Reading and responding to the Radio audience

Let's say that a church wants to put their service on the radio. Reading the listening audience should and in fact will impact content of the services.

A radio station might be aimed at a wide variety of audiences in mind: Older members at the nursing home, truckers driving through town, people in the park, people at the local homeless shelter, people on a local Indian Reservation or maybe local college students.

This audience's tastes and needs might affect the service. If the intended listening audience is considerably different in composition, this might mean changes in how one conducts and plans worship. For example, if one is broadcasting to an Indian Reservation, one might want to have hymns that are familiar to them.

Even if believes the intended audience is similar in composition to those attending the service, having a radio broadcast will still affect other content. First, radio hates "dead" air time, which means that the presiding minister will have to work to ensure few gaps in the content. Second, more worship cues and notes will likely have to be given. The people listening do not have a program (or bulletin) to know what piece of music or Scripture they heard. Third, the announcements of the church are now for the entire listening audience. This not only gives you an opportunity to advertise your news to more people but also will likely mean that local groups want to advertise through your announcements!

In addition, knowing the audience will impact how one advertises the broadcast; knowing the audience will also help one think about how the radio broadcast assists with other outreach endeavors. Even reflecting and learning about the intended audience will certainly affect how a community carries the Gospel to this audience.

Lastly, certain types of radio programming might offer various opportunities for congregation members (and new recruits) to get involved in the ministry. Production and even editing might be ways to give responsibility to members. This might lead to new ways of them working with sound equipment and this might shape how they can and want to use technology in the worship service.

In short, even broadcasting a service is a two-way dialogue. This may impact your own worship life more than you anticipate!