Catholic Radio

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asenn

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Blessings all. I live in the Twin Cities and we currently have RELEVANT RADIO on the AM dial. However, EWTN RADIO is now doing a push to enter into new markets on the FM bandwidths since there is a rare opportunity to do so. I am feeling called to spearhead this expansion into the Twin City market.

My question to you… is it a good idea to have 2 Catholic radio stations in one market? Will it double the evangelization force? Or will it split the market and result in mutual failure? Should I proceed earnestly or should I stand down? Any thoughts or feedback is most welcome. Thank you.
 
asenn said:
Blessings all. I live in the Twin Cities and we currently have RELEVANT RADIO on the AM dial. However, EWTN RADIO is now doing a push to enter into new markets on the FM bandwidths since there is a rare opportunity to do so. I am feeling called to spearhead this expansion into the Twin City market.

My question to you… is it a good idea to have 2 Catholic radio stations in one market? Will it double the evangelization force? Or will it split the market and result in mutual failure? Should I proceed earnestly or should I stand down? Any thoughts or feedback is most welcome. Thank you.
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Can you have meetings with people from both radio stations and discuss this concern with them?

You can ask how other places have done when EWTN was added to their airwaves. You should be able to see statistics from other areas when they went from one station to two by adding EWTN.

The Catholic Channel on Sirius Satellite 129 is my favorite radio station.
 
i dont know about your area but i would appreciate an fm station here. it is often hard to get the am channel through clearly. i can’t get the station at all in the house unless i get it through my computer and even then i sometimes have problems with it.
 
It is always better to have a choice. We have an AM Catholic station in my area, FM would come in clearer on all devices.
 
I agree with some of the other posts, that both radio stations should only help. If both radio stations understand that were One, Holy Apostolic Church then I have no problem with it.
 
Please do jump in. I had a frank discussion with my pastor who wants to push the New Evangelization but through social media. His concern was that nobody uses ‘radio’ anymore. I told him our diocese has a 24-hour all-Catholic broadcast but only available on **digital **FM receivers. I told the pastor what about the shut-ins, the elderly, the inmates, the marginalized who only have access to analog receivers. The gospel, I believe, is directed to all men and women, not just those who are cyber-connected.

To those hardy souls who have the wherewithal to put up a low-power FM station, go right ahead. Put EWTN on the air. If you were in my neighborhood, I’d give you a few dollars to get going.

Joe
 
RoseMary131 said:
Can you have meetings with people from both radio stations and discuss this concern with them?

You can ask how other places have done when EWTN was added to their airwaves. You should be able to see statistics from other areas when they went from one station to two by adding EWTN.

The Catholic Channel on Sirius Satellite 129 is my favorite radio station.
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I think this is good advice. My daughter worked for NBC Sports and as an economist until a few weeks ago (she moved to Bloomberg). Her job there was to analyze research and determine the effectivene$$ of programming in light of advertising revenue, and to segment the markets according to various demographic data. All of this data (and more) is essential to making good decisions. If I understand it correctly, Catholic stations are not looking for maximum profit like NBC or Bloomberg would. Instead, they are looking to cover all of their costs to bring their programming to that market, and expand their base, which are two different businesses.

I know some of the people involved with Relevant Radio. Here is a VERY broad example of part of their decision making on which new markets to pursue. Are people in their cars driving to and from work, or in their neighborhood, driving to school, etc? They have found that a significant percentage of their audience listens in the car. Therefore they have so far not moved forward with programming in New York City, since most people there aren’t driving their own cars (instead taking cabs and public transit) and therefore can’t listen. I think that is why they have spent so much researching and perfecting the I-phone and Android aps for cell phones, which people take everywhere.

I don’t know how many stations the Twin Cities can take before there is market saturation and withdrawal. :confused:
 
Even though I listen to EWTN, I’d love to have an alternative Catholic station in my area.

There are tons of protestant choices on my radio dial! Why not let Catholics have a couple of choices too?
 
Thank you all for the excellent feedback! I did speak with Relevant Radio and they are all for supporting a new FM low range station in the market area. They specifically said that they were not in completion with EWTN since we are One Church. They did say however, that they would like to split the programming with EWTN so as to be included with this endeavor. I was very encouraged after this conversation. I am also very encouraged by all the feedback I received here on the forum. There are a couple of more conversations that I have planned with Relevant Radio and EWTN and would love to keep you all posted if that is okay. Thank you again and God bless!!!
 
I agree with Relevant Radio & EWTN not being competing. Relevant Radio’s primary programming seems to be in the morning through afternoon drive time. The primary programming that people probably tune in to on EWTN will be the simulcasts of their primetime tv shows (Journey Home, Life on the Rock, etc.) which occur while RR is re-running shows from earlier in the day. The only place where I would see a lot of direct competition would be when both are covering ‘live’ events, such as World Youth Day or Papal Elections or stuff like that.

My biggest fear would actually be that two stations could be tapping into a limited pool of local funding for donations. Someone who was donating to RR might switch to EWTN, thus hurting the local RR funding. Ad dollars are finite between the companies who would likely advertise as well.

But, it might also offer a good opportunity for Relevant Radio in the Cities. If RR owns it’s own studios and tower, they could contract with EWTN to host their equipment/transmitter/etc. in their facilites, which could help offset some of the funding issues (I doubt a low-power FM would buy it’s own tower & studio, most in those situations contract with a larger station in the market. The tv station I used to work for had 1 or 2 low-power stations renting tower & transmitter building space).
 
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