As Australia’s self-proclaimed biggest
fan of Southern Gospel music, I was excited when I discovered the station,
and it quickly became a favourite. Last week I interviewed Carl (by email)
about the challenges he has faced.
* Your station’s so
great. I’d love to hear how you got started.
Carl: I gave my testimony
as a teen on Pat Robertson's original television station in my hometown of
Norfolk/Portsmouth, Virginia. Someone came out after the programme and said,
“How would you like to be a radio announcer?” It was my bass voice that
caught their attention.
About that same time, as a
new Christian, I was looking for Christian music to enjoy and heard some
quartet music on a local country station. I went to hear the Blackwood
Brothers and the Statesmen when they came to town, and was hooked forever.
Over the years I have
dreamed of having an all-music station that featured only quartets. I think
four-part harmony is the fullest and allows the most creativity.
About two years ago the
Lord started laying this idea on my heart. My wife and I prayed about it as
I researched the possibilities, and in September 2001 we felt the final okay
from the Lord and ordered equipment.
Almost immediately I was
laid off from work, but Carlotta and I both felt the Lord wanted us to use
our money for the station, so we did.
* Why the internet? I
thought I was being adventurous launching a website, but an online radio
station sounds a huge task.
Carl: It is affordable. The
start-up costs are a small fraction of what a good over-the-air station
would be. Plus, it gives us broader reach. Anyone in the world with access
to the internet can listen.
* How's your audience?
Carl: The audience numbers
are good. I look at them now and realise how only a few months ago I was
saying if we had half the listeners we do now that would be wonderful. We
are the Number One Southern Gospel station on
Live365, the largest
streaming audio provider in the world.
My goal and prayer is that
we will have an audience four times the size we have now within the next one
to two years. Internet audio is still a growing medium, though it has slowed
in growth a bit since 9-11. And the royalty issue in the US forced thousands
of webcasters off the air. Thank God we are still here.
* How have you handled
the royalty problem?
Carl: No one except the
record industry expected royalties to be set so high. It would have cost our
station $4,000 to $5,000 a year. But providentially, we did not start
broadcasting until January of last year. If we had been on air prior to 1998
we would probably have been bankrupted. Some of the large multi-million
dollar companies owed huge amounts of back royalties and decided that was
enough.
Thank God, as I studied the
law, I saw a way legally to get around the issues by obtaining royalty-free
licences from the groups I play. I had a lawyer prepare a form, and
unbelievably we got four of the five big quartet recording labels to sign,
and we've forged agreements with scores of quartets.
This was a huge task. God's
hand was certainly in it to get some of the people we did to sign. As it
was, we still had to pay over $2,100 in royalties for what we played from
January until October, when we switched to the royalty-free music format.
* How are your
finances? Are you getting much advertising? What can listeners like me do to
help keep you on air?
Carl: Finances are the only
real challenge we face. We need about $1,700 a month to operate and we've
only received that much one month. We are not big enough to sell much
advertising because advertisers are scared of internet radio.
So we rely on
donations. Unfortunately, a large percentage of our listeners never make a
donation. We really need to get more people making monthly commitments. We
have a place on our website for donations.
My prayer is to bring in
enough regular donations that we won't ever have to put emergency appeals on
the air again. I would much prefer to keep the emphasis on the music.
* Finally, what are
some of your "desert island discs", the recordings you’d have to take if you
were stranded on a desert island?
Carl: I would need so
many that they might cause the ship to sink. But I could get by with some
from the Melody Boys Quartet, the Dove Brothers, the Modern Statesmen
Quartet, the Harmonizing Four (a black quartet from the 50's that sang
outstanding music very similar to Southern Gospel) and a quartet record
featuring tenors Larry Ford and Bobby Clark. I would also need some Andy
Williams and Perry Como.
February
8th,
2003
