Greg Fast Interview 3-13-17

Greg Fast
President
GSF Media
Nashville

Career Capsule: My “career” started in my backyard in S Cal shooting hoops and ‘announcing’ fictitious LA Laker games.  My idol was their announcer Chick Hern.  Also grew up listening to the legendary Vin Scully. I was either going to play pro basketball or be in radio broadcasting.

Went to Seattle Pacific Univ where I started my radio journey at Spirit 105.3 eventually doing mornings there.  Helped put Praise 106.3 on the air in Lynden WA/Vancouver BC with friend and mentor Marv Mickley.

Was hired to go back to S Cal to a pioneer Christian music station KYMS, this is where guys like Chris Hauser, Grant Hubbard, etc were birthed as giants in the industry.

Eventually went to Focus on the Family for 5 years to work with (now Pres Jim Daly) and was hired by Thomas Nelson Publishers to build a media agency in Nashville (Royal Media) which I ended up buying from them and starting GSF Media.  That was 20 yrs ago.

Greg, Tell us about what’s new with you, your latest adventures, happenings at GSF?

Media is evolving and as an agency, we need to evolve with it.  We started by syndicating long form programs (FOF, David Jeremiah, etc) and have morphed into what we are today.  

GSF is a marketing company that now integrates digital platforms into what we do for clients (web, social, video, etc).  We are getting really adept at telling the “story” of a client to help build their client, donor or customer base.  We did our first Presidential campaign with what we called Lift the Vote (to get Christians out to vote). 

Stations are looking for ways to be more effective at telling their story visually (esp on their social platforms) to better engage their audiences.  GSF has been privileged to assist stations in this (ArtistBooth, Crown Financial Ministries’ digital customized CCM back end, etc). 

Since you have a such a busy schedule, how do you best manage your responsibilities and priorities?

Married to Tami for 30yrs with six homeschooled (almost grown) children.  After my relationship with Christ, she is my next priority.  Then the family and then GSF, simply as a way to provide for the family.  No question, I love my work and the continual learning curve our clients teach us.  It’s an honor to have three of my sons applying for and desiring to work at GSF…each had worked outside in various jobs.  So I am blessed by that.

Complete this sentence: The best way to get a new ministry program noticed or recognized is to____________?

Don’t call it a “program” call it a way to engage an audience.  CCM radio will not play long form programs.  Ministries need to find ways to bring solutions to stations that will benefit that station’s audience.  In turn, the ministry will grow. Think multi platform messaging and make sure short form video is a key part of that. 

Generally speaking how do you see the state of Christian radio?

Michelle Younkman could probably run for President.  Leaders like Jim Hoge, Mike Novak, David Pierce, Tim McDermott, Faron Dice, John Owens, Sandi Brown, Matt Stockman, Dave Santrella etc help make our industry what it is.  Our industry has defied the laws of logic in so many ways (large cumes engaging major markets) with the amount of choices, listeners still lean toward local.  I love the relevance. 

At the recent Radio Inc conference, a speaker was asked, “What does radio need to do in 2017?”  His answer resonates with where GSF is headed… “video, video video…”

What promotions with radio have you been involved with personally that are most memorable?

There have been lots of fun/effective campaigns that we’ve been a part of orchestrating on behalf of clients, Lift the Vote taught us so much.  We had the chance to distribute hundreds of thousands of Bibles with the Bible League, last summer we brought some digital/video nuances to the Tennessee State Fair as a client, Artist Booth is exploding, as is the Crown listener solution I mentioned.  We’re partnering with FOF and a new movie Mully this fall releasing it in an innovative way.

What advice would you give to someone wanting to launch a new ministry radio program?

Find a need and meet it.  Determine what a station needs to better serve their listeners, then build a ministry around that.