More Crayons

I talk a lot about “crayons” – meaning, that just like in elementary school, learning how to use each crayon results in a different picture. In radio, “more crayons” is about finding more variations on a theme.

The two most typical endings for Content on a Contemporary Christian Music station are [1] to say something funny, or [2] to weigh in with a somber “summary” or “conclusion” to something. These are fine — essential, actually — but if they’re the only two crayons you color with, that’ll get pretty predictable.

And this is maybe the CCM format’s biggest challenge – avoiding that predictability factor. There are lots of different emotions, lots of different “camera angles” on any given subject, lots of different ways to be thought of as entertaining or engaging.