Saturday, October 31, 2009
Unlikely pair takes to the airwaves
Photo courtesy of Wheeler Broadcasting
The Rev. John Furman of Roanoke's Westminster Presbyterian Church records his fifth spot for the "Spread Hope" campaign, which was created by Lynda Foster, director of client marketing at Wheeler Broadcasting.
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After the brawl of commercials for a local restaurant and a grocery store and before the spots publicizing a mortgage company and an auto dealership, the Rev. John Furman takes to the air and talks about how God forgave everyone's sins.
He's not preaching to the choir. Since June, he and three pastors from Roanoke-area churches have recorded what they call good news in a time of bad news for the listeners of WSLC-FM, Star Country.
"I'm willing to do anything for God's word to be proclaimed," said Furman, of Westminster Presbyterian Church in Roanoke.
But the public service announcements, unlike others of the religious kind, wrap two products into one ad: the message of Christ and Simpson Funeral Home & Crematory.
Through an agreement in which the funeral home pays 85 percent of the cost and gets only 15 of the 60 seconds of air time, the pastors have found an affordable way to distribute their message and the funeral home a vehicle to promote a service with limited marketing options.
Allen Simpson, owner of the funeral home, says self-promotion plays only "a secondary part" in why the company bought into the ads.
"The major thing I want to get across is that in this time when we have bad things going on in our country, that there are many things we have in the valley that we are blessed with, and things are going to get better," he said.
The strategy is akin to buying air time to position a product beside the good news. Lynda Foster, the director of client marketing strategies for Wheeler Broadcasting, says she came up with the "Spread Hope" campaign because listeners and advertisers want to hear positive messages.
"It was inspired by a time when it seemed like all the news was sad," she said. "So what I wanted to do was bring people messages of inspiration and hope on a regular basis."
The commercials themselves are more calm than they are upbeat. Over warm guitar chords, Simpson opens with his welcoming Southern drawl to explain that his mission is to celebrate life and that's why the company is making way for messages of inspiration.
Then, a pastor shares a message for 45 seconds. In one ad, the Rev. Mark Washington of Hollins Road Baptist Church tells a joke about a hopeless man and says there's always hope with God.
In the one Furman recorded this week, he quotes "One More Day" by country group Diamond Rio and encourages people to live every day to the fullest.
"What I'm trying to do is use a line from a song that Star Country plays," he explained. "That's like getting an extra three minutes."
So far, the campaign's effects are unclear. Simpson and the pastors -- including the Rev. Bart Weakley of Northview United Methodist Church and the Rev. Darryl Crim of North Roanoke Baptist Church -- have measured it through the firsthand comments people have given them.
The result was nebulous even for the daily "God's Minute" from the Rev. Charles Fuller, former pastor of First Baptist Church on Third Street in Roanoke. For years, it reached thousands of people who never set foot in the church.
"All I can do is keep proclaiming the Scripture," Furman said. "The scripture is what's going to have an impact on people."
Send us your religion news Your Community, P.O. Box 2491 Roanoke, VA 24010 or e-mail yourcommunity@roanoke.comA funeral home and crematory has partnered with area pastors to broadcast uplifting messages on the radio.
