Just about a month ago I turned the radio on to CHVN, a Christian radio station, in search of the new single out from a friend I went to high school with. Truth be told, I wasn't all too pumped to have to go to the Christian station and simply listen in hopes of maybe hearing a song that would be played not too often. Anything for high school friends, right? I lasted two days. I could not do it. I went in search of his myspace page instead.
I am still an avid listener to the radio. I enjoy the variety I get in music genres to listening to certain people in a radio show to finding out what the weather's supposed to be like for the day. I would consider myself still a member of the young audience, so I suppose I go against what Schultze says in his book about young audiences not tuning into radio. I do, however, have my select stations that I am loyal to. CHVN not being one of them. As one of the few religious stations in our area, you'd think a young Christian such as myself would enjoy it and appreciate how it continues on evangelising about Christ openly. I do, though. I applaud the station for its efforts in keeping the gospel alive on the airwaves, but it's getting old. That time last month that I was listening for my friends single, I heard the same songs being played as I heard when I was a loyal listener in my pre-teens. Needless to say, musical tastes change over time, and people are beings of change. I don't really know of many people from my generation that listen to the same songs as they did when they were children. Yes, every so often it's nice to take a stroll down memory lane, but let's be serious.
If a radio station expects to continue to keep their listeners and is striving for more, they are constantly needing to change and evolve into something that snaps up the audiences attention.
Here's the kicker: I heard a more powerful statement about Christ on a "secular" radio station that has impacted me more than anything I have heard on a religious station.
1 comment:
are we allowed to comment on your blog? cuz i am. i appreciate what you have to say jilly. i agree with you in a lot of ways! personally, i can't stand being preached at while i listen to music. music to me is an experience in itself whether it's "secular or sacred." i get frustrated when we make the distinction between the two, as if one were more pious than the other. my feeling is that christians shouldn't blind themselves to the world they live in. in order to reach the society around us, shouldn't we be aware of what society has to offer? and the most surprising thing i've found, is that i've been far more impacted by society's insight in my spiritual life than what any church, or "christian radio station" has ever given me.
food for thought: when bach was writing "sacred" instrumental music for the church, much of it was rejected as being too "secular." tastes do change, and the world does open up to us if we stop blinding ourselves.
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