Asheville, NC --A select group of Christian radio network program directors, on-air personalities, managers and other key influencers gathered the last weekend of September at the Billy Graham Training Center at The Cove in Asheville, NC to discuss how Christian music broadcasters can effectively share their faith in Christ on-air, remain formatically correct and maintain programming excellence.
This unique assembly of broadcasters was sponsored and hosted by Hutchcraft Ministries, Renaissance Communications and Goodratings Strategic Services.
The interactive and workshop-oriented two day event was highlighted by veteran broadcaster and evangelism expert Ron Hutchcraft, who challenged the group to strategically use their station resources to affect the eternal destiny of millions of people who can be impacted by their stations.
“The Gospel is the most powerful message on earth - it changes eternities. Radio is one of the most powerful delivery systems on earth. ‘Rescue by Radio’ is about how we can turn all that power loose to spiritually rescue many more lost lives. We are committed together to use the influence that God’s given us to help as many listeners as possible be in heaven with us someday,” said Hutchcraft.
Leadership input from Joe Battaglia of Renaissance Communications and John Frost and Alan Mason of Goodratings Strategic Services deliberated the fundamental questions of mission effectiveness of Christian music radio.
Battaglia remarked, “What makes this conference different from any other industry event is the opportunity to focus on just one issue—how to effectively share Jesus with our listeners in contemporary, compelling and authentic ways without losing sight of the need to maintain formatically correct standards. Unfortunately, many sincere and caring broadcasters are not always equipped to know how best to share personal faith without struggling for the right language and concepts to connect with the audience. Rescue by Radio is an attempt to match the ‘want to’ with the ‘how to’ and facilitate the sharing of the Gospel with professional intentionality.”
One of the more strategic seminars of the conference was presented by Alan Mason who explained how broadcasters’ spiritual gifts interface with their personality profiles to best understand their unique wiring for on-air ministry. This was followed by Mason and Frost leading an interactive session with the broadcasters on how best to understand and utilize ea
ch one’s “on-air spiritual strength” for maximum effectiveness.
Mason added, “This is one of the most wonderful, productive things I’m involved with. John and I are honored and humbled to be able to join Ron and Joe to help people learn how to share their faith in a natural effective way.”
“My experience is that the spiritual content of the station is often the ‘secret cow’ and not allowed the same degree of coaching as the non-spiritual elements. Unfortunately, this often results in the spiritual content being the least compelling aspect of the station. These sessions were designed to address that,” stated Frost.
One workshop split the broadcasters into groups with each one working through authentic “rescue” on-air presentations; a workshop that proved to be both motivating and inspiring for the broadcasters.
In the final workshops, Frost, Mason and Battaglia addressed the challenge of communicating authentic faith to a contemporary and questioning audience. They explored show prep concepts and techniques to ‘plant, water and harvest.’
Program Director Scott Michaels of KWPZ said, “The Rescue By Radio event was amazing on so many levels. As I flew back to our station on Monday night I was beginning to see our strategy and tactics in a whole new way. As a programmer I know how to get new cume to my station, but have struggled on how to truly reach them when they get here. At the end of the day our mission is to ‘introduce Jesus,’ and the RBR got my mind AND spirit energized in a whole new way.”
Hutchcraft’s parting message to the broadcasters was delivered with power and conviction as he encouraged them to prayerfully consider ways to rescue their audience by radio. “Lord. . .open a door, open a heart, open my mouth.”
Chris Lemke, GM of WCSG-FM summed up the event this way, “Rescue By Radio was everything I had hoped – serious attention given to confidence building and practical application on how to effectively communicate the Christ in Christian Radio.”
Broadcasters in attendance included Kristen Roberts, morning show host from His Radio Network; John Owens, Operations Manager of WMHK; Denny Nugent, PD of the Moody Broadcasting Network; Reid Holsen, Assistant VP of stations at Northwestern College Radio; Kevin Peterson, editor of the Christian music column of R&R; Buster Wilson of American Family Radio Network; Tom Greene, PD of WMIT, Asheville, NC; Gary Moreland, Network PD WRCM/WMHK and morning show host of WRCM, Charlotte; David Fitts, of KTIS; Meg Geissinger of Word-FM; Tony Weir, PD of the House FM; Bruce Barrows, Music Director and midday host of Family Life Network; Lisa Barry, Midday host of KTIS; Steve Sunshine, PD and morning host of WMHK; Amy Byrd, morning show host of WMHK; Matt Stockman, morning show host, WFGW; Carol Davis of WFGW; Eric Allen, of K-LOVE/AIR 1 Radio Network; Chris Kelly of KKCM; Scott Michaels, of KWPZ; Chris Lemke, GM of WCSG; Jerry Woods, PD of KTSY and Kai Elmer of INO Records.