Air1 new format

For those who haven't heard the news already, longtime "positive hits" network Air1 suddenly switched to worship effective Tuesday the 1st. This is a huge disappointment for me, especially as I had no idea this was coming (during the holidays I flipped back and forth between a couple local stations playing nothing but Christmas music). Air1 had been a favorite of mine since it was the closest we got to Christian rock on the radio. I actually thought they were starting to improve as I'd been hearing more of a mix of styles lately, then this happened...

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Feedback on Facebook is generally negative - some like it but more are taking the time to complain about the change.

Never heard of Air1 before.

ChristTrekker wrote:

Never heard of Air1 before.

Air1 is a syndicated network so all stations nationwide play the same feed (with just commercial differences sometimes). If you've heard of K-Love it's the same thing. I'm just outside the range of Air1 but listen on the drive to Indy as I can get it well enough once I hit the interstate. Now I'll have to wait until I'm halfway there and can get the KLove station.

topshot rhit wrote:

ChristTrekker wrote:

Never heard of Air1 before.

Air1 is a syndicated network so all stations nationwide play the same feed (with just commercial differences sometimes). If you've heard of K-Love it's the same thing. I'm just outside the range of Air1 but listen on the drive to Indy as I can get it well enough once I hit the interstate. Now I'll have to wait until I'm halfway there and can get the KLove station.

K-Love here plays the same worship driven stuff that WAY-FM and The Fish do.  It's sad.  We have three different Christian stations all with the same format.  It is pointless.  I truly wish that someone would build a station that played all the other styles of music, but it seems that the radio stations themselves have decided to kill Christian rock.  If it isn't on the air, then it doesn't exist, I guess.

While many might think me a conspiracy theorist, look at the decline of marketable Christian rock band that could get radio play.  Oh, I get that mom's aren't going to favor their kids listening to Demon Hunter or other extreme vocal bands.  But, as the radio format has switched completely to worship, the number of these bands and frequency of their releases has dwindled.  I used to could name off 30-40 modern rock bands on top of the classic metal and classic sounding metal bands. How many of those modern rock bands are still active?  How many if active have changed their original format?  

To be honest, this trend from the radio stations and labels scares me as we have proven that we are more worried about sales than evangelism as an industry.  The Christian rock industry was pioneered with people who wanted to counter the culture and reach people where they are.  Sadly, the labels have been bought out by their secular counterparts and it is all about the almighty dollar.  Who cares if we reach the rockers for Christ anymore?  Let's write another generic worship tune so soccer moms with force-feed it to their kids in the mini-van on the way to their home-school co-op.  They will all be singing together and worshipping together.  How lovely.  Meanwhile, the families with rockers for kids will just go to Hell as no one cares to share the gospel with them.  Let's all go 100% worship and stick our heads in the sand.  Great job, Christian music industry.

I'll chime in to say how interesting it is that the term "worship" is broadly used to describe a musical genre, not necessarily having anything to do with the lyrics.  Much of the "worship" music these days has nothing to do with actually worshiping our Creator but rather is focused on human feel-good emotions.*

Chris, you bring up an interesting point too: that [one of] the primary reason[s] these radio stations exist is for evangelism.  Of course, worship (in its true meaning) music could be used as a means of evangelism, but it seems silly to apply something meant for God to an unbeliever when one could just as easily present them the Gospel directly.  I guess what I'm getting at is maybe before we are too critical of these radio stations, we should have a good understanding of what their intent is.  (For the record, I absolutely loathe Christian soft-rock/"worship"/CCM/whataever-it's-called and will move faster for the off-switch than I will in most any other situations besides maybe avoiding a marauding moose.)  Is their primary goal to be "positive and encouraging," to evangelize, to be a means/platform of tying together people all over the nation in corporate worship, or...?  I have no idea myself, but I think these are important questions.




*and of course rhyming with "oceans" and other water references hahahaha.

I would think that their goal would be to engage Christians and edify (build their faith with the word of God in song).  I would also think that you would want to reach new listeners who are not believers even if the songs they hear are just tiny little baby steps towards Jesus.

With that said, there is almost nothing presented on CCM radio that remotes sounds like mainstream music channels.  Where are the pop divas, the hip-hop & rap artists, etc.?  Contemporary nowadays just means cheaply made art that has little to do with what the world listens to.  If you want to attract listeners, you need to somewhat sound like them. I know we are called to be separate from the world, but I believe that this applies more to how we treat people than it does musical styles.  If that were the case, then everything we love like Bride, Stryper, etc. were all of the devil, too.

alldatndensum wrote:

K-Love here plays the same worship driven stuff that WAY-FM and The Fish do.  It's sad.

Indeed it is if they have mellowed as well. They had been CCM with some rock like Skillet and Disciple thrown in.

Interesting thread guys. Sorry you're losing your favourite station, Oldiesmann. Air1 is definitely not the first station to go weird. I think radio is becoming less and less relevant -- not just for Christian music, but for all genres -- so stations are faced with making challenging decisions to stay afloat. So many stations are closing their doors or becoming pre-recorded shows to save money or parring down their catalogues to save the expense or, like Air1, changing their format. Everything is streaming. A few years ago, NZ's largest rock station (it's in the top five for all genres) cancelled their longest standing metal show. There was a public outcry, but it didn't make a difference -- the station didn't budge. No matter, the DJ just started it back up on i-heart. It's still going strong. So yeah, I don't think radio is a good place to look to measure the musical heartbeat of the nation. There are some fabulous Christian internet radio shows...course that doesn't help if you drive an ancient car like mine that can't play from your phone. Sigh.   

At least I'm far from the only one who doesn't like the new format. Hopefully they'll see the error of their ways (despite claiming that this change was in response to a large portion of listeners and donors wanting to hear more worship music) and go back to the old format soon. In the meantime I've found ChristianHits.net to be a great alternative.

Jen5 wrote:

So yeah, I don't think radio is a good place to look to measure the musical heartbeat of the nation. There are some fabulous Christian internet radio shows...course that doesn't help if you drive an ancient car like mine that can't play from your phone. Sigh.   

You can add an aftermarket stereo to your car that has either a micro headphone input jack (IF your phone still has the jack) or Bluetooth enabled.  My truck stereo has both of those and came with Sirus/XM as well. Sadly, the Christian station available for XM is the same format as normal terrestrial stations.

Luckily, I have the input jack.  I use my FiiO player a lot.  I have almost 200 GB of music on it both Christian and secular.  Wherever I go, it goes.  I can stream music with my phone, but I hate to do that as I know how precious little artists get paid for their work with that.  At least with buying the music, the artist got paid a little bit more for their wares.

^As a birthday gift to myself, I bought a new stereo from [url=Crutchfield.com]Crutchfield.com[/url].  They're super helpful and provide you with everything you need to install (detailed instructions, cable harness, etc.).  I've bought from them before and have always been very happy with their selection, service, and prices.  I definitely recommend going to them if you're in the market for a stereo!

Bummer. I discovered KLRD 90.1 in SoCal back around 1990. Loved that station as they played everything - Mastedon, Novella, Petra, Rick Cua, DC Talk, Steve Camp, Keith Green, etc. 
Friday nights they had a show called "Reality Rock" where they'd play Vengeance R, Tourniquet, Barren Cross, Bloodgood, etc
I was a new believer so I ate it all up. Loved that there was such a wide variety of sounds and talents in the Christian community. Around 1995 they suddenly changed. No more of my favorite DJs and great songs, it was now "AIR1". The variety was no longer there imo. I tried to like it, but lost interest rather quickly. I still have some old recordings from KLRD with the DJs. I transferred them from cassette to digital and listen to them every couple years. Brings back very good memories of good times. 

I think someone should put together a Christian music "oldies" station playing only 70s, 80s, and 90s Christian music - NO P&W ! P&W is great, but for me it's "praise" and "worship" - I generally treat it more as an "action" than a listen. When I play Maranatha albums, I engage in singing and actively praising and worshiping God. When I listen to Christian pop, rock, rap, etc I am enjoying the music and jamming to it. I never mix them on compilations I create to listen to. I just don't. So a station that plays 70s-90s only would be KILLER ! I'd totally listen !

Jen5 wrote:

There are some fabulous Christian internet radio shows...course that doesn't help if you drive an ancient car like mine that can't play from your phone. Sigh.   

Or if you don't have a phone, like me. "Stream for free" — whaaa? Show me the free download section so I can fill up my 10-year-old iPod — you know, one that has a real headphone jack.

ChristTrekker wrote:

Jen5 wrote:

There are some fabulous Christian internet radio shows...course that doesn't help if you drive an ancient car like mine that can't play from your phone. Sigh.   

Or if you don't have a phone, like me. "Stream for free" — whaaa? Show me the free download section so I can fill up my 10-year-old iPod — you know, one that has a real headphone jack.

I hear ya CT. That phone I spoke of died a couple weeks before Christmas so I resurrected an old flip phone to at least have some way of staying in touch with home when I went camping over Christmas hols. I'm still using that flip phone cause the old (not old but bust) one is being passed around like a hot potato between the supplier and the shop I got it from..."not my problem..." "no, no, no, it's not my problem...that's your problem" "I said, it's not my problem..." "And I said it IS your problem" 

"Sigh...actually, it's my problem guys. Please just fix my phone."

Stupid flip phone!

But seriously, if you're wanting free downloads, ChristTrekker, Kelly Matthews' Divine Aggression Radio show gets posted on Spotify (or is it i-tunes???) for free download and possibly some of the other shows on Reanimated Radio get posted there too (but you'd have to check them out yourself). I know Kelly's show is posted because he premiered our single "Savior" on his show and John got a copy from Spotify (or i-tunes...can't remember which).

The big concern a lot of people had when all the Christian labels were being bought up by mainstream media corporations was that the artists would be pressured to water down their content to make the music more marketable to a wider audience.  What happened was actually closer to the opposite:  the artists were encouraged to make their content more "Christian" to make it sell better in the already-established market.  Let's face it, Christian music, as far as the industry is concerned, is all about preaching to the choir.  Evangelism isn't an industry concern, numbers are.  Where Air-1/KLove/and other "listener-supported" media are concerned, the donors speak loudest because it is their money that keeps them on the air.  So if their donors want to hear more Hillsong/Bethel/Jesus Culture/Chris Tomlin/etc. by golly, that's what they are gonna hear.  That's why I quit listening to Christian radio a long time ago.  I download to my phone from my collection and roll with it.  That being said, I used to listen to Air 1 a lot (because it was the rockier of the two stations) and discovered some good stuff through it like Decypher Down.

Wait, you guys listen to Christian radio? I'd fall asleep driving if I did.

Black Rider wrote:

Wait, you guys listen to Christian radio? I'd fall asleep driving if I did.

Same here.
I think there has been one dominate Christian radio station in my part of the state for 30+ years.  For the most part they have never played anything that rocked.  Back it the day it was Gaither's etc....in the early 2000's it was Chris Tomlin with the occasional "heavy" song from Third Day, now it's nothing but Hill Song.  With the exception of the odd Third Day song here in there I never liked 99.9% of what they played and refused to listen.

Black Rider wrote:

Wait, you guys listen to Christian radio? I'd fall asleep driving if I did.

lol. That's funny.

Our biggest Christian radio station used to have a kickin' rock/metal show they played on Friday nights. You definitely wouldn't fall asleep listening to that show, but about two years ago they axed it. Sad day for CHM in this country cause that was the best place for NZ bands to share their good work with like-minded Kiwis (and earn a little money to finance their next song). Sigh. No more

I remember independent Christian radio back in the late 90s. They could program what they wanted. Like the singer/songwriter Sunday evening show, or the "hard stuff after 9" show, or the noontime up-and-coming bands hour. Got introduced to stuff I never would have discovered otherwise, like Five Iron Frenzy (had no idea what ska was at that point), the Electrics, etc. I miss those days.

Guilty/Forgiven wrote:

I think someone should put together a Christian music "oldies" station playing only 70s, 80s, and 90s Christian music - NO P&W ! P&W is great, but for me it's "praise" and "worship" - I generally treat it more as an "action" than a listen. When I play Maranatha albums, I engage in singing and actively praising and worshiping God. When I listen to Christian pop, rock, rap, etc I am enjoying the music and jamming to it. I never mix them on compilations I create to listen to. I just don't. So a station that plays 70s-90s only would be KILLER ! I'd totally listen !

Someone already has. https://christianclassicrock.net/

Black Rider wrote:

Wait, you guys listen to Christian radio? I'd fall asleep driving if I did.

I used to flip it on in the mornings a few years ago just because I liked WAY-FM's morning DJ and some of the silly stuff they'd do on the show.  I grew tired of the music and quit.  

We will flip on The Message sometimes on the way to church since we drive so far now.  We hear very few songs that move us and less that musically interest us.

Most of the time, I have my FiiO player with me (hi-def music player) that has literally hundreds of albums on it.  If I am going to listen to music, that is where most comes from.  If I don't know what I want to hear, I will flip to my XM and listen to either Hair Nation or Ozzy's Boneyard with occasional forays to Bluesville or The 80s on 8.  If I am not listening to music in the truck, then I am usually listening to our local WWTN (Supertalk 99.7) to hear Phil Valentine in the afternoons.