Christian Radio

Christian radio is a category of radio formats that focus on transmitting programming with a Christian message. In the United States, where it is most established, many such broadcasters play popular music of Christian influence, though many programs have talk or news programming covering associated topics that can have an economic or a political angle to them.

Brokered programming is a significant portion of most US Christian radio stations' revenue, with stations regularly selling blocks of airtime to evangelists seeking an audience. Another revenue stream is solicitation of donations, either to the evangelists who buy the air time or to the stations or their owners themselves. (In order to further encourage donations, less scrupulous evangelists may emphasize the prosperity gospel, in which they preach that tithing and donations to the ministry will result in financial blessings from God.) Although the solicitation of donations and the sale of airtime may resemble a commercial enterprise, such actions do not necessarily constitute a call to action, and thus this does not forbid them from airing on noncommercial licensed stations in the US. A minority of stations (almost all of them music stations) use the traditional model for music radio and allow traditional commercial advertising.

Numerous religious broadcasters own a large number of their own stations. In the USA religious radio stations are exempt from certain rules requiring radio stations to have some local operations, which allows them to have massive networks of transmitters covering far larger areas than a radio station would otherwise be allowed.

Most Christian radio stations transmit a mixture of Christian music and Christian talk and teaching.

Christian music radio outlets mirror commercial radio in many ways, and music in a variety of different genres is available. Many stations play primarily gospel music (whether Black Gospel or Southern Gospel) or worship music, while others play all formats of contemporary Christian music including rock and roll, pop, rock music, rap, country, and alternative. Many artists within the Christian music industry criticize Christian radio for only playing "safe" music, and not taking enough chances on new artists, or in some cases older artists, that may not be as appealing to the largely conservative Gospel Music Association.

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