Check out this article written by Andrew Guy at the Houston Chronicle about me! Praise the Lord!!
He has been running around all day. Let’s recap: Up at 5 a.m. Hop into the Praise Van. Drive to Midtown. Set up for remote. Hang banners. Wait for Houston City Councilwoman Ada Edwards. Produce and co-host Fish, Grits and Politics from 7 a.m. to until 10 a.m. Quick bite. Rush to Sharpstown mall. Set up tables for Christmas celebration. Break out the prize wheel for the Praise Raffle. Hang banners. Are the Praise Dancers ready? Sweat.
Take a breath.
“Maaaan,” Robert ‘Praise Man’ Washington says on a recent Saturday afternoon,”It’s just been that kind of day. We’ve been running around town from one thing to another.”
Washington is the KROI/Praise 92.1’s remote guy, the guru of navigation, navigating his way around town, jetting from one event to the next. His job, which he chose to accept, is to spread the word, to let listeners know that there is a new option on the dial.
He did the same thing at KBXX, where for years he was known as Base Man. But top-rated KBXX is all about edge. The hip-hop station, popularly known as The Box, pushes every button it can because it can. When you’re praising the Lord, you have to do things are somewhat different.
“When they hired me, they wanted me to go from being Robert “Base Man” Washington to Robert “Praise Man” Washington,” he said. “At first I thought it was kind of cheesy, but it worked.”
It’s normal for a radio station to hit the road, shuttling its personalities around town, giving away prizes and emceeing events. But how does a new station like KROI find its audience, its niche in a crowded marketplace that’s becoming more congested as listeners defect to satellite radio?
“The way we get the word out is very old-school,” said Larry Jones, the station’s sole on-air personality. “It’s getting out there and going to barber shops and stores and churches. When you fulfill a niche like this, people recognize it, but you have to let them know what’s out there.”
KROI began operations in July. The FM station is owned by Radio One, the media conglomerate that focuses on radio programming for urban African-Americans in major markets. The network also owns top-rated KBXX.
Historically religious-themed radio has been relegated to the weak signals and tiny audiences of the AM format. Some speculate that advertisers shunned religious-themed programming because it was seen as being drab, too niche and too preachy.
New interest.
Propelled by gospel music superstars such as Kirk Franklin and Bobby Jones, interest in religious music is booming. The more contemporary gospel music tends to be upbeat, lively and inspirational.
Executives at KROI, however, are quick to note that the station doesn’t label its format as gospel. They are, they explain, an “inspirational” station with no ties to a specific denomination.
“When you say gospel, people often have an idea of what that kind of music should sound like,” said program director Terry Thomas. “A lot of people think it’s boring, sad music. And I think advertisers shied away from that.”
Thomas said the station’s ratings have increased since its July launch. She said the station has gone from a .05 market share to a 2.5 share during the morning drive-time period. (A market share is the percentage of listeners tuned to a given show during a quarter-hour period.)
“We’ve had a very grass-roots campaign, and I think we filled a much-needed niche for this kind of programming in Houston,” Thomas said.
KROI has started small. There are only two regular programs — a drive-time slot in the mornings hosted by Jones and a Saturday morning show hosted by Edwards — and the staff is thin. Although KROI is backed by the big money of Radio One, as a new station it will have to build slowly. The staff shares office and studio space with KBXX, one of Houston’s top-rated stations.
The station takes calls. It has guests. It even gives away money.
Praise cash.
On a recent Thursday morning, Jones is encouraging listeners to tune in for the “Dash for Cash” contest. The ninth caller wins $92 and now is eligible for the grand prize of $5,000 in “praise cash.”
The irony of such a giveaway isn’t lost on Jones.
“We know the business of radio, so we know that to build an audience you have to do things like this,” he says.
On this day Jones also is interviewing Israel Houghton, a contemporary Christian music artist who also serves as worship leader at Lakewood Church. Houghton is the founder of New Breed Music, a group that emphasizes religious diversity and cross-denominational worship. Houghton has just released a new CD, and Jones plays a few samples for listeners. Track 2 gets Jones humming, tapping his feet and nodding his head.
“Man, that sounds like some Earth Wind & Fire, Israel,” he says, referring to the legendary R&B group. “You took me way back.”
Jones has a straightforward approach to his show: He does not preach. He does not sermonize. He does not lecture. And he sure as heck does not judge. What he does is praise. It’s a simple concept. He plays inspirational music and occasionally tells an uplifting personal story. That’s it.
“I try and be an inspiration to my listeners,” Jones says one recent morning. “If someone wants to call in with a testimony about something they’ve been through, they’re welcome to do that.”
