EMF's Randy Chase: "We're very bullish on radio"

As a non-profit organization, EMF can afford to be agnostic to the platform and focus on spreading its faith based message. Yet with recent high profile purchases of the Sound in LA and the Loop in Chicago, you continue to invest in radio first and most.

Randy: “We’re very bullish on radio and are confident that it will continue to be vibrant for many, many years to come. In fact, the current perception around radio is allowing us to buy stations at a discount and we now have full market signals in all top five markets and about 18 of the top 25.”

“Radio is head-and-shoulders the number-one consumed medium in the United States. What about that fact doesn’t excite every person in our business? However, being at the top of the hill comes with great responsibility. We must work harder each day to continue to nurture our relationship with the listener, remain relevant, and deliver content that keeps the consumer engaged.”

In the latest Nielsen Total Audience Report, radio has a 13.5 to 1 advantage in weekly TSL over streaming smartphone audio. From your perspective, how does radio maintain this dominance in a mobile environment?

Randy: “In a world of short attention spans and heavy competition, we cannot sacrifice what happens between the songs and put all the focus on the music. If we do, it will be detrimental to our medium because music is not the differentiator. What happens between the songs is our point of differentiation and we can never lose focus of that.”

Not only is what’s on the air important, but so is serving your local communities. How do you deliver on that with a national programming platform?

Randy: “In our large markets, we have event and promotions teams out on the street. In addition, our news team has the ability to go live and local 24/7/365 on any given station to provide real time news and information, so listeners know what’s going on in their community. Whether it’s a train derailment in Louisiana, wild fires in California or a hurricane hitting the Gulf Coast, we are serving local communities in a meaningful way each day. In fact, our station KHJK-FM in Houston was just nominated for an NAB Marconi award for non-comm station of the year, largely in part to our efforts during and after the hurricane.”

Speaking of your non-comm status, what sort of advantages do you have from being able to get donations directly from your listeners?

Randy: “Our donors are amazing and they fund our ministry, but we’re not in business to cater only to them. By making a product that 100% of our audience can listen to, it creates an environment where our target audience keeps tuning in and it’s something that donors want to support.”

Across markets and departments, what’s the one thing you keep instilling into your team?

Randy: “Everything we do begins with radio. Mobile apps, on demand playlists, streaming, podcasting, social media, are important ingredients to our mission driven strategy of helping people have a relationship with Christ. At EMF, it’s truly a Radio AND approach as we invest in other platforms. We are constantly asking, how can this new platform amplify and enhance our mission?”

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