Lessons from Politics for Christian Broadcasters

By Don Hughes

President, CEO of Great Plains Christian Radio
KJIL, KHYM, KJOV, KJRL, KNGM

If you were to talk to Karl Rove, Dick Morris, Frank Lutz or any of the big names in political consulting they would speak with reverence about the work of Lee Atwater in development of political strategies. Yes, at times they also may talk of his being somewhat questionable in use of what some may call dirty politics. Observations of what we see on the surface of political campaigns are key indicators that behind the scenes it is far worse.

A man that is credited with the development of current political strategies is Lee Atwater. Lee worked on Ronald Reagan's campaigns and engineered the George Bush 1988 campaign against Michael Dukakis. Atwater became the Republican National Chairman before discovering he had a cancerous brain tumor. He died in 1991 at the age of 40. Before his death he became a Christian. Atwater even contacted candidates that were the recipient of some of his political dirty tricks to apologize. A movie is to be released soon titled "Boogie Man" about the life of Lee Atwater.

I graduated from high school with Lee in 1969 and we made contact again in 1984 when I worked for him doing voice work for a number of political campaigns. There were times when I sat around his office between recording sessions with candidates and I listened and learned. There were times when I questioned Lee about how he was conducting a campaign and other times he would just begin to talk about political science. I listened, learned and applied some ideas into my work in radio. I observed and watched the results of what Lee told me as it plays out in political campaigns and in radio.

Here is a fact...the candidate that rises to the top is not the one who has the most qualifications, but rather the one with low negatives. It was a strategy of Atwater to raise an opponent's negatives. It is an understatement to say the process is not very kind. We can see that in the current political race for President. Senator Obama did not have a lot of negative press in the early Democratic Primaries. Accusations have been widespread concerning low key coverage of what may be considered negative aspects of Obama's record. When the negative press began the Senator was able to ride his early lead to gain the nomination. It was low negatives early in the primary process that created success for Senator Obama.

You will notice too that adding Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as The Vice Presidential candidate caused Senator John McCain to gain the lead following the Democratic and Republican Conventions. The idea of a conservative Pro-Life female ignited the Republican base. There were women voters attracted to the ticket as well. Since very few people knew much about Sarah Palin she had low negatives. The national media and Democratic Party went into overdrive to raise her negatives as quickly as possible.

The point of this article is not to analyze the campaign for president, but to learn lessons that can be used in Christian broadcasting. I see this principal of the application of "low negatives" play out every day in many walks of life. There are exceptions of course, but in so many ways the person, the movie, the song, the band, the political candidate that emerges on top is the one with low negatives. Outside of politics it is not always something that is planned, but it just works out that way.
Since I learned this principle almost a quarter century ago I have seen it occur in the process of songs in Christian music that rise to the top. Now there are those super hits like "I can Only Imagine" that capture everyone's attention. However, very often at the end of the year when the charts come out we all look at the list and wonder how certain songs end up at the top. Keep in mind these charts are based on radio station airplay. Music directors look for those hit songs that will capture the listener's attention; however there are those songs with broad agreement it is a good song, but perhaps not one that soars to the top of the chart. However, the song is played by many stations not because it is a hit, but because it has what turns out to be "low negatives." Many times the song with low negatives ends up being the top song for the year.

Basically speaking you may have the opinion that you are picking the hits. However, in actuality your listening audience is very diverse and you are picking the hits for only a segment of your listening audience. Programmers without realizing it choose songs outside of "the hits" that are not within the realm of the preference for the overall majority, but rather the tolerance of the majority within a given format. Not everyone has the same "favorite songs." In other words it is the collective impact of an on-air music library of songs with low negatives that creates the biggest impact on the popularity of a given station.

Here is another bit of useful political strategy that comes from Lee Atwater, "Find an eighty percent issue and have your picture taken next to it." My mind started racing with ideas. We as Christians are surrounded with eighty percent issues and even higher. There are all kinds of things we can use to minister to people and show them what the ministry supports. Even if someone does not openly embrace and participate in the things associated with the station they are certainly not offended by these images and ideas. If they were they would not be listening to us anyway. You create a situation where you have an eighty percent theme that also has low negatives.

Here is an example of an application of this strategy we have used at Great Plains Christian Radio. We have sent out copies of the Ten Commandments suitable for framing. Many times we have a public outcry about the posting of the Ten Commandments in class rooms and court rooms. We issued a challenge to post them in our homes and churches. Our listeners were thrilled with the idea and those that did not embrace the idea were at least not offended. There are so many ways you can shape the image of your station by using those things upon which we all agree.
This is nothing new. Even though our founding fathers may not have realized what they were doing, look at the main themes in the Declaration of Independent. Here is the most quoted and remember phrase, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." If you had taken a survey you would have found that colonial America was upset over the Stamp Act, but not ready to die over it. The target of the document is the King and not England or even Parliament. Most colonists maintained a kindred spirit with their homeland and had relatives and friends living there. The King brought the greatest feeling of resentment and their unity of thought among the colonist. The persuasive words of the famous 1776 document and the writings of Thomas Paine changed the course of human events. What will fill your listeners with such vision for your radio ministry?

If you are like most Christian stations you rely on donations for support associating yourself with images and words that illustrate agreement creates a vision of the outreach for your station and creates personal ownership. Vision and ownership are two very keys goals you must voice for people to feel comfortable about sending a donation in support. Low negatives, the illustration of agreement and unity will add to the vision and personal ownership for the radio station adding to the much needed financial support.

John McCain's campaign lacked enthusiasm among the united base of the Republican Party in the early weeks of the campaign, but the addition of Sarah Palin electrified the base. What will electrify the base of your listening audience? So often I see stations that are trying to develop their format to exclude anything that may offend someone. However, in so doing the station is is so passive there is nothing to motivate and electrify their core listening audience. Your goal is to reach for the excitement that Sarah Palin brought to the Republican ticket and maintain that enthusiasm every year. You will need to have a promotion or element in your programming every few months that will renew the vision.

Various studies of Christian broadcasting have shown that seventy percent of the listeners are women. However, you need to consider what pollster Frank Lutz has said in his book, Words that Work, "Myth: American Women all respond to messages like..women. It is true that there are real differences in men's and women's policy priorities, and one great ideological divide: Women typically put more faith in government than men, so they are less hostile toward Washington. Once you get beyond this one generalization, though, women are as different from one another as they are from men. Whether you are a Republican or a Democrat, a CEO or a salesperson, it's a profound mistake to treat women as a single, monolithic bloc. It should be so obvious as to go without saying that not all women are alike, but you'd be hard-press to find political strategists who recognize it and actually act on it." I can add that this is a truth that Christian broadcasters have not come to realize. You can ask any female about this, except Becky.

Once someone has gained a political office, if they intend on being reelected they need to engage in constituent service. Someone holding elected office needs to do what they said they would do. Whenever someone writes or calls about a concern the staff and system of response needs to be in place. The key element of the contact is that the constituent needs to feel that their concerns have been heard.

In our work in broadcasting we need to relate to our listeners as individuals and not as a block of people. When a listener sends a donation they will of course receive a "thank you note?" What about going beyond the routine receipt and even call the person to tell them, "Thank you." When someone asks you to pray, is there really prayer. We gather every morning to pray at Great Plains Christian Radio and send the individual a card letting them know of our prayers signed by each of those in the prayer circle that morning. In our work in Christian radio it is far more than constituent service.

We can be thankful in implementing these strategies that we do not have to battle the constant analysis of the political pundits in broadcast and print media. However, we do have the "Prince of the power of the air (waves), Eph. 2:2, to contend with. However, we have an advocate in Jesus. Remember always that God can wildly bless a simple act of faith.

Don Hughes Pres / CEO Great Plains Christian Radio Box 991 909 West Carthage Meade, Kansas 67864-0991 620-873-2991 (voice) 620-873-2755 (fax)