The station which said, 'Good idea, but, No,' gave the best feedback.
"...there is just not a big interest in "old classic" Christian music. ...Christian radio is one of the fastest growing formats, but because of how far Christian music has come, no one really knows or cares about the older stuff. I think that in 10-12 years, you can have an "oldies" Christian format playing "old Switchfoot and Third Day stuff, THEN people would listen... ...most people that listen to Christian radio now have only listened for 3-5 years, and they haven't heard of Whiteheart, or Larry Norman, or Steve Taylor."
"Haven't heard" is the whole point. It's not just the old stuff, but also the wealth of new music that's not getting the attention it deserves. I have a theory. If the sort of older music I'm trying to promote had gotten heard back when it came out, and if the newer music that fits that classic rock sound got heard the way it should, it'd be a whole lot more popular than it is. The reason people "don't want to hear it" is that they don't know about it.
When I was a kid, the kind of contemporary Christian music (CCM) that reached my ears was mostly acoustic guitar campfire stuff. The singers and guitar player sway in unison while star-filtered glints of light bounce from big smiles and bright eyes. If it wasn't that, it was the kind that made you feel like you were dancing through gardens of bright pastel blossoms with lots of puppies and kitties and fawns scampering around in slow motion, with an occasional songbird landing on your shoulder to sing sweetly in your ear. Oh yeah, there were also rainbows, sunbeams and through the air were pretty drifting flower petals. That's just not a picture most junior high and high school boys can fit into.
I developed my musical taste in avoidance of such a syrupy-sweet pink-and-blue Barbie-aisle world. It just wasn't real. When I heard "Christian music," that's what came to mind, so I shunned it in favor of the likes of Led Zeppelin, David Bowie, ZZ Top, CCR, Cream, Alice Cooper, Beatles, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Queen and Black Sabbath. That's a far cry from Kum-ba-yah and sugar and spice and everything nice. I'm not the only boy who grew up in the '60s to early '80s who felt that way.
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