I listen to Christian radio quite a bit, especially while driving. Over the last couple of decades, the quality of Christian radio has taken a tumble. There are many obnoxious and annoying things about today's Christian radio.
Family-friendly radio all the time?
In general, most of the Christian radio stations I listen to are family-friendly most of the time.
When a station calls itself family friendly, I would expect the content to be G-rated. That is, free of profanity, pre-screened with age appropriate content for kids aged 12 and under.
Christian radio stations are always profanity-free, which is great, and which is expected.
However, there are times when the radio hosts play phone calls from listeners and those calls are unfiltered. It can get uncomfortable hearing some of what the listeners talk about. Here are a few examples:
- Person calls and says that he is calling from prison for < INSERT CRIME >
- Person calls and says he's incarcerated and explains in detail the crime which he is in for
- Person calls and talks about how she is a recovering drug abuser
- Person calls and explains what drugs he took, and in what sequence
- Person calls and talks about being a victim of domestic abuse and explains
- Person calls and talks about "being in a dark place" and explains
- Person who attempted self-harm calls and announces what she tried to do
- Person calls and talks about other depressing events involving crime, injury and mental health
All these people listened to the songs on the radio and their lives turned around. It is great and I am genuinely happy for them! However, I personally believe that these kind of detailed testimonies are best left for church services with adult or older teen audience. Sometimes, for several days, these radio stations play a marathon of recorded calls like this, one after another.
There is a time and place for these topics. A family-friendly radio where the listeners include 5-year olds or 10-year olds is not of these places. Some families may be comfortable with letting their single-digit age kids hear about how someone used to take < INSERT SUBSTANCE-1 > or do < INSERT SELF-HARM > or face < INSERT DOMESTIC ASSAULT >. However, the shock value of this is unneeded for a family-friendly radio.
On regular TV, until 9pm or 10pm, they do not telecast shows which are inappropriate for younger audience. After 10pm, the TV stations are more relaxed and flexible in what they show. Christian radios should be more like this.
Please play traditional hymns once in a while
I love traditional Christian hymns. I also love Christian Contemporary Music (CCM) and have listened to Petra, Rich Mullins and others, on the radio.
Today, Christian radio stations have a skewed obsession with recent songs, and sometimes, it seems to be from a pool of certain song writers.
In the last decade, many of the new praise and worship songs have included songs with controversial lyrics and remixes of ancient hymns with different styles, including the drooling or crying style, and 10x repeating interlude or outros.
Kids need to learn the original hymns first before hearing the remixed versions which end up cannibalizing the real hymns.
Maybe it's a good idea to play traditional Christian hymns and older CCM songs to hear what a Christian song would be like. Just my opinion.
Oversimplification of physical health and mental health issues
Sometimes, Christian radio hosts receive calls from listeners who have health problems or medical health issues. It's always good to pray for people with problems. What is not good is to put down the medical profession. If someone calls and has obvious mental health issues, do pray for them. Also, please encourage them to see a medically licensed doctor. I do believe in medical miracles. However, I have my skepticism about faith healers, and this includes radio hosts who take on extra jobs as faith healers.
Occasional stereotypical jokes
Certain radio hosts regulary talk about what a recent survey or research said. Most of the time, those are time fillers and can be interesting.
However, there are the occasional male vs female or men vs women research results, followed by banter and then an implied inference that men should not be doing this or women should not be doing that. I feel that making comments like that in 2024 is very outdated and in poor taste. It also reinforces stereotypical behavior in older teens and young adults.
Fundraisers can be pushy and guilt-tripping
If you listen to Christian radio, at some point in time, you would have heard this:
For the price of a cup of coffee, you can donate and < INSERT BENEFITS >
In the next 5 minutes, please donate and save a life
â When I first heard statements like this, followed by suggestions that sacrificing this $2 coffee was going to save a life or bring someone closer to Jesus, I did feel a little guilty. But, after hearing this several times, I started wondering why I should feel guilty for buying a $2 [at that time] for a Starbucks Pike Place Roast coffee, size tall.
Is there a mutual exclusion between donating for a cause and spending on a small luxury? Can't you do both?
Christian radio is hardly the only platform where you are made to feel guilty for spending on small pleasures in life, however, Christian radio hosts tug the strings to your heart in a different way, usually coupled with feel-good after-effects and claim the utmost urgency.
Our radio station is ad-free claims
Most Christian radio stations claim to be ad-free, but they compensate for it by hosting week-long fundraisers and play phone calls from listeners telling how this station changed their lives. It is definitely not wrong or bad in any way, but they just used up all the time they would have spent playing ads by ... asking for funds. They might as well just sign up with advertising agencies with their terms and conditions. I'm sure there are many companies eager to play commercials on Christian radio stations.
Conclusion
While I do continue to listen to Christian radio stations in the DMV area, I regularly find myself switching to other stations, including the ones where Delilah Rene is the anchor. She is one of the best radio hosts and carries a lot more empathy and calmness. Christian radio hosts should try to be more like her. Thanks for reading!
If you have any questions, please contact me at arulbOsutkNiqlzziyties@gNqmaizl.bkcom. You can also post questions in our Facebook group. Thank you.