Christian Radio Stations, Contemporary Christian Music and Gospel Radio, Alive With Hope

As individually created people we have an immense privilege over the angels. You may recall that the angel that appeared to Cornelius in the book of Acts 10 was not allowed to mention the name of Jesus or speak to him about salvation, but we are. That’s because that holy and high privilege was and still is reserved for men and women, people like you and me. All the angel was allowed to say was “Now send men to Joppa and send for Simon Peter (shortened from Acts 10:5). This mighty angel from the depths of heaven had to bow to Peter’s higher privilege as a man rather than an angel.

An great way to spread His Gospel message is through the power of radio. The cost compared to alternative media is very inexpensive and radio can be tailored to a specific outreach, be that raising awareness for a cause or ministry, increasing congregation size of fulfilling the Lord’s calling to spread the Gospel message. And because radio is a passive medium as opposed to say print or television, people can do other things while engaging with a radio message. This is a huge plus in our busy lives today.

Time is of the essence in fact the Bible speaks of it as “imminence”. And while the Gospel is eternal we don’t have eternity to preach it. Each of us has an individual “call to action” right now to do his or her part to reach as many souls as possible and save them into the eternal salvation. There are literally hundreds of ways in which to do this.

Most recently technology and the media has opened up new doors as never before to flood the gates of heaven and while within that hundreds of individual ways to make known salvation through Christ. One excellent way that has been tried and proven true is that of broadcast radio.

In addition, radio can be individualized. Because there are so many smaller and unique stations and such a wide variety of formats, radio is truly one of the few communications platforms that can be custom tailored to an individual calling. As one example let’s say a church, ministry or humanitarian cause wants to move beyond the “four walls” of their current outreach, radio represents and excellent way to do this with very little outlay of resource. That’s because it is easy to produce radio content – often times existing sermons can be modified for radio – and it is relatively inexpensive.

It is also to move your outreach from say a Christian radio station format to Country, where the scope of actual converted Christian listeners may indeed be fewer, those ripe for the harvest may indeed be plenty – something God calls upon us in the Book of Acts to more than just consider.

There are several great resources to learn more about how you can utilize radio to increase awareness for your ministry and utilize radio for a Gospel outreach, several of which can be found on the internet search “gospel radio today” to learn more.

French Music – Are Radio Stations In France More Open To Foreign Music Than Us?

Travelling on countless buses in France, almost every bus I ever travelled on used to have the radio on. This is very very rare in the UK but the norm in France. I found out something interesting while I was living over there, which is that French radio stations have to play at least one Anglophone song for every two French songs that are played. This cultural crossover does wonders for English songs and their sales and airplay but what do the French get in return for this? We never hear French songs played on British radio stations, and for that matter we never hear foreign language songs played on our radio stations… unless the track is a viral phenomenon like PSY’s Gangnam Style. So why is this? Honestly, I believe it is because French music is not as good as British or American music. The days of Edith Piaf are long gone and I believe we are not open to the idea of foreign language music because we already have too much choice from current British and American artists.

French language students are always encouraged to listen to French radio stations via the internet, but apart from the stations that are mostly chat, I feel you may as well listen to radio 1 as chériefm, for example. However, aside from the negatives of British radio not playing much foreign language music, as least there are stations on the internet where you can listen to French music, or any other language I dare say. I also hope that these stations keep being found and listened to by English speakers as there is so much French music out there and stations such as the aforementioned chériefm even have many different genres and decades of music to choose from; so if you love indie music or music from the ’70s, there is a station solely dedicated to playing those sorts of songs.

I suppose as well that as long as you keep listening to the stations, all of their adverts, news and weather will be in French so you can keep up to date with French current affairs straight from their source country. With all this said, I feel it is important to reiterate the fact that French radio stations are flying the flag for the English-French crossover in music, and if you keep listening, you may just discover a hidden French gem of an artist or song that will inspire you to research French music further.

Ride Your Horse to Music and Solve Training Issues!

Ride your HORSE to MUSIC and solve training issues! Whether you are riding a dressage musical freestyle, or just riding your horse to music, there are TIPS you should know before you start. Over the years, you have told me that the most important thing to you is that you want the RIGHT MUSIC for your HORSE and you WANT TO HAVE FUN!!

You’ve also told me that:
* You want help recognizing the rhythm of your horse’s gaits.
* You can’t maintain a rhythm.
* You and your horse are nervous and you need help relaxing.
* You’re tired of seeing “4″s for loss of rhythm on your dressage tests.
* You’re frustrated because there is no harmony between you and your horse.
* You don’t know what the right tempo is for your horse.
* You don’t know the difference between rhythm and tempo.
* You don’t know what type of music to choose.
* You can’t hear the difference between walk, trot, and canter music.
* You can’t identify the tempo (or BPM) of music.
* You are tired of buying so many CDs when they only have one good song for riding.

Here’s how I got started…

I grew up in a musical family so learning to read music and play various instruments was ingrained into me early in life. But most of all, I’ve always loved listening to music. (I always had the radio on in the barn.)

But riding to music became a necessity when I got a high strung Trakehner gelding to re-train. This horse was so incredibly tense, and fearful that simply trotting in one rhythm was IMPOSSIBLE. Anyhow, one day I was trying to trot around the arena, when a perfectly cadenced Scottish bagpipe march came on the radio. That horse picked up a swinging, rhythmic trot all by himself! AND he was breathing in time to the music. (Yes, I even have two witnesses to this!)

I was completely shocked. After that, I became fascinated with how music affects both the horse and rider, and my quest began. As I developed my business creating musical freestyles, I was time and time amazed at how perfect music could improve and enhance the horse’s movement and the rider’s rhythm! When the music fit the horse and rider, both the quality of the gaits and movements improved. The music enhanced both the artistic aspect and the technical side of the ride. Because rhythm was maintained!

I thought this was AMAZING, so I wanted to learn more…

I was stunned by the things I learned such as:

* Studies show that music affects our physiology. Slow music slows the heartbeat and the breathing rate as well as brings down blood pressure. Faster music speeds up these same functions.
* Listening to your favorite music is good for your cardiovascular system. Researchers have shown that joyful music has a healthy effect on blood vessel function.
* Riding to music increases your endurance and feelings of well-being. Studies show that exercising to music improves endurance by 15% and improve the “feeling states” so, people derive much greater pleasure from exercise. (Those cool endorphins!!)
* Many hospitals use music to treat patients with stress-related illnesses to stimulate the brain and relax the body.
* Music affects both sides of your brain, so whether you are a left-brain logical thinker or a right-brain artistic thinker, music helps you ride better.
* Even animals react differently to various types of music. Given a choice, rats will choose calm classical music over hard rock every time.
* Music can also influence brainwaves. Faster beats make you more alert and slower beats help you relax.
* Music creates a long-lasting change in brainwave activity. That means that music can bring lasting benefits to your state of mind, even after you’ve stopped listening.
* Music filters out background noises so that you and your horse can concentrate better.
* Music acts as an INTERNAL metronome to help you maintain a regular rhythm.
* Music puts you in a more positive state of mind, helping to keep depression and anxiety at bay.

The bottom line is… it’s fun to ride to music! Rhythm and relaxation are essential for EVERYONE including dressage riders, trail riders, hunter riders, and western pleasure riders.

Selecting and Clearing Music For Radio Commercials

Proper music selection and proper music clearance for radio commercials is an important step in the radio advertising process. Whether you are a radio station, an ad agency, a voice-over talent, or an independent production company it is imperative that you do a good job choosing the right music for your spot, as well as getting the proper music clearance for your project. Royalty free music libraries are a great place to start, as they have many different styles of music that can be previewed online.

Choosing the right song is typically the easy part. As you sit down to create your radio commercial, ask yourself the following question: “what is the mood that I need to support with my choice of music?” For example, if you are creating a public service announcement designed to tug at the heartstrings, your music choice should be emotional, mild, and slightly dramatic. On the other hand, if you are trying to sell the latest and greatest fitness equipment, you probably would want to steer the music toward some high energy, workout music. Ultimately, the music and the copy need to support each other. A radio commercial with well selected music can bring a far greater return than one that is put together without a lot of thought given to the production music.

For most people, proper music clearance is a bit more complicated than selecting your music. For example, if a radio commercial is read as a “live spot” on the air, the station can use almost any music in the background that is covered by their ASCAP or BMI licenses. The key here is that the music is not repeated consistently, or used so frequently as to be construed as theme music for that particular radio commercial.

On the contrary, most radio commercials are produced once for multiple broadcasts. Regardless of who is producing the radio commercial or where it is being produced, proper music clearance is a vital step in staying on the right side of the law. When you synchronize a piece of music with your commercial, you will need to get music clearance from the owners or representatives of that musical work (the music publisher) and of the owners of the master recordings (sometimes the publisher, sometimes the record label, sometimes the artist, etc.). Royalty free music libraries are a great place to start because they can typically grant full music clearance on both the musical work (copyright) and master recordings.

If you are hiring someone to create your radio commercial for you, the responsibility for the music clearance typically falls on the radio station, ad agency, or production company who actually creating the spot for you. It is always a good policy to discuss music clearance with them to make sure everyone is on the same page.

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