Christian Radio Then & Now
Remember back in the 90's when Steven Curtis Chapman, Michael W. Smith and Point of Grace were the stars? They had 4-6 singles released PER album and a new album every 18 months. Today the big named- stars like Casting Crowns, MercyMe, and Mandisa only get 2-3 singles per album which are released every 8-12 months and an album every 24-30 months! Basically, today we hear an overload of the same songs for years. In the 90's when CCM was a growing and thriving genre, even lesser known artists were given a chance to have multiple radio single releases in hopes of gaining a top 10 single (or four). Artists like Cheri Keaggy, Lisa Bevill or Sierra, who were not major stars in CCM, had multiple #1 and top 10 hits and sold a decent amount of records (approx. 100,000 units each). There was just a wider span of artists to listen to back then. Today a mid-pack artist may get 2-3 top 10 singles in their whole career! In the 90's, and even up to the mid-2000's, Christian CHR (P