Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, September 4, 1994 TAG: 9410190006
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CODY LOWE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
The sound is a lot like any other pop music.
It's mostly 2/4 or 4/4 time. Generous use of synthesizers. Drums or drum machines set a steady but not overpowering beat. Singers - mostly tenors and sopranos - push the top of their range.
There are exceptions. Some country sounds, a folksy voice and solo acoustic guitar, a bluesy touch, occasionally what could only be described as metal.
It's when you begin to understand the lyrics that you realize something is different.
"It's nice music. It has a nice beat. But what are those words saying?" Barry Armstrong wants his listeners on Spirit-FM (WRXT) 90.3 to ask.
"Living in the light of your love." "You keep showing me traces of heaven." "Standing on the rock of love."
They're not about romance, but a relationship to God.
This is the burgeoning world of contemporary Christian music.
In regional Christian book and music stores it is usually the largest single category of music. And now it is the predominant Christian radio format in many parts of the country, including Southwest Virginia.
"The music is a window on the body of Christ," Armstrong says. "It is about including God in your day-to-day life."
What makes it popular, besides just being good music, is that "it's honest," he says. "It doesn't pontificate. It admits to struggles and fears" as well as to confidence in Christian faith, Armstrong said.
His station is the latest entry in the contemporary Christian explosion in the Roanoke-Lynchburg radio market.
Already on the air is WPIR - and sister station WPIN in the New River Valley - and WWWR-AM.
The latter, popularly known as 3WR, was the first to go on the air with the format back in July 1991.
Originally, the station had planned to devote about 60 percent of its air time to conventional Christian radio programming - that is, preaching and teaching blocks provided and paid for by local preachers or national ministries.
Though it does sell some time like that, "response from listeners was so overwhelming to the music that we knew we had to answer that call," said station manager Hal Mabe.
That meant trying to survive on commercial sales - WWWR is the only one of the three stations licensed by the Federal Communications Commission to sell commercial time - rather than on the sales of longer talk programming.
The first FM stations playing the music came on earlier this year with WPIN and WPIR.
Station manager George McNerlin said he didn't even realize another Christian contemporary FM was being planned when he took the job with his stations.
But even with the unexpected contemporary Christian crowd, he and the other station managers downplayed the competition between them, insisting all would find a niche - even though all are targeting the same audience.
"We know the secular market supports 30 some stations in the region," Mabe said. "What's wrong with five or six or even 10 Christian stations?"
"I'm glad that our listeners have a choice. We were carrying the burden completely before."
"Competition is good. I like the competition," McNerlin said. "Whether it is us or Spirit-FM or 3WR, the good news is going out via music."
That is the goal of all three stations, their management says.
"We believe in the spiritual aspect," Armstrong said. "This is about our relationship to God and each other."
But even if they are confident that they are doing the right thing, honoring a ministerial call, it has been far from smooth sailing for any of the three stations.
At 3WR, Mabe said, the station chose to forgo its usual spring appeal for listener contributions when WPIN/WPIR went on the air seeking listener donations.
"I prayed about it and thought about it. ... That was the only way they [WPIR] had to raise funds. We have an option to sell commercials. Let's work twice as hard and do that," Mabe said he decided.
His station's financial status, like the others, has been pretty close to the edge all along, he acknowledged. "Every time we don't think we're not going to make it, that check we need comes in, and we do make it. We've had just more than we needed."
McNerlin's first fund-raiser was dubbed a success, bringing in substantially more in one-time contributions than his $25,000 target, but falling short of his goal of $16,000 a month in sustaining contributions.
Pledges of one-time contributions totalled just over $33,000. Pledges of monthly support came to $7,216. That monthly goal "may have been a little ambitious for being on the air such a short time." McNerlin said. The station needs to pay off debt quickly so it can proceed to get other stations planned around the state on the air, he said, and to hire additional staff for the existing stations.
So far, McNerlin and a part-time secretary are the only employees. He's looking for announcers - both paid and volunteer - but says he has not found the right ones yet.
At Spirit-FM, it was "tough to raise funds" just to get on the air, Armstrong said.
Because of assorted obstacles, including finding a tower site, "the station has been `six months away' for four or five years. When I moved here in 1992, we thought we'd be on the air in a year."
At the end of last year, he and the station's two other directors decided "to do whatever it took to get on the air. It was time to make a full commitment and hope and believe support would come."
Even at that, it took several months longer than scheduled to get on the air, which finally happened in August. Now, he is the only local on-air announcer and much of the air time is filled by the Morningstar network.
Despite those struggles, the managers believe their stations are filling a need and finding an audience. Each has a slightly different musical emphasis and some other programming options.
WPIN/PIR has talk shows by James Dobson and Marlin Maddoux. WWWR has a few local preachers, as well as some national ministries such as D. James Kennedy. And Spirit-FM intersperses short, often humorous, vignettes between songs.
Finding out how popular each is, even in relation to each other, isn't easy.
Ratings services traditionally haven't paid much attention to religious stations, particularly the non-commercial ones, even though there are about 1,400 full-time religious stations in the country.
Only a few hundred of those show up nationally in the well-known Arbitron ratings, according to Robert Bowen who publishes the Religion and Media Quarterly in New Jersey.
A new rating service, AccuRatings, did include WWWR in its latest survey, showing the station 16th among the 36 stations rated for the Roanoke market.
Spirit 90 and WPIR are too new to have been included in that ratings book.
There is at least one other - albeit unscientific - way to gauge the stations' impact: "They've had a very positive influence on our sales" of CDs and tapes, said Bruce Penn, manager of the Baptist Book Store in Roanoke.
Penn says he will join the stations in promoting upcoming concerts by such popular contemporary Christian artists as Carmen, who'll be at the Roanoke Civic Center on Sept. 23, and Stephen Curtis Chapman, appearing at Liberty University's Vines Center on Sept. 16.
The store sells tickets for Liberty University concerts, including Chapman's, and plans a big in-store display of Carmen's music and new book.
"I think this is really good for the Roanoke Valley, which is not very well educated yet about adult contemporary Christian music," Penn said. "The radio stations make such a difference. People ask for what they've heard on those stations."
That seems to suit Spirit-FM manager Armstrong just fine.
"We think of our ministry as one that lights a candle, rather than curses the darkness. We look for the good ... for what unites us."
"We don't take ourselves too seriously. There is joy in the journey. The message we don't take lightly, but we will use humor ... and music to tear down walls that divide us."
by CNB