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Kristin's
Career Capsule
Kristin Robert’s radio career started the first work-day of the new
millennium. In January 2000, she started voice-tracking overnights
for 91.1 WIBI in Carlinville, Illinois. She was the evening talent
for WIBI for a year or so and then moved to mid-days. After hosting
the mid-days for a year or so, she started working on the Morning
Show with Paul Anthony, and later with Josh Uecker. Feeling a call
to move on, God opened a door to co-host the morning show for the
His Radio network. March 2008 will mark 5 years as morning show
co-host of “Morning Friends: Rob & Kristin” with Rob Dempsey.
1.
Personally how do you keep the ministry in the “business”?
Sometimes it’s easy to get wrapped up in the “busyness” of the
nature of work. When we do promotions that truly make a difference
in people’s lives and lets them know that God loves them, that fires
me up to do more like that. We recently had a promotion called
“Blanket Bundles” where we collected canned food wrapped in blankets
(it makes a “bundle”). We partnered with local ministries to
distribute them to the underprivileged and homeless people they
serve. The turn-out for the 4-hour event was wonderfully
overwhelming. Each of those folks who receive anything donated from
a “Blanket Bundle”, will find out about God’s love for them.
2. Overall, how is Christian radio different today, from 5 years
ago?
I see more of an effort from radio stations to be more real and
relevant. A lot of the Christianese is being dropped from on-air
talk on CCM stations, making us more relatable to people who have
never graced the doorstep of a church yet stumbled on our radio
station. As I listen to other stations, I’ve been inspired by the
creativity of the jocks who share their faith with a raw honesty.
Although a few jocks were so wonderfully candid 5 years ago, I see a
lot of others catching on. It’s beautiful.
3. What do you think are the main characteristics of a Christian
radio Promotion Director?
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Someone who loves God
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Someone who loves people
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Someone who wants people to love God and is willing to help them
make that connection
4. What criteria do you require for a promotion to air on your
station?
Nothing is worth running on the air if it will not get people
talking about your radio station. If a promotion is unlikely to
“wow” people, it’s kind of a waste of time. But, if a promotion
allows people to be hands-on or gives them hope to do something
really cool, they’re going to call, text, and email their friends to
tell them. We ran a contest where a youth group could win a pizza
party & private concert with Echoing Angels. We allowed 1 vote per
person. A small youth group won (over the mega-churches) by telling
people to go to hisradio.com to enter them to win. They sent texts,
emails, blogged, etc. People were voting for youth groups in our
area….some from Russia and Europe. It was viral and it was
incredible.
5. What kind of promotions work best for Christian radio?
Maybe I’m not speaking for the majority of Promotions Directors, but
I really feel that we have a wonderful opportunity in our genre. We
have many listeners who want to help people, but do not know how to
get started. We have an opportunity to help ministries (and the
people who benefit from them) with viral promotions (see Blanket
Bundles in question #1). The promotion may be to help the
ministries, or to give to someone who has made a difference in
someone’s life. I’ve found that when His Radio has run promotions
that don’t necessarily give people a chance to “win a t-shirt”, but
to “make a difference” in a life, those promotions have a better
response.
6. In your opinion what are the biggest obstacles facing Christian
radio today?
My husband and I recently had a house-guest who does not have a
strong faith. She asked me why I decided to work at a “religious
radio station”. The label of “religious radio station” is the
reason I chose this industry. It’s not about religion…it’s
relationship.
7. What do you believe is the primary role of the Christian radio
air personality?
Be real. Be relatable. Be transparent.
8. What (if any) Christian radio stations do you consider as
innovators today?
If I rattle off one name of a station, there will inevitably be some
wonderful stations inadvertently left off the list. That wouldn’t be
fair.
9. Where do you see Christian radio in 5 years?
I hope being even more relevant that we are now. It’s obvious we
won’t appeal to everyone, but I pray we can be more intriguing, more
real, and more transparent. I want our genre to be the one where
people consistently go to for encouragement. I know we all have
what is needed to make it happen. Every one of us has a great story
to tell.
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