1. Tell us about your market and how it is unique?
Tulsa is in the center of the Bible Belt. The market
supports 2 commercial Christian stations (Hot
AC/100.9 KXOJ & Rock/100.3 The Kross) Both are
owned by Adonai Radio Group. Tulsa hosts a handful
of Christian colleges and the metro has over a
thousand churches. In my opinion, Tulsans fall on 2
ends of the spectrum with very little in the middle.
They either center their lives around their church
calendar or are totally burnt out with church.
2. What is the
most fulfilling aspect to you personally about
Christian radio?
We do a lot of work
with local youth groups, and it's encouraging to see
teenagers standing up for their faith in school and
in the community. They cried out for a teen targeted
station and that's why our company started the
Kross. I love what Bob Briner had to say in The
Roaring Lambs: Calling Christians to impact culture
through media. When I interact with kids living
their faith, I see how Christian radio is impacting
the culture.
3. How has God used you in your role at KCXR?
I think God has used
our station to unite kids and youth groups in the
Tulsa area. Before we launched, very few churches
worked together on events and that has changed in
the last year and a half. We built a huge network of
area youthpastors & churches and we are seeing a ton
of fruit.
4. What is the
criteria that determines if a song receives airplay
on your station?
Is it a hit?? Is the
production quality flawless? Does it sound as good
or better that what our mainstream competitor
is playing? Is it relevant to our teen listeners?
5. What kind of
promotions work best for your station?
We work to give our
listeners "experiences" they will never find
anywhere else. We literally try to create the most
off the wall promotions that we can. We want the
station to sound larger and more creative than
anything in the state.
We also place a huge
empasis on our website because it makes our station
more interactive. Many of our promotions, concerts,
and station energy are centered around
www.thekross.fm.
It's really worked well becasue we get about 2.2
Million visits to the website each month. Thousands
of active listeners post on our messagebaords and we
have people listening online all over the world.
6. How do you
think Christian Record labels can better serve
Christian radio?
The labels really have
been great with music service & promotional
support. Production quality is the biggest thing for
some of the smaller labels. The songs may be great,
but we won't play it if the production is lame. When
my listener is flipping back and forth between my
station and the mainstream rock station in Tulsa,
the production quality needs to be there.
7. In your
opinion what are the biggest obstacles facing
Christian radio today?
For Christian Rock,
it's figuring out Non Traditional Revenue Channels
to support the stations. 100.3 The Kross is the only
"commercial" Christian rock station that I know of.
Radio (in general) needs to find new ways to embrace
the youth culture, and make it profitable. Frankly
there aren't many radio stations that truly target
the 12-24 demographic. According to Edison Media
Research, teen listening is on the decline. (TSL is
down 14%) People develop listening habits and
loyalties to radio in their teenage years. MTV
targets teens and has done a great job putting out a
relevant product. These teens will be our big money
(25-54) demographic in a decade.
8. What do you
believe is the primary role of the Christian radio
air personality today?
Communicate, entertain
and show that your faith is relevant.
9. What (if any)
other Christian radio stations do you consider as
innovators today?
M 88/KLYT in
Albuquerque & RadioU in Columbus. They are both on
FIRE. Everyone of their DJs are innovators!
10. Where do you
see Christian radio in 5 years?
I see Christian radio
continuing to grow. With bands like Switchfoot,
P.O.D., Stacy Orrico, Thousand Foot Krutch (and
others) winning over fans wherever they play, we are
going to see mainstream embrace more relevant
artists of faith. As we focus our stations on
innovation we are going to impact culture more and
more!
