Christian music finds its voice, audience

NASHVILLE, Nov. 28 (UPI) -- Bob Bender thinks he's on to something. The way he figures it...and he's done the research...there are more than 10,000 churches in the United States with memberships of 1,000 or more. Those 10 million people, he said, represent a strong marketing opportunity.

"That's really mainstream America," said Bender, who is director of Christian music sales for Curb Music. "...They are still consumers, but they are being very careful about what they purchase. You have to look at what these consumers want. And not to isolate anybody, but this isn't your hip hop crowd or grunge crowd. These are people who are raising children and they want to have some type of a positive influence...If they're country music fans they are going to realize the Christian Country Music Association can provide that consumer with a piece of product they can feel comfortable with."

The Christian Country Music Association (CCA), now in its twelfth year, is a niche market that combines two musical types, as its name suggests: Christian music and country music. Founder Gene Higgins calls the genre "music with a positive message."

Higgins started the CCA after his gospel band, the Singing Celestials, changed its style to music reminiscent of popular country groups the Oak Ridge Boys and the Gatlin Brothers.

"Our music was Christian, but with a country feel," Higgins said recently from his Music Row office in Nashville.

Higgins found a group of musicians, like himself, who floundered between Christian musical genres, such as Southern gospel and contemporary Christian, and mainstream country.

"I felt impressed to create a home, not only for them, but for myself as well," Higgins said. "It began in 1992 and I hoped to offer it as a network, with a convention and an awards show and I hoped to make it a legitimate form of business, just to give a home for this genre of music."

In its earliest years, the CCA membership was around 400. To-date the CCA has grown to include 2,300 members, which includes 800 broadcast members. The CCA also provides a magazine, "PowerSource," a two-hour radio show called "PowerSource Top 20," which is broadcast in 75 markets, and the annual four-day convention which culminates in an awards show.

This year, the show, which was held Nov. 6 at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, was broadcast live on cable's Great American Country (GAC), a country music video channel that is available to 25.7 million households.

With GAC on board as a broadcast partner for the Christian Country Music Awards, the CCA already has experienced a boost in its membership. Eighty new members have joined since the Nov. 6 airing, according to Andi Miller, director of special events for the CCA, who handles member services.

GAC executives also are pleased with the results of the partnership and have signed on for multiple years. (Durand and Higgins would not disclose the term of the contract.)

"The reason we wanted to get involved with it is we thought this was an opportunity to give this music some exposure it didn't have before and stay true to our format," said Scott Durand, vice president of marketing for the Denver-based cable network. "We've gotten quite a bit of feedback that this is what people are enjoying seeing."

In response, GAC has started airing a two-hour video block each Sunday called "Positively GAC." The videos, Durand said, combine Christian country videos with mainstream country videos that contain a positive message.

If the icing on the cake for the CCA is the Christian Country Music Awards, then the bread and butter is HMG Nashville, a compilation disc service in eight music genres, produced by CCA.

In addition to Christian country, HMG Nashville makes and promotes discs with singles from mainstream country, contemporary Christian, bluegrass, Christmas and Southern gospel. Mainstream artists, such as country's Diamond Rio, Dolly Parton, Aaron Tippin and Emerson Drive may show up alongside CCA artists whose names are yet unknown to the masses, such as Dennis Agajanian, Del Way or Paula Show, all of which took home top honors at this year's CCA Awards.

Twice a month, HMG Nashville sends out a 10-song disc to approximately 1,000 radio stations across the nation, Higgins said. Of those stations that receive the disc, a couple hundred send in weekly playlists, verifying spins for HMG Nashville's clients.

Two years ago, Higgins said, Sony Music used HMG Nashville's services to re-release music from the popular film "O Brother, Where Art Thou?"

"Sony picked up an additional 75,000 sales," Higgins said, "and they attribute that to us. The exposure also pushed (the soundtrack) back up to No. 1."

The client list is impressive, with major labels up and down Music Row, such as Mercury and Curb, employing HMG Nashville's services.

"It's really a good vehicle for us to really develop some artists who might otherwise not get the chance," Bender said about using HMG Nashville and the CCA format. "It's a good place to start."

Recently, Curb released a single by a new artist, Mark Tinney. The single "Take Me Flying" was shipped to 960 radio stations via HMG Nashville, and ended up at No. 1 on CCA's "PowerSource Top 20' chart.

"The phones just rang off the hook," Bender said, referring to a typical positive audience indicator at radio stations. "This says to us that we absolutely have something here that the radio listener wants. We need to see what else we can do to generate the same kind of electricity in the artist."

The market is right, said Bender, who has more than 20 years music industry experience, for Christian country music to soar and should not be underestimated.

"It's a great market for positive country music, not just from a country standpoint and not just from a Christian standpoint, but for enveloping both. It's a good direction for us to take some artists who may or may not get airplay on a typical top 40 country station.

"I don't think 'Jesus' has to be in every verse and every artist doesn't have to be a praise and worship act. If you have a country artist and it has a positive influence with music of that nature, it's a great vehicle."

Currently, according to Higgins, of the 800 broadcast CCA members, about half of them play Christian country at least some of the time, such as Southern gospel stations or mainstream country stations that are incorporating the Christian country singles into its playlists.

"These stations are in markets that have Walmarts," Bender said. In a business that is all about sales, with radio as a tool to drive those sales, Bender said the industry should not overlook the smaller markets.

"We have to look at the bigger picture," he said. "We have to look at where the Walmarts are. If (a song) is being played on the radio often enough, the consumer will buy it."

Currently, Higgins does not know of any stations that are formatted to play Christian country music 100 percent of the time, but he predicts a change soon.

"Before long, there's going to be quite a few Christian country stations out there," Higgins said. "It's going to happen, you can mark it down on your calendar."