Thanks Bruce... I ENG for an Independent Baptist Station that is King James Only and does not see the need for CCM.. BUT, the Pastor and I are very close and he always lifts me up as dealing with what I am called to do with the green hair and blue fingernailed crowd I play for at 96.9 "The Wire" (
www.wyir.com)... He is a rare breed in the Indie-Bapt circle... I perfer CCM in the CHR and Active Rock approach, but being from the heart of Gaitherland and SG, I see a very underserved market in the rural communities.... Just a sociologist at heart...
Yeah - I programmed on a station where the owner (due to a medical condition beyong his control) would vacillate between throwing my show and myself out, and then the next moment just about handing the keys of the station to us because in his lucid moments he caught our vision. But he was too scared to dump the praise and worship and tired old local preachers. We lasted over 7 years and led many to Christ, prevented a suicide or two - countless prayer requests and rededications. I have the phone slips to this day. When we were on the air, the phones rang off the wall. When we left the air and put back on the automation, the phones went silent. In our heyday, we had the DJ at the top 40 station listening to our show on the studio monitor - while he did his own! Later he came over and bought his own show on the station. Out of thousands of calls, we only had three negative ones - KJV only, anti-CCM types. But one of them - who had been the most eloquent curser I've ever hear, old lady cussed like a riverboat gambler - she called back 45 minutes later to apologize. She listened to the lyrics and realized we were right in what we were doing. So I guess we were doing some good. Sadly, my volunteer staff couldn't hack it without me being there, but by that time WPOZ was on the air so the area was finally covered with contemporary. The station is back to comfortable brokered preaching and praise and worship. The Z has a satellite station in the area. All is good in the Spring Break town of Daytona Beach. It was not so in 1990 - God called, I listened. But I'd never do it again - too much work. And too dangerous - we had another anti-CCM type actually barge in the studio while we were on the air brandishing a weapon. That was the LAST time we ever left the station door unlocked, and we asked for and got permission to install a peephole after that incident. Thankfully - our DJ had the presence of mind to put the station on automation while the anti-CCM'er ranted their profanities into the microphone, then left after having their say. But that DJ never again came to do our show, even with increased security. Cowering under the console, she didn't know if she would make it out alive. At that time, the station was installing a 6kW backup transmitter, loose power cables across the floor. I thought of throwing water on the floor to electrocute the nut if he came back there - but too much potential for lawsuits from the family. I had our other volunteers out the back door ready to go up the tower (which was in back, right by the station) in the event things got worse. He might think of going out the back door, but if we were quiet, I doubt he would think of looking up the tower! I'm so glad we didn't have to go up the tower in the dark.
THAT, my friend, is why I'm not particularly sympathetic with the KJV only anti-CCM types. For me, the music - Christian rock music - is all about reaching kids for Christ. The more they listen to the music, the more they get the message. It is all about the kids. Not about me - I did it for the glory of the Lord. I'd never done radio before, I was just a man ready to bankroll it and learn radio. I was proud to be used by the Lord. I don't know what the motivation is of the militant anti-CCM'ers is, but if my encounters are any indication - its not leading people to Christ. As for KJV only - I do a Bible inspection at the start of each year. If a kid has a KJV, I give them another translation. And kid's faith comes alive - I continually hear comments like "I never knew that was in the Bible" "I can understand it now". And the kids are sticking with their Bible reading to an extent I never saw before when I left them with KJV.
