Diversity of Broadcast Content in Christian-Based Radio: A Study of Selected Christian Radio Stations in Eldoret, Kenya

Abstract

The enormous airing of Christian content by Christian-based radio stations has engendered the norms and values of Christianity into the electronic age and at the same time drawn skepticism around such stations' appeal to their target and broader audience through such dissemination. There is a general argument that these stations limit their audience base by focusing on such content's conveyance. It follows that without an expanded audience base, such stations encounter sustainability challenges since their survival largely depends on their economic sustainability, which is primarily anchored on the heterogeneous satisfaction of a mass audience. It is crucial for Christian radio stations, in this sense, to ensure that they diversify their content in order to cater to the integral needs of the listener and in so doing, increase the number of listeners that subscribe to their stations to leverage on profits. This paper explores the performance of three purposively selected Christian radio stations in Eldoret town in Kenya, namely; Upendo Fm, Sayare Fm and Fish Fm, in living up to this ideal. It looks at such performance by, first, examining how these stations' broadcasters gauge and respond to the audience's taste and preference; second, exploring the determinants for the improvement of these stations' programming, and last, establishing and analysing the stations' target audience's perceptions towards a mixture of broadcast content. This paper adopts a qualitative approach in addressing these objectives, where it focuses on the responses of 15 participants who are selected purposively from the targeted population. Their views, which are obtained from in-depth interviews and focus group discussions, are analysed thematically. This analysis demonstrates that an audience plays a significant role in the sustainability of these Christian radio stations. For this reason, it is proposed that these stations should review and restate their mission statements to stand a better chance of catering to the fundamental needs of their target audience. In so doing, these stations will be more effective in retaining their target audience and further attracting the broader audience, which may be crucial for their survival.