The folks at Nielsen World Headquarters tell us there are more “religious” radio stations than any other format category. They also say those religious stations have fewer listeners than any other. Gulp!

Having been involved in the CCM format for more than twenty years, I suggest that there is something we can learn from Easter.

A radio station cannot grow unless it is designed to grow. And that requires a different kind of thinking. Strategic thinking.

A growth strategy is one that incorporates big picture concepts such as:

• Why does the radio station exist?
• Who are our listeners?
• What do they desire and expect from our station?
• Who and where are other people like them?

It’s an irony that most Christian radio stations aren’t strategic.

Ironic because our Christian faith may be the most strategic thing there ever was.

Think about it.

Our faith flows from the ultimate big picture. There is a God. He made everything. He created us for a purpose. He desires a relationship with us. Jesus Christ is the focal point of that God-man relationship revealed to us on that first Easter morning.

Curious then that most Christian radio stations play little attention to strategy instead focusing almost exclusively on the day to day tactics: the songs, the contests, the liners, the deejays.

“What matters to your (listener) has little to do with the year they were born or the amount of money they make. What matters are the desires and beliefs and values of their tribe.

Learn the language of the tribe.

When you’ve learned to see and feel and think as the tribe does, your (programming) will start working wonders.”

Roy Williams

Consider this! Your radio station could be transformed if you’ll simply answer two questions:

What do people want and expect from your station?

How consistently do you DO THAT?

Congratulations! In answering those two questions you’ve begun the journey of thinking strategically.

Happy Easter!