HomeARC ML 1210
GOOD ADVICE TO MUSICAL UNITS!--By Father David DFO 1210 14/8/81
1. (1982: THIS WAS ORIGINALLY A TALK GIVEN TO MWMI & MCV, WHO HAVE SINCE CORRECTED THEIR ERRORS, but with MCM, MM & all the other new music shows going on the air, it' still good advice for you dear DJs, Program Directors & producers around the World! GBY! Please take heed! Thanks!--Love,--Dad.)
2. AS I EXPLAINED TO YOU FOLKS A LONG TIME AGO, I didn't expect MWMs to go forever, & at that time I said if we even get six months of shows out of'm I'll be thankful. But we've gotten nearly a year now & that's pretty good. From my experiences with running Gospel on public service we found very few stations who carried even a year & seldom more, unless they really fell in love with the show or they just couldn't possibly sell the time.
3. I BELIEVE WE'LL BE DOING MIGHTY WELL TO STAY ON ANY STATION FOR A YEAR, particularly as heavy as that message is getting now, & any station that carries us more than this, they must be converted! The stations that stick with us through these 40's we may have permanently. It remains to be seen if any of them do, because they've got to think about the public & they've also got to think about officials, religious leaders, governments & how much they're going to take.
4. I THINK FOR ONE THING THEY WERE COMING ON AWFUL STRONG AT MCV IN THIS LATEST SHOW with this tirade against the city, the filthy Babylon etc. I mean, especially when you're a guest in these countries & every one of your stations that are broadcasting you are in the city, they're not going to take that kind of stuff! That's typical radical Family Revolution & hippie doctrine!
5. THAT'S JUST NOT THE KIND OF STUFF THAT YOU'RE GOING TO GET AWAY WITH WITH THE SYSTEM! They love their cities, they're proud of their cities & they're going to be insulated & horrified when you say such terrible things & even make songs up against their cities in which you are at that moment broadcasting your program!
6. I SOMETIMES WONDER ABOUT THE WISDOM OF SOME OF OUR KIDS! What in the World do they think they can get away with? I mean, you'd think they were trying to wreak a havoc of a revolution on the radio station! We are enjoying the hospitality of the System when we are running on a radio station on public service free, & we have got to tread delicately & when in Rome, do as the Romans!
7. WE CANNOT COME ON SO STRONG ON ANY RADICAL REVOLUTIONARY DOCTRINES. We can't come on too strong on ecology. All these are recognized as liberal hippy-type doctrines! We can't come on too strong on ecology, anti-war, anti-city, pro-herbs or whatever it may be, because all this stuff is recognized as very revolutionary doctrine. I think we can really soft-sell & soft-peddle it maybe, with some gentle hints here & there where the kids & young would catch on that we're there's & on their side, & after all, it's a youth program.
8. BUT THEY JUST CANNOT COME ON SO STRONG ON SOME OF THOSE RADICAL SONGS & RADICAL DOCTRINES! They've got to tone it down, especially in these first few shows when they're going to be listening so carefully & looking for something to criticize & some excuse to throw you off if you just step just the least bit out of line.
9. YOU'VE GOT TO DO ON MCV EXACTLY WHAT WE DID ON MWM TO BEGIN WITH; we never mentioned God or Jesus or anything but love! Neither did we mention the Bible, & when Simon quoted me you never knew who he was quoting or what! We never mentioned Father David, of all things of all people, & they've got to learn that, if they're going to get started on those stations.
10. NOW AFTER AWHILE, ONCE THE STATION HAS REALLY BEEN SIGNED SEALED, DELIVERED & THEY'RE HOOKED they might get away with a slight reference to God or something, recognition of a Divine power, but it'd still be a little bit risky. Well, MCV being in a Latin American country, strongly Catholic, you might get away with Jesus, in fact they might even like it.
11. BUT THE TROUBLE IS, THEN YOU'RE UP AGAINST THE RELIGIOUS SYSTEM--what Jesus, what religion is this that's preaching Jesus? & sometimes the competition is stronger between Christian sects than it is between Christianity & Islam or Buddhism or something else! They're not as jealous & they're not as green with envy & they're not as persnickety as they are if you're pretty close.
12. NOW THIS IS SOMETHING I LEARNED FOR YEARS IN THE RELIGIOUS BUSINESS: that your most bitter enemies are the kind of denominations & sects which are most like you. There's more of a holy war going on between the Protestants & the Catholics. We never worried about any competition from the Catholics, we were only worried about any who was holding a revival in competition to our revival!--With the very same almost identical kind of religion.
13. I MEAN, IF YOU'RE IN THE BICYCLE BUSINESS, YOU'RE NOT WORRIED ABOUT THE BAKER COMPETING WITH YOU, you're worried about the other bicycle shops, & that's just what it amounts to! So even mentioning Jesus ID's the show as being religious. Right away the religions prick up their ears, "Religious! Ah-ha! What kind of religion? Didn't come out of our church! Whose is it?"
14. & AS YOU KNOW, THEY'RE OUR BITTEREST ENEMIES, THE ONES THAT OUGHT TO BE OUR FRIENDS!--Just like the Scribes & the Pharisees & the chief priests of Jesus' day which were supposed to be of His religion were the ones who killed Him!--Envy, greed, competition, jealousy, & boy, I'll tell you, it is rabid & rife between religious groups!
15. & OF COURSE THE FIRST ONES THAT'LL PROBABLY JUMP DOWN OUR THROATS if they hear us talking about God, the Bible & Jesus & therefore identifying our program definitely as a religious show will be the Evangelicals. Because they'll recognize us as being closer to them, & right away they're going to get freaked-out & phone up the radio station, "What outfit is that that's putting on that...?"
16. SO THE FURTHER WE CAN STAY AWAY FROM RELIGION OR ANY SPECIFIC DEFINITE RELIGIOUS IDENTIFICATION such as mentioning God or the Bible or Jesus or anything like that but love, the better off we're going to be, & we don't want our music shows to get started off on the wrong foot.
17. OUR MWM SHOWS WHO KEEP MENTIONING GOD OR THE BIBLE OR JESUS OR FATHER DAVID or "take Jesus into your heart", as far as I'm concerned they've sealed their own death warrant, especially in the Orient! They've finished themselves & they're not going to get anywhere from there on on any stations except those who got converted!
18. & EVEN IF THE STATION GOT CONVERTED, THE GOVERNMENT OR THE PEOPLE COULD STILL CUT'M OFF! Or the owners can fire the managers or the program directors for allowing this. Or the listeners themselves can complain to the government, "What's the big idea? What's this show doing on here free & all the time? It's not Catholic, how come our local station is giving them free time? The only religion entitled to free time on our local station is our own religion!--The Catholics!"--Or Buddhists, Hindus, etc.
19. THE FIRST THING THEY'LL WANT TO KNOW IS IF THE PROGRAM'S PAID FOR, especially with as many commercials as MCV put into these first shows! I'm dumbfounded! I told you on the first few I thought their DJ was talking too much even though I couldn't understand it all. Well, it turns out they misunderstand us somehow or another.
20. WE TOLD THEM THAT A GOOD AVERAGE FORMAT FOR A QUARTER-HOUR SHOW IS PROBABLY AT LEAST FOUR SONGS & A PLUG IN THE MIDDLE & A PLUG AT THE END. But they are running four to six jingles in each quarter-hour with addresses & appeals in the jingles, etc., plus at least one or two spoken addresses, announcements & that means they're running in a 14-minute show what the station & the public consider six commercials! I mean, even the System doesn't even do that!
21. WHERE THEY GOT THE IDEA WE WANTED THAT MANY COMMERCIALS IN A QUARTER-HOUR SHOW I DON'T KNOW, & only four songs or musical numbers. Four jingles, two spoken ads & only four songs! Four musical numbers with six commercials! Now no show's going to stand that & no station's going to stand it & neither will the listeners stand it! There's just too much talk!
22. I WAS THRILLED WITH THEIR FIRST SHOW, THEIR MUSIC WAS TERRIFIC, but I'll confess I did say to you that it sounds to me like there's too much talk although I didn't actually analyze it. But I got their rundowns (translations) here & I went over them, combed them, & sure enough, that's exactly what they're averaging. Somehow they got the idea that they should use only four songs & fill the rest with talk!
23. WE SAID THAT SINCE THE AVERAGE SONG LASTS SUPPOSEDLY 3 MINUTES--or that's what we used to figure, although some of these apparently don't last that long, some maybe more--that four songs would be 12 minutes, right? & I figured well, you've got a couple more minutes left for your plugs, one in the middle, one at the end, & of course a little introduction at the beginning.
24. BUT THEY START OFF GIVING PLUGS, APPEALS, OFFERS & ADDRESSES & BOX NUMBERS even before they've had the first musical number! I mean, they're sticking the hook out first, followed by the bait! Now that's just ridiculous! You see, you don't catch these things until you go over & over'm & analyze them & go over their scripts!
25. I NEVER DREAMED THEY WERE DOING THAT MUCH! I knew it sounded like they were singing too many jingles & he was talking too much, but until I went right through all these scripts I never really realised that they were doing that consistently every Show.
26. SO WE'VE GOT TO TONE'M DOWN & SLOW'M DOWN QUICK & it's got to take a phone call, because I don't want'm, producing one more Show that way, & they're probably going to have to redo these or they're never even going to get started on those stations. If they start off this way with that many commercials they're never going to! Where did they ever get the idea?
27. I GAVE THEM A SUGGESTED FORMAT, I said, "Now since the average song lasts three minutes you could get in about four songs in 14 minutes, that'll be 12 minutes out of the 14 & you'll have a couple minutes spread for your introduction & a little blurb in the middle & a blurb at the end."
28. THEY'VE GOT'M SCATTERED ALL THROUGH THE THING! They get a jingle & a commercial almost between every single musical number, either the jingle or the address! They get in every single announcement between every single number! I mean, that's really going overboard! The System doesn't even put in that many commercials!
29. THE RECOMMENDED COMMERCIAL TIME PROPORTION IN THE UNITED STATES BY THE FCC, supposed to be voluntary but the stations knew if they didn't stick to it they might not renew their license for the next three years, was not more than ten minutes of commercials out of one hour at the very most & it was recommended even less, from six to ten minutes. If the FCC wanted to favour a station they'd check on their proportion of commercials & probably give the license to the one that only had commercials one every ten minutes instead of one every six minutes.
30. WELL, MY GOD, IN A 14-MINUTE PROGRAM, TO HAVE WHAT THE SYSTEM WOULD CALL SIX COMMERCIALS, even if they be only a few seconds apiece, say they're only 15 seconds per jingle & address, that's going to run 1-1/2 to 2 minutes at least plus all his talk & introductions of numbers & everything else where I believe he's got at least half talk on the show if maybe not more! At least half talk & jingle & that's too much!
31. WE'RE GOING TO HAVE TO TELL HIM THAT HE'S ONLY GOING TO BE ABLE TO COME ON INTRODUCING THE SHOW BY NAME ETC. & RIGHT AWAY HIT OFF! He can have the show jingle, "Musica Con Vida," etc., that's fine, that's their theme song, & then go right into the music, no sermons, no preaching,. He's doing too much preaching, too much sermonizing, too much talk, too many addresses, too many jingles, he's just going to have to give it more music! I mean, it's not a music show if it's half talk!
32. SO THAT'S WHY IT'S SO URGENT TO TELEPHONE'M TO TELL'M TO STOP THE PROGRAM, THAT THEY NEED TO REVAMP THAT FORMAT! That show cannot stand so much talk, he's going to have to make his applications at the end of a song & the introduction of the next song much briefer, cut'm short!--No preaching at all, no sermonizing about the filth of the cities! I think he's trying to stick in whole portions like half a DM or something on the filthy cities!--Introducing dear Jeremy's song which is in English. That's the only thing I was thankful for, thank God it was in English & most of them didn't understand it--I hope!
33. BUT THAT'S NOT THE KIND OF SONGS FOR TRYING TO GET STARTED IN LATIN AMERICA! If they thought the English language areas were conservative, they haven't begun to know what conservative is until they try to get this onto Latin American stations. They are ultra conservative!--Most of them run by Catholic dictators!
34. NOW HOW THE HELL FAR DO THEY THINK THEY'RE GOING TO GET WITH THAT KIND OF PREACHING & THAT LITTLE MUSIC? It's just not going to do it; they're going to be dead before they start! Absolutely dead! They have got the music, they have got the artist, they've got beautiful music, they're doing terrific on the music but they've got to can the chat & the preaching & even reduce the jingles! It's too much show promotion! Do you understand what I mean? They're giving too much show promotion!
35. I MEAN, LET'M START BRAGGIN' WHEN THEY TAKE THEIR ARMOUR OFF & THEY'VE BEEN ON FOR A YEAR! Then maybe they can start bragging but not right now! The Bible says, "Let not him that putteth his armour on brag, or boast, as he that putteth it off!" (1Ki.20:11.) They haven't even got their armour on yet & they're already boasting about what a great show it is & people are going to sit there in astonishment, including programmers, "What do you mean, what a great show it is? This is the first one we've had on!" How do they know it's a great show?
36. & THAT'S ANOTHER THING: RELATING IT TO MWM! They're relating themselves & they're bragging about themselves in another show which is not even their show! MCV cannot brag that they are great because MWM is great, & MWM must watch out & not identify itself with MCV or we're going to kill ourselves!
37. BEING TOO RELIGIOUS WILL CERTAINLY KILL US ON ANYTHING IN THE U.S. or educated public service radio anywhere else in the World in the rich countries, & it's apt to do it in the poorer Third World countries too.--Not so much because they object to your commercials & all that as objecting to the fact that you're so religious & they've got their own standard favoured official religion.
38. IN MOST OF THOSE COUNTRIES RADIO IS NOT JUST CONTROLLED BY THE SYSTEM OR THE GOVERNMENT--IT IS RUN BY THE GOVERNMENT! If we get on one of those stations it'll be a miracle & it'll be a shame to get on one of those stations & then have'm cut us right off after the first two or three shows because we're too religious!
39. SO MWM WOUND UP, AS I SAY, ON THE WRONG FOOT, TOO RELIGIOUS, & THAT WAS THREATENING TO KILL IT! MCV is starting on the wrong foot--too religious, too many commercials, too much talk, not enough music & even mentions of Jesus already & Bible etc. in their shows--& if they don't change that format & do it quick they're not going to get any stations, & if they get any they're not going to stay on!
40. THEY APPARENTLY GOT THE IDEA BECAUSE I SUGGESTED A FORMAT OF FOUR MUSICAL NUMBERS AT LEAST. I meant at least, of course, & especially if they're long, three minutes long, at least four musical numbers. They started off in the first one before Faithy & Juan got there with about one or two Spanish songs on the whole show & the others were all in English.
41. I SAID, "YOU'RE NEVER GOING TO GET BY WITH THAT IN A SPANISH SPEAKING WORLD! This is supposed to be a Spanish show! You've gotta have at least half of the numbers in Spanish, which means if you've only got time for four musical numbers, at least two of them have got to be in Spanish!"
42. I SAID, "YOU COULD PROBABLY GET AWAY WITH ONE ENGLISH LANGUAGE SONG OUT OF THE FOUR & maybe with one foreign language song such as Portuguese which they can understand, or Italian which they can understand, other Latin languages even French maybe. Because they share a common Latin base you might be able to get by with another type of Latin language", because I figured right then they were really short of music & they needed to grab everything they could.
43. BUT AS FAR AS I'M CONCERNED I DON'T THINK THEY SHOULD USE ANYTHING BUT SPANISH! No English songs unless they're short of Spanish songs! I think they ought to shy away from English language songs unless they absolutely desperately need'm for fills!
44. THEY GOT THE IDEA SOMEHOW THAT WE APPARENTLY TOLD THEM NO MORE THAN FOUR MUSICAL NUMBERS, so for God's sake, they've got to fill up with something else! So they fill it up with six jingles & two or three addresses & a whole bunch of promotion plugs & introductions & appeals at the last & offers, to where the thing's at least half-talk or half-promotion! Now that's just not going to work!
45. WE'RE NOT PUTTING ALL THAT MONEY THERE JUST TO DROP A DUD THAT IS NOT GOING TO EXPLODE! You've got to get'm & it's urgent! I'm telling you all this to get'm on the phone to stop the whole works, they gotta get off!--Off of all that strong religious message, so much talk, too many jingles & not enough music! You ought to begin with nothing but a very brief introduction, not a long yakety, yakety yak introduction! It's supposed to be a musical show.
46. I THINK THEY OUGHT TO PUT THEIR BEST FOOT FORWARD & PUT THEIR MUSICAL NUMBER FIRST! They ought to begin the show with music! That's the only way you're going to hook people, not by talking. You're not going to hook'm to listen to your show by just starting off with a big long tirade & brag about how great it is. They're going to sit there just so long waiting for you to stop raving about your program & start playing some music or they're going to switch you off onto somebody else! Where they got the idea that that was the kind of format we wanted, I don't know!
47. THEY'VE GOT TO HAVE MORE MUSIC, LESS TALK, LESS PROMOTION & LESS RELIGION, NO RELIGION! The only kind of religion they're allowed to preach is love, right? That's our religion, & the less we identify it with religion as such--such as Bible, Jesus, Gospel, God, prayer, anything that sounds religious--the better off we're going to be!--& if they don't follow this they're not even going to get that thing off the ground!
48. I BRAGGED ON THEM THE FIRST FEW SHOWS TO TRY TO ENCOURAGE THEM, the music was terrific, it was really an explosion & with that good ol' Latin fire, it's terrific & the jingles were excellent & the plugs were good, real good! But I did say to Maria, "I think they've got a little too much talk, too many jingles." & now that I've analyzed all these shows with their rundown, I know I was right!--Too much talk, too many jingles, too many plugs, too many announcements, too many addresses! They're not going to stand more!
49. REMEMBER, IN A HALF-HOUR SHOW WHICH MOST OF THEM ARE GOING TO USE, THEY ARE NOT GOING TO TAKE MORE THAN FOUR COMMERCIALS, & that's exactly what they consider those, as commercials. We need at least two, a minimum of two in a 14-minute show because on the first time around they don't usually get it, but they get the idea:
50. "OH, THERE'S SOMEPLACE I CAN WRITE, THEY'RE OFFERING SOMETHING. I didn't get it, did you get it? No, nobody got it. OK we'll listen a little longer." So you repeat it & by the time you're at the end of your show they write it down. But the first one will never do it, the first one just wakes them up that they can write & it's rarely that people ever get the first one. You've gotta repeat, repeat, repeat! But my God, you can't repeat six times in one 14-minute show, four jingles & two announcements! Ha!
51. SO THEY'RE GOING TO HAVE TO CUT DOWN ON THE TALK & ON THE PROMOTIONS & I suggest that they just simply come on with their hottest musical number, their best bait to start getting them hooked. & after their first musical number to prove that they've got the music, then they can say, "This is 'Musica Con Vida' blah, blah" with their little introductory spiel & "we're here to offer you music with life & love & blah blah" & quick right into the next musical number.
52. THEY CAN BEGIN WITH THEIR THEME SONG JINGLE, "MUSICA CON VIDA" BUT NO ADDRESS, NO OFFER. I don't want to hear that address jingle more than twice in a quarter-hour show, once in the middle & once in the end, that's all. I don't want to hear that address in the Show at all except twice! Just twice!--Either in jingle or a talk, one or the other, & the jingle is the most powerful possible & memorable way!
53. THE PEOPLE WILL REMEMBER THE JINGLE BUT THEY'RE NOT GOING TO REMEMBER THE TALK, & he's just rubbing it in when he repeats it vocally in speech! I prefer the jingles myself & that's what I recommended for MWM. They've got a terrific jingle & it runs through your head & you'll never forget it & MCV's got a good one too! MCV's is a little more complicated because their address is a little more complicated, but they've got a good address jingle.
54. I SUGGEST THEY DON'T MENTION THE ADDRESS IN THEIR TALK AT ALL, just put on that address jingle. Or if he's afraid the people won't understand the address jingle, then once more sometime or other maybe at the very end of the show, repeat the address in speech without the jingle.
55. THE STATIONS CONSIDER THAT A COME-ON, it's considered a commercial. You're making a play for some kind of response & an obvious mail response, & they'll always suspect that that means money, that you're going to write & ask them for money.
56. I'M OF THE OPINION WE OUGHT TO MAKE OUR MEMBERSHIP ABSOLUTELY FREE so we can honestly tell the stations we never ask for money, not even in our follow-up. I'm quite sure a lot of those people who write in & become Club Members do it to find out what we're after. That's probably why there's so many government officials who do it. We've had quite a few government officials who wrote in & have become Club Members to find out just what you're up to & what are you plugging & what are you asking for.
57. STATION MANAGERS WOULD DO THAT WITH FRED'S PROGRAM TIME & AGAIN. I bumped into stations time & again that were already getting his prayer letters & his appeals & plugs & begs for money & that's why some of them kicked him off, because although he didn't ask for money on the show, when they wrote in he sure pulled hard for funds!
58. NOW I KNOW THAT I'VE SAID IN THE PAST THAT WE OUGHT TO CHARGE THEM A LITTLE SOMETHING JUST TO MAKE THEM APPRECIATE IT, but I think we'd be better off to charge them nothing, absolutely no membership fee, & everything we send them be totally free so we could tell those stations we don't ask for a penny from the listeners, not a penny!
59. THE SITUATION IS A LITTLE DIFFERENT IF WE GET'M CONVERTED & THEY BECOME FAMILY MEMBERS & fairly loyal & TRFers. Well, that's a long time to come, a slow process, & by that time we'll probably be dead on that station anyhow once we've got'm hooked like that. But in the meantime I don't think we even should charge for these little trinkets that they send or the Magazine or the photos or the decals or whatever.
60. A LOT OF PEOPLE, IF THEY HAVE A CASSETTE PLAYER AT ALL THEY'VE GOT A RADIO CASSETTE, & all they have to do on those is punch a little extra button while our show is playing & they can record the show themselves right there & then on the spot.
61. WE COULD EVEN SUGGEST THAT TO'M: "IF YOU HAVE A RADIO CASSETTE RECORDER YOU'RE WELCOME TO RECORD OUR SHOW & even duplicate it for your friends! We don't copyright it, you're welcome to it! At least you have our oral permission to do so," something like that.
62. NOW EVEN IF YOU SELL'M AT COST & YOU OFFER THEM AT COST AT A DIRT-CHEAP PRICE that anybody could tell must be cost, the stations can still accuse you of selling them, you're still asking for money. If you ask for a penny, you're asking for money. I'd rather be able to say, "completely free," that we don't ask for a cent!
63. "WHAT ABOUT THIS FOLLOW-UP? YOU'VE GIVEN YOUR ADDRESS, WHAT FOR?" "We just want them to have fellowship & be Club Members & get our little Magazine & feel like they've got an interest in the Show, etc. Every show likes to have fan mail & every show likes to have listeners, every show likes audience response." That's perfectly understandable & legitimate for any show to tell people to write in, tell us how you like it, give us your requests, this, that or the other.
64. I THINK WE SHOULD START DOING WITH THEM THE SAME AS WE DO WITH OUR FAMILY. Even though they are not TRFers, they're prospects, & Paul's policy with the heathen was to not be chargeable to them for the Gospel. He said, "I went to work with my own hands so I wouldn't be chargeable to you" (2Th.3:8), "so you wouldn't think I was after your money" was really what he was saying.
65. "I WENT TO WORK TO EARN MY OWN LIVING, made tents with my own hands so that I shouldn't have to ask you for any money & you wouldn't think I was preaching the Gospel for money." That's exactly what he said, not in that many words but that's what he meant. You read it!
66. I MADE A WHOLE STUDY ON IT ONCE TO SOCK IT TO SOME GUY THAT WAS KIND OF LAZY & LOAFING AROUND & LIVING OFF US. I said, "Listen here, buddy, even the Apostle Paul worked hard & helped to support himself!" But this guy considered himself an Apostle of the Latter Rain Prophecy School, he was an Apostle & a prophet & considered that he didn't have to work for a living, he could just live by faith. What he meant by living by faith was living off of us! That's what my father-in-law used to say:
67. "I KNOW WHAT YOU GUYS MEAN BY LIVING BY FAITH, YOU COME HERE & YOU SPONGE OFF OF ME! That's what you call living by faith. You're not living by faith, you're living by me!"--& he wasn't a bit kind to me about it. Then when I got sick he got mad & said, "You can't die & leave me with all these kids!" Ha! He wasn't the slightest bit sympathetic!
68. MY DEAR RICH AUNT, MY FATHER'S SISTER, CALLED US A BUNCH OF GOSPEL BUMS! She said, "You're Gospel panhandlers, Gospel bums! You're always looking for a handout!" That's the way the critical, cynical World looks at you, & they suspect every religionist of being a religious racketeer beggin' for money!
69. WHY DON'T WE BE DIFFERENT?--THE FIRST GOSPEL SHOW IN THE WORLD ON THE AIR WHO NEITHER ASKS FOR MONEY on the air nor asks for money in the mail! I mean, we would be the first!--The absolute first, because I never knew of one otherwise that didn't. The only reason most of them don't ask for money on the air, or some of them don't ask for money on the air, is because they can't.
70. EVEN SOME OF THE COMMERCIAL STATIONS WHERE THEY HAVE TO PAY GOOD MONEY TO PUT THEIR SHOW ON, DON'T ALLOW THEM TO APPEAL FOR MONEY ON THE AIR! They can give their address, ask for audience response, write-ins, requests, request numbers, prayer requests, all kinds of things, but never mention money. The biggest stations have that rule & they won't allow any mention of money, no hint of any financial need. Nothing that even smells like a monetary appeal, they just won't allow it.
71. THEY DON'T NEED TO, THEY'VE GOT BIG SHOWS, BIG PROGRAMS, THEY MAKE BIG MONEY & they can get finicky & particular. They don't want their audience to be belabored & browbeaten with constant pulling for money on a religious show, so they only allow'm, where they pay good money for the time, to give their address, just for write-ins, that's all.
72. SO WHEN YOU CAN GET A STATION THAT'LL GIVE YOU THE TIME FREE & STILL LET YOU MAKE AN APPEAL FOR WRITE-INS, they're really giving you something! So that when they test you, & the manager decides to join the Club & writes in & finds out that the first thing that you do is start asking for money, even a small nominal fee for a membership or a tape, he's going to say, "Uh huh, there's a rascal in the woodpile somewhere, there's a rat in the hole somewhere, they're after something!"
73. I MEAN, IF YOU DON'T DO ANYTHING ELSE BUT YOU'RE JUST SELLING RELIGION FREE, no price, no money, they're still going to accuse you! "Well, let's see, they're not asking for money on the Show, we don't let'm. They're not asking for money in the mail, they give away everything for free. But they must be selling somethin'! I guess that's really what they're up to; they're really just after converts to their religion." & of course that's what we are, that we can't deny.
74. I USED TO TELL SOME OF THOSE GUYS, "WELL FOR GOD'S SAKE, WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK WE'RE MAKING THIS SHOW FOR ANYHOW, just for entertainment? Of course we want something! We're trying to preach the Gospel! We're trying to help people & give them an encouraging message & the love of God etc., & of course we're after something!" & I had a hard time trying to lie about Fred not being after money, especially if they ever wrote in & pretended to be a responder to the appeals & the first thing he did was ask for money.
75. BUT WE CAN'T DENY THAT WE'RE TRYING TO CONVERT PEOPLE TO THE FAITH; THAT WE CAN'T DENY! When it comes down to the nitty-gritty & the crunch, of course we're trying to preach a message of love, encourage people & cause people to love. We're not a trying to convert them to any particular religion--we're not a religion, we're not a denomination, we're not a church, we've got no buildings, we're not asking them to go to church, nothing! Just asking them to love one another!
76. I THINK WE'LL BE A WHOLE LOT SAFER IF WE'LL START MCV ON THE RIGHT FOOT & NOT EVEN MAKE ANY REQUEST FOR ANY AMOUNT OF MONEY THROUGH THE MAIL. We can't do it on the Show, of course, but if they want copies of the tapes, just tell'm, if you haven't got a radio cassette recorder, borrow one, because on every radio cassette recorder you can just push a button & record any show that's on the air coming across. You suggest to them that they record our show.
77. SOME SHOWS REALLY GET UP IN THE AIR ABOUT YOU EVEN RECORDING THE SHOW OFF THE AIR & TRY TO MAKE IT ILLEGAL, but people do it anyway. I mean, all the artists on these TV shows & the producers & all are trying their best to figure out some way to get us videoers & people with video cassette recorders to have pay for recording their shows, & so far they haven't been able to figure it out.
78. THEY'VE SUGGESTED A TAX ON VIDEO TAPES, a tax on video cassette recorders or a tax on the stations, all kinds of different taxes for these producers who try to get their money out of those recordings that are made at home, knowing that they probably don't just limit them to their families but probably loan them to their friends & neighbours as well, who wouldn't? So they want to get some money out of it.
79. THEY THINK THEY'RE GETTING GYPPED, THEY CALL THAT PIRACY, but thank God they haven't figured any way to do it yet & about the only way they're figuring out how to get some money out of it is to just start off on what they consider now the right foot & start off charging enough money to the customers who buy'm or the TV stations that use them to pay for them. In other words, choke'm right at the source, squeeze it out of them right at the beginning, & then they don't have to worry about what they do with it afterward.
80. BUT I JUST FEEL LIKE WE SHOULD NOT ASK THEM FOR A PENNY,
especially now in poor countries like Latin America & the Caribbean. "All no charge! We'll not ask you for a penny! Join the Club, we'll send you our Magazine, literature, photos, songbooks, everything but the tapes--those you can record yourself right off the show."
81. AFTER ALL, IF THEY'VE GOT A RADIO & THEY'RE LISTENING TO THE SHOW, THEY'RE GETTING IT, so let's suggest to them they record it. I mean, most of them can afford a dollar, dollar-&-a-half for a blank tape. If they like the show that much, well, let'm do their own recording!
82. WE MIGHT GET TO THE POINT SOMETIME WHERE WE THINK IT'S WORTH IT TO OFFER A TAPE, maybe the listener response has lagged a bit, we've gleaned or reaped the first response & we come on a little stronger with a little bigger offer. First we start off with autographs, photos of the artists, decals & pins
83. PINS ARE A GREAT THING! THEY'RE SOMETHING THAT HELPS ADVERTISE THE SHOW if they go around wearing our pin. That's why I went for the pin idea, it's good publicity, they value it, they like to wear it, they're a Club Member. I think we should send them free. I don't think we ought to ask a penny & I think we ought to use the same policy on MWM from now on.
84. THEN EACH TIME WE SHOULD MAKE THE OFFER A LITTLE STRONGER SO THEY'LL BE TEMPTED TO WRITE IN AGAIN & more people will write in, & give them something a little better. They've got the autographed photo of their favorite artists, which is the cheapest thing to send them along with a letter. If they write in the second time we offer to send them a decal, & then eventually the Magazine with the news & finally a little songbook etc. Graduate the gifts & the offer up from the very cheapest easiest thing to send them on up, & we might someday wind up sending them at least one tape!
85. "WRITE IN & WE'RE GOING TO SEND YOU A TAPE OF MUSIC THAT YOU HAVE NEVER HEARD IN OUR SHOW & you will never hear on the show. It's going to be something special! & the only way you're going to get this music tape is to be a Club Member & write & ask for the tape & send us ten more names of Club Members who'd like to join & we will send you this tape that you can't get any other way! Send more names & addresses & we'll send you a tape you'll never be able to record off the show!" That's one you can make real strong Gospel!
86. WELL, THERE ARE ALL KINDS OF GIMMICKS & OFFERS WE CAN MAKE. BUT WE DON'T WANT TO SPEND HALF THE SHOW DOING IT! It's supposed to be a music show, so I think it ought to start off with music followed by a brief introduction, the name of the show, etc. "Now here's So-&-so & they're going to sing something else" & go right on until he gets half way through the show:
87. "IF YOU LIKE THIS MUSIC & SO ON YOU CAN JOIN OUR CLUB!" Or even maybe say, "If you liked that song we can send you an autographed photo of the one who sang it if you'll just write in." Or a little pamphlet of all of our artists etc. Anyhow, make a plug in the middle with some kind of an offer & repeat it at the end. No more than two plugs per 1/4-hour show. No more than two mentions of the address whether it be by jingle or by speech, on a 14-minute show.
88. I THINK THAT'S THE KIND OF A FORMAT THAT MWM HAS BEEN STICKING TO FAIRLY WELL except they've gotten too strong religiously. Where MCV got the idea that we wanted so many plugs & so much promotion, I don't know! I was shocked that they kept bragging so much on the first show. Remember, I joked to you, I said, "Listen, Buddy, can the braggin' about your show; let me hear the music & I'll tell you whether it's good or not!" I didn't like the first one for that very reason, as well as some of the music was pretty lousy. (But they re-did them beautifully!)
89. SO LET'S GET MCV STARTED OFF ON THE RIGHT FOOT & NOT MAKING THE MISTAKES THAT MWM HAS BEEN MAKING LATELY. I'd say frankly because of the way MWM has gone & gotten heavy in religion, if they even get that far they're going to lose stations by the time they get up there in the 30's & 40's where they've been getting too religious.
90. IF A STATION ON WHICH YOU'RE PAYING GOOD MONEY FOR THE TIME CONSIDERS THROWING YOU OFF BECAUSE YOU'RE GETTING TOO RELIGIOUS, THEN YOU ARE CERTAINLY TOO DAMN RELIGIOUS! If they'd rather kick you off than have the money because you're so religious, they must've gotten a lot of complaints, probably from the Hindus or whatever their religion is & they've probably gotten plenty of complaints from other religious broadcasters on the same station who pay commercial.
91. THEY'RE ALWAYS OUT FOR THEIR RIVALS & if there's somebody on there they can expose & get the station to kick off, "Well, more listeners for me," & when they think of listeners they think of money, "More money for me." They couldn't possibly imagine that we're not after the money, because every religionist & religious broadcasters & Gospel broadcasters they ever heard of was after money! They have to keep begging & begging for money or they couldn't keep afloat to pay for the program & pay for their everything else, because that's all they've got is those listeners.
92. WE'RE NOT DEPENDENT ON OUR LISTENERS--THIS IS JUST A NEW MINISTRY, a new avenue to try to reach people with the Gospel & to try to get names & addresses & response & follow-up & try to win souls! That's all we're interested in, & as long as we preach the Gospel & we witness & we win souls I know God is going to support us!--I don't care if He has to drop it out of the sky!
93. WE DON'T HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT BEGGING FROM THE PEOPLE WE'RE PREACHING TO FOR MONEY AT ALL! That's not even our goal. We're trying to reach them & get their write-in response & win them to the Lord. Our goal is not the money they're going to give us like it is with every other religious broadcaster, sad to say. I must admit I'm sure they're happy to win souls but they especially need that money, & most of them if there wasn't any money in it, they wouldn't be on the air at all!
94. WELL, LET'S BE DIFFERENT! LET'S PROVE TO THEM WE'RE NOT OUT FOR THE MONEY--that everything we give we give away free, & when they write in we don't ask for money--we just keep giving & giving & giving it away; & I think we'll go over & I know God'll pay for it. I believe the Family'll help Him pay for it too if we offer the Gospel free.
95. I REALISE PAUL SAID IN A FEW OTHER PLACES, TOO, THAT "THEY THAT PREACH THE GOSPEL SHALL LIVE OF THE GOSPEL." (1Co.9:14.) All right, that doesn't necessarily mean you've got to get the money from the people you're preaching to. It means if you're preaching the Gospel the Lord'll take care of you somehow! If you spend your full time preaching the Gospel, God will see that you live of the Gospel because you're faithfully preaching it! He'll take care of you somehow from someway!
96. HE SAID, "MUZZLE NOT THE OX THAT TREADETH OUT THE CORN." (1Co. 9:9.) Well fine, once you've gotten ten of'm won & hooked & serving the Lord & genuine fulltime disciples, they'll become TRFers, & they'll pay & it'll pay. They should pay & they are paying, right?
97. WHEN WE WROTE THE FIRST MO LETTERS & SENT THEM TO THE FAMILY, IT NEVER EVER OCCURRED TO US TO ASK FOR MONEY. We never asked for any money--we were just instructing the Colonies how to live & how to behave & everything else. We were just trusting God for our finances & we hadn't the faintest idea where it was going to come from.
98. WE NEVER DREAMED THAT EVENTUALLY THEY WERE GOING TO VIRTUALLY SELL MO LETTERS ON THE STREET! We never realised that was going to become a source of income at all, not at all! I still don't like the idea of asking a price for them. I would still prefer them to just ask for a donation, & if they can't give anything, let them have it free.
99. BUT IN OUR WRITING EVEN TO THE FAMILY IT NEVER OCCURRED TO US THAT EVEN THAT WAS GOING TO SUPPORT US, DID IT? Never, never in this World! We knew that from Family income at home that the Colonies were getting income, of course, & by that time especially from the Letters etc. So we simply said, "Well, we've got to have a little money to live, so send us so much"--& I imagine dear Jethro probably even begrudged that.
100. I TOLD JETHRO WE HAD TO HAVE SOME MONEY TO LIVE ON SINCE WE WERE INCOGNITO, undercover & living selah, clandestine, & we couldn't get out & peddle Letters or do anything ourselves to get money, that the Family ought to support us. I asked for a few pounds a week to pay our rent & food & all of our needs & everything, only about what the common ordinary labourers were earning in Britain at that time. Of course our rent was only about something like 17 pounds a week at that time & we managed pretty well on it.
101. AT THAT TIME THEY WERE GETTING ALL KINDS OF FORSAKE-ALLS & the kids were pulling in a lot of money on the Letters & everything, & I figured we ought to get a little to live on. "The labourer is worthy of his hire." (Lk.10:7.) I told Jethro, "Sorry Son, OK boy, that's all I'm asking for, my expenses, that's all. You just give us our due out of whatever you're taking in there"--& he kept the rest!
102. HE NEVER EVEN GAVE ME A FINANCIAL ACCOUNT MOST OF THE TIME IN THOSE DAYS & he got thousands & was living like a king over there in Paris riding around in Mercedes & everything else, living in luxury, & most of the time he did even in Peru.
103. SO TO SUM IT ALL UP, I THINK MWM IS KILLING ITSELF WITH THESE PUBLIC SERVICE STATIONS & even maybe with the public by coming on so strong with their religious message, their mistake was on that. MCV is making their mistake on too much promotion, too many appeals, too many commercials. No matter what you call them, that's what the stations call them.
104. WHEN YOU ASK THEM TO WRITE IN, THAT'S A COMMERCIAL, you're asking for some kind of audience response, that's advertising or it's a commercial. Because they can't possibly believe, no amount of persuasion makes them believe you're not after money! Therefore, if you're after anything, the end result they figure you want is money, therefore it's a commercial.
105. I FELT THAT WE WERE REALLY COMING ON PRETTY STRONG EVEN IN THE EARLY DAYS OF MWM TO PUT IN EVEN A COUPLE PLUGS PER PROGRAM! At first I suggested even just one plug at the end of each 14 minutes, just two per half-an-hour. Well, they seemed to be able to take that pretty well & we kept going & the shows were popular & it was good, & I figured, "Well, let's try to squeeze in a couple in the program of each quarter-hour. By the end of the half-hour they've had four & that's about all they can tolerate, certainly not six in 14 minutes!
106. & WHEN THEY DO WRITE IN I THINK WHATEVER WE SEND THEM OUGHT TO BE FREE, without price & without money. We can afford it. My goodness, we don't have that many Club Members! After a whole year on the air we've only got about 300 Club Members so it's not that difficult to do, right? & I don't think that we're going to have that much response that it's going to be necessarily overwhelming just to send them an autographed printed photo & little photo brochure or a decal or a pin or a magazine or whatever.
107. THEY CAN MAKE THEIR OWN CASSETTES ON THEIR OWN TAPE RECORDER & if we ever do really want some final strong appeal for response, we could offer them a cassette of music they're not going to get on the air--& we've got lots of it! I mean, some of the ones we wouldn't dare put on the air! Ha!--Like, "Filthy City Babylon" & a few other strong ones that are a little too strong for radio, & we've got plenty of them! Ha!--Which should never be played on the radio! I was a little leery of that song when I first heard it on MWM. I said, "Well we'll see."
108. BUT DEAR SIMON'S LEAVING AT THIS PARTICULAR TIME I THINK WAS IN SOME WAYS THE WRONG TIME FOR HIM TO GO because I don't think he's going to be able to do a thing with that station. I believe their mind is made up in the face of even money & probably the only thing that'll persuade'm to keep it on is more money ante & they'll put up with another one. (But they did!)
109. THEY'RE ALWAYS AFTER THE MONEY. If they've got any good excuse to ask you for more money, they'll use it. They'll probably say, "Well, it's getting a bit too religious; you know, we sell religion here, we sell our religion time & we gave you a very special rate because yours was not supposed not to be religious. It's supposed to be just music & no religion, & now you've got almost as much religion on yours as the rest of them, so we're going to charge you like the rest of them!" That's probably what they're going to tell him.
110. WELL, I THINK IT'S WORTH IT BECAUSE THAT STATION REALLY REACHES HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS & we've gotten good response from it & the people really need it. It's a real missionary effort & if he phones back or writes back & tells us, "Well, he wants twice as much money because we're twice as religious as we started out & they want to charge us what they charge the rest of them", well, I'm probably going to say OK!
111. WE'RE STUCK WITH IT & THE STATION KNOWS IT! They know once you've got a big following like that of clientele & listeners & audience, not only does the audience not want the show to leave, but you don't want to leave them either & you're stuck! They've got you over a barrel & all you can do is pay right through the nose & that's that if you want to keep it. They probably know they have the best station covering that whole area & they get results, they cover it, we've got the proof of it.
112. I DOUBT IF SIMON'S EVER BEEN UNDER AS MUCH PRESSURE AS HE IS NOW THAT HE REALISES WHAT A RESPONSIBILITY HE'S GOT on so many shows, & videos on top of it & DM's on top of that & dramas & all the rest we're asking for. Well, they weren't all our own ideas, but the dramas I think were a results & I think they're a great idea especially for our children.
113. I THINK RADIO DRAMA HAS A TREMENDOUS POTENTIAL! I've emphasized radio possibilities but even if not on radio, it has terrific potential in the Family for our children. So I'm all for him going ahead with dramas, & I want him to finish up the Daily Mights until we've got a whole year of them.
114. & I'D LIKE TO HAVE HIM FINISH UP THE RADIO SHOWS UNTIL HE'S AT LEAST GOT 52 IN THE CAN, a year of them on the basis of a 1/2--hour a week on most stations. 52 shows is a year's shows & I'd like to see'm get at least 52 shows in the can so that they can honestly tell the stations they've got a year's weekly half-hour shows to offer them, 52 of them.
115. ONE STATION ASKED ME, "WHAT DO YOU DO, START US WITH NUMBER ONE OR PICK UP AT THE CURRENT ONE?" "Well, the safest thing is start with number one & then we'll send you some in advance & there's no possibility of delay. But if you want to start with the current ones & you want to play next week the show we made last week, then you're going to have to pay the airmail express & all the rest to get it here in a hurry if you want it that bad!" So they usually settle for something that doesn't cost them any money & they picked it up where we wanted to pick it up with them.
116. I ALWAYS PROMISED THEM, "THE SHOWS ARE NOT DATED, THEY'RE NOT ID'd FOR ANY PARTICULAR TIME OR HOUR or news events or anything like that, so that you can use it any time." I said, "The only dated shows we produce are the Christmas shows, & we produce shows for Christmas," & they liked that, of course.
11. THEY CAN ALWAYS USE A LOT AT CHRISTMAS BECAUSE ALL THEIR HELP IS ASKING FOR TIME OFF, so they want everything canned & just an engineer there to run one thing after the other. That's why you get so many canned shows at Christmas, because everybody's taking their vacation. We had a better chance to get on during Christmas than almost any other time; even if we couldn't get on a regular show, they'd always take Christmas shows.
118. WE ALWAYS TRIED TO PUT OUT A GOOD CHRISTMAS SHOW. Usually a one-hour Christmas show we could get away with & they were glad to have, even stations that didn't carry the program. Fred sent out a special offer of a one-hour Christmas musical show every year & he'd just have hundreds of stations just write & beg him for it even if they didn't carry the Show. So that's another thing for them to think about.
119. BECAUSE THE FIRST SHOW THAT RAIN PRODUCED SEEMED TO BE A LITTLE BIT INSIPID & LIGHT & FROTHY & foolish & with really not much meaning, I kind of went overboard & got a little bit upset & said we've got to have some Meaning in the thing, we're out to preach the Gospel. Well, I meant of course love, & come on at least as strong as MWM used to come on.
120. I DIDN'T MEAN TO START REALLY PREACHING THE RAW GOSPEL, Jesus Christ, please ask Jesus into your heart, get saved, He's the Son of God, believe, one, two, three, four steps of Salvation, God, Christ or whatever! That's not going to go! You're not going to get that on free, & if you get on, you're not going to stay on.
121. YOU'RE JUST GOING TO HAVE TO OFFER MUSIC & A MESSAGE OF LOVE, that's all, & trust that somehow people will understand that love is God & God is love, & then give them the heavier message in the mail without money & without price.
122. & WE CAN HONESTLY TELL THE STATIONS & THE PEOPLE THAT WE DO NOT ASK FOR MONEY EITHER ON THE AIR OR OF OUR AUDIENCE or listeners or those who write in, no monetary appeals whatsoever, we are giving it all away. We have bewildered them & they're going to say, "How do you pay for it?" "Well, we have people behind us who are interested in supporting it so that people can hear a message of love."
123. SOME PEOPLE USED TO ASK ME ABOUT FRED'S SHOW, "LISTEN MAN, WE KNOW IT COSTS THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS TO PRODUCE THIS SHOW, WHO'S PAYING FOR IT?" I used to say first of all, "He's paying for it", & they said, "He must be awful rich! What, is he a millionaire or something?" Well, he was, so I'd say, "Yes!" Then of course if they ever wrote in just one time they found out how he got his money, & that's what killed him on a lot of stations.
124. HE RAN HIS GAMUT & HE GOT WHAT HE WANTED & NEEDED OUT OF IT; HE GOT ABOUT 50,000 NEW NAMES FOR HIS MAILING LIST. I mean, it stuck, he actually got a response, a total response from radio & television, & public service, of 300-&-some-thousand new names of people that wrote in, but 50,000 became steady givers. So that's pretty good, one out of six or seven who became steady supporters.
125. WELL OF COURSE HE KILLED HIMSELF ON RADIO & TELEVISION IN THE PROCESS BY ASKING FOR MONEY, SAD TO SAY. Even though he wouldn't ask for money on the show, he'd sure hint around about it, about their needs & "the reason our ceiling's falling down here in our mission is because we haven't had the money to get it fixed, & you know it sure costs a lot of money to feed all these bums every night like this" & stuff like that.--Not actually asking outright, "Send in your money", but I mean his need was obvious.
126. WELL, I'D LIKE TO BE THE FIRST GOSPEL SHOW ON THE AIR THAT NEVER ASKED FOR MONEY EITHER ON THE AIR OR IN THE MAIL, at least until they're thoroughly converted & volunteer to become TRFers, & by that time we have probably reaped all the listeners in the area anyhow & it wouldn't matter if we do lose the Show.
127. WELL, MY FINAL ANALYSIS ON MWM IS NOT THAT THEY'RE GOING TO LOSE STATIONS BUT THEY'RE ALREADY LOSING STATIONS THROUGH THEIR BEING TOO RELIGIOUS. How many new ones they're gaining every month, that's not the way you keep your balance. Your bank balance, for example, is not how much money you've got coming in, you've got to balance it up with how much money you have going out; if more is going out than coming in, just because you have some coming in doesn't mean that you're winning. It means you'll be losing; & if we are losing more stations than we're getting new stations, then we're not gaining, we're losing, & I'll tell you, that's what is happening to MWM. (Doin' OK now, TTL!)
128. SO AS I'VE SAID BEFORE, I CAN SEE THE HANDWRITING ON THE WALL. I think MWM has pretty much sort of fixed itself & killed itself by coming on too strong religiously, & if they got that idea from me, Lord forgive me, & if so, "all things work together for good." After a year on a station & 52 shows I think we've probably reached all the people we're going to reach anyhow.
129. BUT WE'VE GOT PLENTY MORE FOR THEM TO DO; WE'RE NOT THROUGH BY ANY MEANS YET! I want to see Simon finish a year of DM's & I want to see him roll out some more kiddie dramas & keep on putting out from the stockpile of recordings that we already have so they can keep on putting out tapes for the Family if not for the stations. Even if we lose all of our stations I want to see'm producing music for the Family, right? 'Cause they can always use them.
130. IN FACT, WE HAVE BEGUN TO ACCUMULATE QUITE A DEMAND FROM INSTITUTIONAL USERS, hospitals, schools, orphanages, prisons & whatnot. I don't pooh-pooh that at all, I don't minimise that a bit! Most Gospel broadcasters would, because they say you're never going to get a penny out of those people, which shows how they think. So they wouldn't be sending off free shows to prisons & orphanages & old folks' homes & the schools & hospitals, because there's no money in it!
131. BUT WE DON'T GIVE A DAMN WHETHER THERE'S ANY MONEY IN IT OR NOT! We're not after the money, we're after the message, & if we get out the message we know God'll give us the money somehow from somewhere! That I'm just as sure of as I am sittin' here, in fact, I'm more sure of it. Because the last time I sat down here the chair collapsed! Ha!
132. I'VE GOT THAT MUCH FAITH IN A BIG GOD, THAT AS LONG AS WE DO THE JOB HE'LL TAKE CARE OF US & we don't have to worry about the money! Hasn't it proved so? The more we give away, the more He gives us, right? So, are you gettin' convinced on this doctrine of giveaways? Ha! When they wouldn't buy the books, I gave them to'm! When they wouldn't even pay the postage, I paid the postage, & when they still wouldn't request them, I sent them to'm anyhow! Whether they wanted them or not, they got'm! Ha! Whether they liked it or not!
133. I TOLD'M,"WELL, YOU'RE GOING TO GET THE BOOKS ANYWAY & WHAT YOU DO WITH THEM IS GOING TO BE ON YOUR CONSCIENCE, NOT MINE!" I daresay they probably used them, gave them to friends or something, PTL! Well, that got me started & I had such fun doing that I decided to give away a few other things.
134. NOW WE'RE REALLY ROLLIN' GIVING AWAY! MWM gives away four tapes a month & dear Beriah's giving away six! There's ten tapes a month we're sending out free of charge plus a bunch of books & calendars & we're going to put out a diary & Magazines & posters & whatnot, all free!
135. ALL THEY HAVE TO DO IS GIVE THEIR TITHE & THAT'S THAT, no matter how big or how little it is, if they're really honestly faithfully tithing. & when you think about it, that's something that really amazes me--only about one percent of our people give less than 20 dollars a month! Think of that! So why should we have worried that people would try to scotch by with giving too little?
136. I HAVE ENOUGH FAITH IN MOST OF OUR PEOPLE THAT IF THAT'S ALL THEY CAN AFFORD TO GIVE, THAT'S REALLY ALL THEY CAN AFFORD TO GIVE & all the more reason to give them the stuff free. They can't afford to buy it, they can't even afford to pay enough tithe to pay for it, so the rest of the folks who can make up for their loss, why, it's their gain. PTL! We're not losing anything by it at all! They haven't lost a penny by it! If anything, God has blessed us hand over fist for giving it away. Amen?
137. SO I WANT TO DO THE SAME ON OUR RADIO SHOWS & I WANT TO DO THE SAME WITH THE VIDEOS. Only with them I'm not going to give them to them, because they're too expensive, but we're going to circulate them; we'll loan'm to'm as long as they'll circulate'm & use'm for the Lord's glory, use'm as a witness or whatever--free of charge!
138. I WANT YOU TO FIGURE OUT NOT ONLY WHERE EVERYTHING IS THAT WE'VE GOT RIGHT NOW, which is hundreds & hundreds of tapes, but I want to know who's got them & where they are & how many & what, & organise'm into circuits with somebody in charge of each circuit who keeps tab as a librarian of them & makes sure they get'm back.
139. & AS I SAID LAST NIGHT, I THINK THAT WE OUGHT TO MAKE IT A STANDARD POLICY THEY DON'T GET ANOTHER ONE TILL THEY GET THE OTHER ONE BACK. When we get the other one back, we'll mail'm another one, that's fair enough, & if they don't send it back they don't get any more. Fair enough? That way we make sure we don't have too many losses.
140. ALL RIGHT, SO WHAT'S IN IT FOR MWM, WHAT'S THE FUTURE? I think we're going to lose out on stations & I even predicated this maybe six months ago that no matter how good a show was, I mean even if they hadn't started coming down too heavy on religion, that most stations like variety & they change the programming anyway & they usually won't run a show more than a year, that's a lot for free!
141. THE BASIC UNIT IS 13 WEEKS, IF YOU STAY SIX MONTHS YOU'RE DOING WELL FOR 26 SHOWS. If they run you 52 shows, a full year, you have really had it! Seldom were we able to keep on even that long, much less longer. Maybe one handful of shows or as many stations as you can count on one hand who might keep us on, do or die, sink or swim since we practically got the guys converted & they wanted to keep us forever! But they're going to be a handful, very few.
142. MOST OF THEM, JUST LIKE ANY OTHER BROADCASTING, THE RADIO, TELEVISION, WHATNOT, THEY DON'T KEEP THE SAME SHOWS ON FOREVER. I mean, even a show that runs a year is doing well & they figure it's time to change the program. They just figure the public gets tired of it & they do, & they want something different, something new!
143. FINE! WE'LL WORK ON SOMETHING DIFFERENT & WE'LL START RIGHT NOW, & when they start cancelling the music show, well, we've got a new one, dramatic shows! "How would you like to have a 14-minute dramatics or a half-hour dramatics free of charge, no money, no appeals except for audience response?" Even devotionals. I think you'll get some stations who would.
144. IN FACT, I USED TO GET A LOT OF REQUESTS, "HAVEN'T YOU GOT ANYTHING IN A ONE-MINUTE DEVOTIONAL, 2, 3 or even 5-minute devotional?" They had time for 5 minutes of religion they could shove in, in the beginning or end of the day or something. (Some stations are now using the DMs!)
145. THEY WANT A LITTLE STARTER OR NIGHTCAP & they were willing to give anywhere from about one to five minutes of time to something they expected to be religious & inspirational & maybe with one little song to open & a few words of inspiration & close with a song. Or a one-minute thing where they just read a little Scripture with a little instrumental background.
146. THEY'LL PUT UP WITH ONE TO FIVE MINUTES OF RELIGION IF IT'S FREE & they can use it like that as an opening or closing devotional. I think there's a demand for that & I think the DM's he's making could fulfill that need. We can send them on these 90-minute tapes he's got, a whole month of daily devotionals on 90 minutes. They run about two minutes each with a minute of music in between.
147. BECAUSE THEY'RE ALREADY SET UP THAT WAY HE COULD PROBABLY CONDENSE THEM, but I think that's a pretty good format & they sounded good to me, the last one he sent. He reads beautifully & two minutes was not too long & then a minute of nice music to open & close it, beautiful!--They'll love it! (They do!)
148. I THINK A LOT OF THE STATIONS WOULD TAKE IT IF THEY GET FED UP WITH OUR MUSICAL SHOWS. "Well, OK, we've got this three-minute daily devotions, one-third music, only two minutes of talk. & yes it's a bit religious, of course, but non-sectarian; well, it's Christian, but we just mostly talk about love & God & that's it."
149. FOR RADIO HE CAN TAKE THE MOST MILKY WATERY ONES. He can just pick out the best ones, you know, the ones the stations would stand on the radio, & make special tapes for radio of daily devotions. I think there's a demand for that & for children's dramatics on radio. & of course anything that will interest kids will interest anybody really, because we're all pretty childish. The point is that if the kids can understand it, the rest can too.
150. BEFORE THE DAYS OF P.A. SYSTEMS JOHN WESLEY USED TO SPEAK TO CROWDS OF 100,000 PEOPLE OUT IN THE OPEN in some of those poor mining communities in Wales, in the famous Welsh revival etc., gather them up on the hillsides or kind of an amphitheater idea & he could belt it out! If you can be heard by 100,000 people you're doing pretty good without a megaphone or a PA system! Those guys could bellow like bulls!
151. SOME OF THESE CYNICS ASKED HIM, "DR. WESLEY, WHEN YOU HAVE BOTH CHILDREN & THE LEARNED DOCTORS OF THE LAW IN YOU AUDIENCE, TO WHOM DO YOU DIRECT YOUR MESSAGE? You couldn't possibly be able to talk to both." He said, "I talk to the children, of course, & then the learned doctors will understand." I'm not sure about the learned doctors even understanding that much.
152. BUT THAT'S WHAT JESUS DID! HE TALKED VERY SIMPLY TO THE COMMON IGNORANT PEOPLE & He very rarely directed any complicated remarks to the learned lawyers, the Scribes & Pharisees & Chief Priests. In fact, He tried to avoid them. So I think our children's dramatics would go over on radio as well as with the Family.
153. I KNOW THE DEVOTIONALS WILL BE A GREAT BLESSING TO THE FAMILY, but I think they can prepare some special radio tapes of devotionals as well. I daresay he probably has to prepare maybe one tape of 30 devotionals & that's about all the average station would be able to stand. It wouldn't take too many words at the very end of it just to say, "If you have a need or a problem or a prayer request you are welcome to write"--whatever the new name will be.
154. AVOID "MUSIC WITH MEANING" ANY MORE, THAT NAME IS KNOWN, it's got a religious reputation now, sad to say, & it's known. At least it's known in areas where it's already saturated & petered out. You might be able to get a few new stations where they don't know it or know anything about it, but it's risky where it's known, if for no other reason than that. But I don't doubt that any place where they've been on long enough, maybe a year, the religionists have eventually discovered us, & if we didn't kill ourselves, they would.
155. SO I DON'T CONSIDER THAT SIMON & MWM'S MINISTRY'S ENDED BY ANY MEANS! I think they're just getting started. But we're going to have to go into a new phase, like the chameleon, change our colour, or change or metamorphosis somehow so that we attack from a new level & a new type of ministry, a new type of program, new methods, just like we have always done periodically in the Family.
156. WE HAVE GONE FROM ONE THING TO ANOTHER & ANOTHER & ANOTHER & as fast as we wore out one or the Enemy killed that one, we went & started on another one. We're a revolution, we're constantly changing, we're continuing to revolve & we've got to think of new things all the time because the old things die out or get killed or dead or wear out or people get tired of it & you've got to think of something new. The Bible itself says, "The people seek a new thing" & that's a fact! PTL!
157. WELL, THAT ANSWERS THE QUESTION WHAT, & WE'LL PROBABLY THINK OF A LOT MORE EVENTUALLY AS THE TIME GOES ON TILL THE LORD COMES, WHAT TO PUT ON THE AIR. Who knows? You guys may wind up putting MO Letters on the air or something! Or maybe True Komix on television or at least video or something. I mean, we've got a wealth of illustrative material now. You could out these Komix on video & they would attract attention of people, you know, just page by page, just like you read the Komic itself; you could have musical background & the works & be in kind of the form of drama.
158. THERE ARE ALL KINDS OF IDEAS SO WE'RE NOT KILLED YET! The MWM show may be killing itself & almost dead as far as any further production along those same lines, same format, same name is concerned, but we're not dead; we're just going to attack on a new level, that's all, with a new type of show, devotionals, dramatics, musicals, whatever. Get it? All right. That's what!
159. NOW I'VE ANSWERED WHAT, WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO NOW THAT MWM MAY BE KILLING ITSELF & what are we going to do with MCV before they kill themselves, & that, if I didn't finish it up, is more music, less talk & fewer plugs. If they've got that much time for talk, they ought to be able to squeeze at least more music into a quarter-hour show & no more than two commercials or appeals for write-ins, offers of the address or offers or whatever for every 14 minutes. Let's have a little less talk & fewer commercials & have at least one more musical number.
160. NOW FOR GOD'S SAKE, DON'T LET THEM GET THE IDEA THAT I SAID THEY COULD ONLY HAVE FIVE MUSICAL NUMBERS! If they can squeeze ten musical numbers into 14 minutes & still not have too much talk or too many plugs, well, for God's sake, let'm put ten on! Let'm put as much as they possibly can on the Show.
161. THEY'VE GOT TO HAVE A LITTLE INTRODUCTION, SOME KIND OF ANNOUNCEMENTS IN-BETWEEN NUMBERS: "This is So-&-so singing So-&-so & that was So-&-so" or a little tiny quote or a little tiny inspirational thought for today or something, fine! But only twice the address, preferably in jingles; if he thinks they don't get the first jingle in the middle of the show, that would be the ideal place for it, then say it in speech at the end of the show depending on the time.
162. GIVE THE ADDRESS IN THE MIDDLE OF THE 14 MINUTES & GIVE THAT IN JINGLE. That's still music, they certainly couldn't be too offended by that, & if he thinks they might not understand the jingle, well then give it in speech at the end, or both at the end! I would even stretch it that far. If, for example, he sounds off with: "Write in to us so-&-so, Apartado 312, Viejo San Juan, Puerto Rico" & bingo they come right on with the jingle, "Apartado 312, Viejo San Juan, Puerto Rico," etc., they usually sing it twice.
163. SO IF IT'S AT THE VERY END OF THE SHOW, WHY, I THINK THEY'D PUT UP WITH IT! One thing about that, if they don't like it, they can always cut it off at the tail of the show. They can't cut it out of the middle. But as long as it's sugar-coated & savoury with nice cute little music & sexy female voices there in the middle, they're not going to cut it out.
164. THEY MAY CUT THE TAILS OFF THE SHOWS! If they use only a quarter-hour, they may cut off the last commercial. They can do it, there's nothing you can do to stop them. They're supposed to use the whole show but we can't make'm. You can't look a gift-horse in the mouth!
165. SO THAT'S MY IDEA FOR MCV, DID I MAKE THAT CLEAR? No more of this five or six jingles & two or three spoken addresses & offers, & half talk. I want to hear more music on that show & less talk & fewer plugs. Is that clear?--Before they kill themselves!
166. & IF THE PRESENTLY-PRODUCED SHOWS DON'T CONFORM TO THAT FORMAT, I WANT THEM TO START ALL OVER AGAIN! I'm not going to offer that show to one radio station unless they've got that format, because if we do we'll kill ourselves before we get started with the first show!
167. LET'S START OFF ON THE RIGHT FOOT IF THEY HAVE TO GO BACK & START OVER AGAIN, & I MEAN IT!--If we have to rearrange the whole music & re-tape it! They shouldn't have to do anything that a good technician isn't able to do just by splicing & re-recording it & fading-in & fading-out etc. They should be able to take what they've already recorded & just put it together & cut the extra jingles & cut the extra addresses & can the extra chatter! Amen? OK. Now, that's what? Right now! (They did, GB'M!)
168. I WANT'M AT MCV TO START IT NOW & I WANT MWM TO GET BUSY WITH MORE DMs & DRAMATICS, ETC. NOW! We've got six months of DMs to do & we've got a whole thousand Komix to use as a guide for making dramatics. Not all of them are suitable for dramatics, of course, but I think that's one reason the Lord gave me so many funny dreams & story dreams which are very adaptable to dramatics
169. THEY'RE REALLY STORIES IN WHICH THERE'S DIALOGUE, DRAMA, ACTION & THEY'LL MAKE EXCELLENT DRAMATICS! Our artists really have already proved that just with the Komix, & if they'll take the most dramatic Komix & the best story Komix & the things that'll be the most adaptable for radio, I think we've got tremendous dramatics for radio! Even if we never get on a single radio station with them, for God's sake, we've got enough kids in the Family to make it worth it!
170. THIS IS WHAT I TOLD YOU GUYS IN THE BEGINNING: I said about MWM when we first started out, "If we never get on another radio station, it's worth preserving that music just for the Family alone & our children!" All right, praise God, if we get radio stations on top of it, well, that's pure gravy, that's bonus, that's free, TTL! Even if we never get a radio station, it's worth it for the Family alone!
171. WE'VE GOT A CAPTIVE AUDIENCE ALREADY THAT WILL BE HAPPY TO HAVE IT & the same goes for the DM's, the same goes with the dramatics, or whatever else the Lord gives & we just produce, PTL? As well as videos: We've got a tremendous field in the videos & we haven't even...well, maybe we've scratched the surface--some of those have been pretty scratchable--I'll tell you, but I've already told you about that.
172. NOW IT'S NOT ONLY GOING TO BE THE ONE-SHOT, ONE-TAKE REVOLUTION, BUT IT'S GOING TO BE THE ONE-COPY REVOLUTION TOO & on a circulation basis & I want to get'm going! We've been talking about them for nearly a year & they're sittin' there with their machinery waiting & some of them haven't got one yet & they're wondering why! We tell them all this & we make'm go to all the trouble to get a special kind of equipment they can't even buy at home & then they don't get any videos.
173. WE CAN'T KEEP ON DISAPPOINTING THEM! This is why I rushed the first copies of MWM, first copies of MCV, I wanted to rush them to the Family first to show that we were doing something & getting some action, that we were actually producing not just talking!--That there was some fire there as well as some smoke, & show them that we're accomplishing something!--Amen? PTL! So let's go! Let's hv mo'!--Amen? GBAKYAMYAB to millions!--ILY!
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family
