American commentator and musician RICK ALTIZER looks at US radio's current obsession with numbers.

Rick Altizer

We Americans love to count. "How many people go to your church?" "How many units did your last CD sell?" "How many stations added your single this week?" We measure success with numbers and figures. This numeric obsession has even sunk its fangs into the Christian music industry. Now, I understand the interest in numbers from the record companies. CDs cost money to record and distribute. If they don't sell enough CDs they don't get enough money. No money means no more record company. Where the number game gets nasty is in the area of Christian radio. And the unlikely culprit is the computer!

In the past the record companies weren't always very honest when they reported sales. Sound Scan was invented and solved the problem. Now, every time a CD is purchased it's scanned into a big computer that keeps track of the sales. These Sound Scan reports let the artists, and the world, know exactly how well (or poorly) a particular CD has sold. In the Christian music world, however, not all the bookstores that sell the CDs will Sound Scan. The major chain bookstores will Sound Scan while, for the most part, the smaller independent stores won't. Newer artists are more likely to be promoted by the independent stores while the established artists are promoted by the larger chains. Therefore, a Christian "new" artist will scan about 1/3 of his actual sales while a more established artist will report a better Sound Scan ratio.

Confused yet? I know I am. Let's just say that newer artists actually sell better than the Sound Scan numbers report - about three times better. Here comes the nasty part: The new trend in Christian radio is to add only those artists that are reporting high Sound Scan numbers. So now the criteria for which songs a radio station will play has become what the computer says. The quality of music is no longer a factor. Let me tell you about a conversation I had with a former assistant music director to the most influential CHR (Christian Hit Radio) station in America. We'll call the station KRUD. I was told the policy of KRUD was that an artist had to scan 100,000 units or more in order to be added to the station's 16 song play list (that's not top 40, not even top 20. 16 songs, over and over again). I said that I knew of a few artists KRUD was playing that didn't sell that many units. I was told if the music director of KRUD thought a song might "spice" up the play list he might add it. But basically, it's sell 100,000 copies or don't get played.

I had lunch with the current music director of KRUD (we'll call him Barry, as in Manilow) and asked him this question: "How is a new artist going to sell his CDs and get Sound Scans without airplay?" It's a great question! One for which he had no answer. What happened to radio playing songs that were creative, unique, and pleasant to listen to? The problem here is that 30 to 40 per cent of every reporting CHR station follows the lead of KRUD. Now remember, new artist Sound Scans don't start showing up until the major chains start to sell them. Without airplay the major chains are reluctant to give up valuable shelf space, so that means the new artist can't sell CDs. It's a vicious circle. What's happening is that Christian radio is shooting itself in the foot. New artists are the life blood and future of Christian music. You have to plant some seeds if you want anything to grow. How about changing that top 16 to a top 20 and make it a policy to keep four new artists on the play list at all times? Thus, planting some seeds for the future. Or, maybe you just might want to play songs that were good and leave it at that? As it is now, it's the Christian music listener who is losing out.