Re: "Religious" Stations...(WAS: Re: WEVD (was WFAN New York)

[Dan Strassberg <dan.strassberg@worldnet.att.net>]

At 04:02 PM 8/3/97 -0500, you wrote:
>
>Could it be the simply because most American's come from a Christian
>background?
>
>> I suspect the main reason for all the Christian broadcasters and so
>few other
>> religions is money.
>
>Not sure I understand your reasoning....  Do Christians have more money?
>
The idea that the proponderance of fundamentalist evanglical protestant
programming on commercial Christian stations in the US stems from the
preponderance of Christians in the US population does not hold water. I
guess that Catholics are fundamentalist evangelical Christians, but they
aren't protestants. I believe that the number of Catholics in the US
population is second only to the aggregate number of protestants of all
denominations, and probably exceeds the membership of any single protestant
denomination. (I'm guessing that either Baptists or Methodists are the
largest single protestant denomination in the US, but please correct me if
I'm wrong. I know that Baptists are not monolithic; that is, there are
several Baptist churches. Perhaps Baptists do not like to be lumped together
as a single denomination.)

You find very few Christian stations (English-language ones, anyhow) that
carry appreciable programming aimed at Catholics. I'm sure that part of the
reason for this is that the Catholic Church _is_ a monolithic organization
and that the Church raises money in other ways than by radio ministries. But
if you look at protestant denominations, I think you will find that the vast
majority of the paid programming on Christian radio stations is from a
reasonably small fraction of the denominations. I doubt that the
Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Methodists, Lutherans, and
Unitarian/Universalists are responsible for much of the paid programming on
commercial Christian stations.

Thus, I'd have to say that which denominations are responsible for most of
the paid programming on commercial Christian stations is very much a
cultural thing. Heck, although the Mormons own a lot of radio stations
(through Bonneville International Corp, which is, as far as I know, wholly
owned by the LDS Church), nearly all of the programming on Bonneville
stations is secular. Those stations are operated as businesses and, like
other businesses that the LDS Church owns, the income they produce comes not
from free-will gifts and offerings but from the sale of products and
services (in this case, air time).

- -------------------------------
Dan Strassberg (Note: Address is CASE SENSITIVE!)
ALL _LOWER_ CASE!!!--> dan.strassberg@worldnet.att.net
(617) 558-4205; Fax (617) 928-4205

------------------------------