and fearful, that target becomes a beacon, calling all nearby evil to prowl around your feet. Be aware of it. Understand that your perceived competition is child's play compared to the real potential pitfalls. Being outgunned by another Christian radio ministry should not be your worst fear. The enemy doesn't want to shut your ministry down - he wants to compromise it, make it impotent, make it toxic from the inside. A malignant operation, full of secrets, doing terrible work in Jesus' name is a far bigger victory for the enemy than dead air.

Freaky stuff, huh?

It should be. Because that's the evil that you exist to fight. That's the darkness that surrounds each and every one of us, and your radio station is a light. Stop wringing your hands about other radio entities moving into your neighborhood. Sure, don't be naïve or blind toward them either. But remember who YOU are, and remember what God has accomplished through you. Build on your uniqueness. Analyze your operations and shore up the weak spots. Circle the wagons and strengthen relationships with the key people God has sent you. Take it upon yourself to become the best storyteller in the world, when it comes to telling YOUR story. Remember that your enemy is a far greater threat than your competition.

My prayer for you and your ministry is that God would provide exactly what's needed for you to do exactly what He wants you to do. Anything more is personal ambition. Anything less is laziness. Let that big network focus on doing what God wants them to do. Your job isn't to worry about them. It's to listen for His voice and say, "Okay." And then do it.

But don't freak out. It's still true that we're all on the same side. And we still win in the end.