The Humble Servant
by Raquel Robinson, Finney Media Communications & Design Administrator
How many times have you gone to buy something and then all of a sudden you are on that business’ email list? Everywhere we turn we are asked for contact information: your name, email address or phone number.
At your station, you probably have asked listeners for this same contact information either through a share-a-thon or event but what are you doing with this information? Through our research, Christian radio listeners tell us the key reason they turn to your station or program is for connection and to grow closer to God. But sometimes, we can think this connection ends after the last song is played or the end of the giving campaign is over.
Your listener wants connection with you on the air but what about off the air? How do you make a meaningful connection off the air that translates to your listener coming back for more?
Here are five steps to help you get started:
- Clean up and organize. That pile of names, addresses and email addresses you’ve collected over the years, it’s time to clean it up and organize it. Get this valuable listener information into a Client Relationship Manager (CRM) or Email Marketing Software that will allow you to better organize, sort and segment.
- Identify your audience segments. In your listener database, do you have a lot of folks under the age of 40 or over 65? Are there people who open your emails every time you send them and some who do not? Segmenting your list will allow you to target your off-air content for the right audience, at the right time, for the right purpose.
- Ask. Don’t forget to take time to ask your audience what they truly want from you. This could be either through an email survey or through a simple question in your next newsletter. After you ask, be open to receiving your listener’s feedback. You may be surprised. What you think is connecting with your audience is actually something completely different.
- Create Content that Connects. After you ask, create content that delivers what your listener truly wants. If it’s to be more connected to God, think about sharing something off the air with your listeners that helps them do this. That may look like repurposing your on-air Bible verse of the day into an email you send out. Another option could be to provide information on a Christian concert or Christian talk in your community in your next station newsletter. Whatever it is your listener says they want from you, see where you can take your on-air content and repurpose it for off-line connection.
- Strike the Right Balance. Your listener can turn off the dial for you on-air; and the same is true for you off the air. Your listener will also turn off (or unsubscribe) from your messages if they are too frequent, too long, the tone is too harsh, or the content isn’t interesting. Don’t be the reason your listener disconnects from you, your ministry and your message. Find the right timing and frequency for your offline content to ensure the best engagement.
Let us help you make better heart connection with your audience in the New Year. We have an awesome team of industry experts who are ready to help. Get in TOUCH WITH US and let’s help you Grow Audience in 2026!
by Jon Hull, Audience Growth Consultant
At least once a day, a special image shows up on my social media feed. These images are all different, but I recognize them because they’re radio studios. Generally, there’s no automation evident in the picture. There’s a control board with rotary pots, a couple of turntables, a reel-to-reel tape machine, and a microphone.
What strikes me about those pictures is the familiarity. I have memories of cutting my teeth (and a lot of ¼” audio tape) in studios like that.
While radio studios today are very different from when radio was king, the content we create today is what can reinvigorate and keep radio king. It just requires us to remember three simple principles that successful radio personalities inherently seem to know:
- Be great at your craft. Good really isn’t good enough anymore. This means prayerfully and purposefully thinking about every element that makes up your show before you walk into the studio. It means sweating the small things, such as editing listener calls (or talk breaks) to make sure you’re always giving your listeners your best effort.
- Touch the controls. You can’t let automation totally take the reins. Appreciate automation for giving you more time to think about your next break. But also dislike automation when it keeps you from paying attention to the segues between songs or the lyrics your audience is absorbing in real-time. Here’s an idea: For one hour a week, take a chance. Turn the automation off and become a live DJ again. Segue your songs manually, listen to what the artist is singing, let it move you, and relate to it in that way. Your listeners have probably been moved by the music. You can be as well.
- The pictures on the radio are so much better. Theater of the mind is still a real thing. You can still create vivid images for your listeners. Your words, the music beds you choose, and the amazing gift of vocal pacing can be harnessed by gifted communicators, like you, to create radio that is not only memorable but can be (by God’s grace) life-changing.
I’ll be praying for your efforts. They really do make a difference. Sometimes, an eternal one. If we can be of further assistance, please feel free to REACH OUT.
I’ll be sharing more details about this and more in an upcoming Webin8 on Tuesday, November 11th. REGISTER, take notes and let’s Grow Audience together.
Jon
by Chuck Finney, President
Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. Ephesians 4:29
As I write this, I’m six miles from Annunciation Catholic Church and School in Minneapolis, where a mass shooting happened on August 27 that killed 10-year-old Harper Moyski and 8-year-old Fletcher Merkel and hurt quite a few more.
How should Christian radio stations handle tragedies like this on the air?
First, pray. Ask God for guidance in this unique time of grappling and grieving.
Second, know your values. If your purpose is spiritual encouragement, focus your decision-making about how you handle it on the air through that filter. What would be spiritually encouraging now? Graphic details or political/discussion? Probably not. Prayer and/or Scripture on the air? Most definitely.
Third, understand that every one of these tragedies is different. And that means your decisions about what to do and how often to do it will be different every time. Hard and fast rules? No. Principles for how you will make decisions? Yes.
Fourth, err on the side of too much. Particularly if it happens near you. Our friends at 98.5 KTIS/Twin Cities chose to make this every break for two days. It was all people in the Twin Cities were thinking and talking about. You will sound more loving and hopeful if you lean toward more.
Here are a couple breaks from KTIS from those two days:
Praying that you never have to use the advice above.
Blessings,
Chuck
by Chuck Finney, President
I had a conversation with a good friend in radio recently. She said, “We do the standard 90 second talk breaks, like everyone.” It wasn’t the appropriate time to express a different opinion about the 90 second length of break.
But here, I’d like to offer another perspective.
At Finney Media, we do lots of work with LISTENER ADVISORY PANELS, groups of listeners invited by the ministry to give us feedback on what they hear. We are consistently surprised by what listeners tell us.
The inescapable surprise conclusion lately: Older listeners want short breaks. Younger listeners want shorter.
The listener is telling us it’s too long at lengths of over about 30 seconds. When we play breaks longer than that in those panels, the almost unanimous reaction is “too long.”
If you’re still doing talk breaks of 90 seconds or longer, she is most likely leaving while you’re talking. And not necessarily coming back.
If you want to be heard, if you want to Grow Audience, you gotta ruthlessly edit. Make it profound in a snack size package.
We can help with that. CONTACT US today and let’s see how we can help you step out of your comfort zone with proven research and Grow Audience.
by Gary Morland, Finney Media Talent Coach
We’re privileged to work in the greatest radio format in the world. In the end, it’s about the questions every person has: “Who am I? Why am I here? How does life work?”
We answer those questions with music, and with air talent who are examples of people faithfully trying to live out the answers.
We also answer those questions by making friends. In radio, making friends looks like winning listeners. And in our kind of radio, winning listeners means connecting with the heart.
When I was first hired in this format, I knew how to entertain. But connecting with the heart over the radio was going to be a new skill. I had to be coached in how to do that.
This new coaching was not like when I was in mainstream radio, where one time the program director took the air check tape from our morning show out into the parking lot with us and set it on fire.
He was trying to be funny. He said, “That’s all we need to say about that.” But I never knew what it was that made him do that. I just knew not to do “that” again, whatever it was.
But that was a different kind of radio. If we want radio that makes a positive emotional connection with listeners, wouldn’t coaching that is a positive emotional connection with the talent seem appropriate?
It’s consistent with how we grow as Christians and move toward becoming the person God has in mind for us: God majors on encouragement, with some specific criticisms.
The experts say we actually need a ratio of about five to one of encouragement to criticism. If we get four encouragements and one criticism, we don’t feel the encouragement. It needs to be five to one to get us over the hump. That’s how sensitive we all are to encouragement and criticism. Negativity is our default, both on the giving and receiving end.
Encouragement takes work. It can be discouraging not to be coached or to receive inconsistent coaching. We can think it must not matter. Or I must not be worth it.
And it can be discouraging being coached with a major on criticism. As an air talent, it was easy for me to hear so much of “Don’t do that” that after a few years, I felt I didn’t have anything left that was valuable.
Coaching that will change lives says, “Here’s what you do well that fits what’s needed. Here’s who you can be. And here’s where you have an opportunity to grow.” That kind of coaching changed me and impacted the listener.
We want radio that majors on encouragement. Air talent can get discouraged without coaching, or with coaching that ignores the five to one ratio all human beings experience. Good coaching creates a culture of encouragement in the building and on the air. And it wins listener’s hearts.
I’ll be sharing more tips on positive encouragement through talent coaching during our upcoming Finney Media Webin8 on Tuesday, August 19, 2025, at Noon CT/1pm ET. Join us for eight minutes, and we’ll give you more ways you can connect with your listener and offer them the encouragement they want from you. Registration is now open. Visit our REGISTRATION PAGE to reserve your spot.
Want more specific talent coaching help? EMAIL US today and let’s see how we can come alongside to help you meet your audience growth goals this year.
By: Rick Hall, Finney Media Audience Growth Consultant
In LAST MONTH’S BLOG, I discussed what is happening in your listener’s world and one key factor you should focus on to best cut through the noise. This month, let’s dive into more ways your listener says she needs you to show up in her busy, hurried world.
She needs a lighthouse.
Every song that lifts eyes toward Heaven. Every voice break that reminds people they’re not alone. Every moment that helps listeners feel seen, loved, and safe.
It’s not about being louder—it’s about being clearer. Not about being clever—about being kind. Not about filling space—about creating space for the Spirit to move.
What Does “Less Noise” Look Like?
It doesn’t mean silence. It means speaking with intention—with care, calm, and Christ at the center.
Less Noise means:
- Concise breaks filled with encouragement
- Fewer interruptions, deeper connection
- Choosing hope over headlines
More Jesus means:
- Speaking life, not fear
- Letting Scripture breathe
- Creating space for worship, reflection, and joy
The Sacred Side of Laughter
There’s a place for humor and joy in our content—but not at the expense of what’s sacred. Listeners appreciate genuine laughter and appropriate humor that:
- Lifts spirits without mocking what matters
- Reflects real life without dwelling on negativity
- Brings joy without crossing into cynicism
When comedy serves encouragement, it becomes ministry. Humor that heals rather than divides. Laughter that lightens burdens rather than adds to them.
‘I love when you make me smile and point me to Jesus in the same moment.’
Our content can be both delightful and reverent—finding that sweet spot where listeners feel both the lightness of joy and the weight of glory.
This Is the Work That Matters
In Christian radio, podcasting, talk programming—whatever our platform—we’re not just competing for attention. We’re called to serve souls.
The Good News?
People are listening. And they’re telling us what they need.
Perhaps today’s mission is simpler than we think: Turn down the noise. Turn up grace. Let Jesus shine through.
The results are in from the 2025 Finney Media Why Listen® Survey! If you missed out on our Why Listen Results presentations, visit our 2025 Why Listen Headquarters to get caught up.
By: Rick Hall, Audience Growth Consultant
The Overwhelmed Listener
News alerts. Social media scrolls. Endless to-do lists and deadlines. Everyone—and everything—demands attention.
When listeners turn on your station, podcast, or program… what will they hear?
More noise? Or something different, something sacred?
They’re not searching for more content. They’re yearning for more peace. More purpose. More Jesus.
The World Is Loud. We Don’t Have to Be.
The 2025 Finney Media Why Listen® Survey revealed a clear message: Tone matters.
Listeners—especially in Christian formats—aren’t asking for breaking news, culture wars, or commentary on the latest crisis. They’re not here for hot takes. They’re here to breathe.
In a world that shouts, we have the privilege to whisper truth.
“When I turn you on, I can exhale.” “You bring peace to my day.” “You help me hear from God.”
This isn’t marketing language. This is spiritual formation happening through every break, every lyric, every intentional moment of stillness between the noise.
Are We Delivering Jesus, or Just Content?
Let’s be honest—Christian media can fall into the same trap as everything else: more words, more opinions, more “stuff.”
But our listeners are telling us—gently yet clearly—that they don’t need another megaphone.
In next month’s blog, I’ll walk you through more insights from the 2025 Finney Media Why Listen Survey® and give you more actionable ways you can cut through the noise in your listener’s world and deliver content that brings her more peace.
The results are in from the 2025 Finney Media Why Listen® Survey and we can’t wait to share what we’ve learned about your listeners this year! Join us for two opportunities to learn more and Grow Audience:
CMB Momentum 25 Breakout
Know Your Audience, Grow Your Audience
Speaker: Chuck Finney, President
Friday, May 30, 2025 • 4pm ET
Sapphire Falls Resort, Orlando, FL
Why Listen Results Webinar – Part I
Tuesday, June 10, 2025 – Noon CT/1PM ET
Speakers: Chuck Finney and Rick Hall
REGISTRATION NOW OPEN >>
by Gary Morland, Talent Coach
A friend told me about a trip to the mountains with her 8-year-old son.
She said he loved the views when they arrived. But the next morning it was foggy.
He was disappointed, but said, “You know what mom? Even though I can’t see the mountains I know they’re still there. Just like God.”
What was my reaction?
I totally connected with her mom heart melting because her boy was ‘getting it.’
I could feel it was moving to her, so I was moved, too. Emotions are contagious, right?
She could have just told me, “You know, God is always there even when he seems distant.”
She could have said, “It’s encouraging when your kids grow in faith.”
It would have been true. But I would not have felt what I felt with her story. I felt the truth, AND I felt another human being like me.
I connected with her and her desire for her child to move towards God.
Stories help people hear what we have to say and to connect with us.
Story Connects Us
People are already wired to keep listening and to follow your story to where you want to lead them.
Why are we wired that way?
The Gospel is a story. There’s a beginning, middle and an end.
There’s a villain who steals the beloved away. There’s a hero who pursues his beloved, never gives up, and heroically sacrifices his life to save his beloved. And there’s a surprising, inspiring climax with a hopeful ending.
God did not copy that story form from novels and movies. Novels and movies copied that form because they recognized people resonate with it.
People resonate with it because a sensitivity to the Gospel is built into all of us.
Every human is drawn to the story form, even if they don’t know why.
So when we use stories, we’re cooperating with how God has made us all to communicate.
Story doesn’t mean truth is not important. It means we know how to say true things in a way that people are wired to hear.
Story is valuable because you can take the listener where you want – into a feeling, a conviction, a truth, a response.
Story connects people. It’s a gift to us.
by Beth Bacall, Senior Talent Coach
Taking one step at a time is solid advice for any situation, including hosting a radio show. Whether planning a live broadcast or creating impactful moments for listeners, a single decision can set off a ripple effect that leads to something greater.
This truth became evident during a Fish Christmas Wish live broadcast when a listener, Tawanna, called to confirm my location at a Chick-fil-A in McDonough, Georgia. She wanted to be sure —and with good reason, she casually mentioned, “Good. I’ll be bringing the mayor.” And she did!
When Mayor Sandra Vincent walked through the doors of that Chick-fil-A, her presence was undeniable. The energy in the room shifted. She wasn’t just a city leader—she was a force of connection. That same morning, she met a high school student who had come with her mother to grant a Christmas Wish. After hearing the student’s story, the mayor helped secure her access to a highly selective event happening that weekend.
It all happened effortlessly—one action leading to another. A simple invitation extended through the township’s webpage turned into a tradition. Almost every mayor we invited began showing up for future events. The impact grew beyond the broadcast itself.
In fact, just last month, I emceed the State of the City address for McDonough, where elected officials from across Georgia gathered. That moment wasn’t just about politics; it was about faith and community, all brought together under one roof. It started with a single act—an invitation.
So, what’s your one thing today? What small step can you take that might lead to your next blessing? Maybe it’s a call, an email, or a simple gesture of kindness. The heart of a city, a community, or even a single life can be changed with one intentional action. And who knows? It might just lead to something greater than you ever imagined.
