What mainstream radio can learn from Christian radio.

While almost all major music stations are losing listeners and resorting to past lists, something that looks to the future is growing on the fringes of the system — not through better technology, but through a clear understanding of *why* it exists.

Recently, American radio columnist Phil Becker wrote a striking piece on the media platform Barrett Media. He had been a keynote speaker at Momentum, the Christian radio makers' conference in Orlando, and returned with an uncomfortable conclusion for his own field. The real problem with mainstream radio, he wrote, is not listening figures, not revenue, and not resources. These are merely the outcomes. The actual problem is perception: how radio is seen by listeners, advertisers, artists, young talent, and even its own employees.

Becker did not ask the mainstream to become Christian. He asked for something simpler: to “borrow a little faith.” Faith that talent is worth developing, and that radio can be more than a conduit for advertising and songs everyone has already heard on TikTok. In the United States, he notes, Christian radio has now grown to be the most popular format measured by the total number of stations.

This has already happened in America

What Becker describes is not wishful thinking. It has become reality. By early 2026, “religious” became the most common radio format in the United States — for the first time in over thirty years, larger than country. The renowned research agency Pew Research Center found that about one in four American radio stations now broadcast faith-related content: over 4,000 stations in total. No longer a niche market on the fringes of the system, but the largest category in the entire country.

And it's not just radio. The series The Chosen — about the life of Jesus — has been watched by over 300 million people in more than 175 countries, and is now even successfully playing in cinemas. Film studio Angel Studios grossed over 250 million dollars worldwide with Sound of Freedom. Christian media in America are no longer the secular media's little brother; they play in the same league, at the same professional level — and are increasingly winning.

At GOD Radio, we are also increasingly able to collaborate with major international partners, including various renowned names from America. I have seen it up close. I was recently in Dallas, Texas — one of the beating hearts of American Christian media — and came back with a bag full of new contacts and partners. The energy there is infectious: people not only believe *in* the message, they also invest professionally in it, with courage and quality. That's exactly what I want to bring back to the Netherlands.

The question then is fair: does the same apply to the Netherlands? I think so. Moreover — you just have to look at the listening figures.

The numbers tell a story

From the most recent NMO listening figures (early June 2026), a familiar picture emerges. NPO Radio 2 is still market leader with a market share of around 12.6 percent, and Qmusic is the undisputed reach leader with over 4.3 million listeners per week. But something stands out beneath that top layer: in the first months of 2026, almost *all* major music stations lost market share compared to a year earlier — Qmusic, Radio 538, Joe, Radio 10, Radio Veronica, 100% NL, and 3FM.

And look at how those stations maintain their position. The Top 2000. The Top 500 of the 00s. The Dutch 1000. The 80s Top 1500. The Royal 500. One themed list after another. It is, frankly, radio looking backward. “Partly due to lists,” stations see their share rise, listener researchers note week after week. Discovery — discovering something new — is increasingly replaced by repetition of what we already know. We pretend something new is happening, while for good measure we play the same thing *again*.

Compare that to the Christian segment. Groot Nieuws Radio, once started in 2007 in a backyard studio in Veenendaal, now attracts some 358,000 listeners per month — almost two-thirds of the entire Christian listening audience in the Netherlands. In 2015, the program Blessings won the Golden RadioRing. In early 2026, the station, as the only Christian and relatively small party, was again twice in the final of the RadioRing — for best presenter and for one of the most popular programs in the country, among purely large national names. The awards went to others this time, but that's not the point. The point is that a small, mission-driven station with a fraction of the resources penetrates the top five in the country — based on listeners' votes.

That difference is no coincidence. It is a choice.

Lesson 01 Start with the mission, not the numbers

Becker put it sharply: in the mainstream, every meeting starts with “how's business?” In Christian radio, the conversation starts with the mission. That sounds soft, but it's strategically hard-nosed. A station that *knows why* it exists doesn't have to invent a new formula every season.

Groot Nieuws Radio unequivocally describes its mission: in a time when opinions are hardening and public debate is sharp, deliberately choosing a hopeful sound that connects, encourages, and inspires. That's not a marketing slogan that changes quarterly. That's a foundation. Mainstream radio talks endlessly about “putting the listener first”; Christian radio *does* it, because the listener is not a target group but a person to whom you wish something good.

Lesson 02 Community only works when people are allowed to come together

Becker made a great observation in Orlando: the music industry and the artists were accessible there. They didn't come in for a photo and leave through the side exit. They were available, willing to work with the people who help discover their music. Community apparently works better, he wrote drily, if people are actually allowed to come together.

That's exactly what much commercial radio has forgotten. It has become an efficient distribution system — for spots, for playlists, for giveaways. But a listener feels the difference between a station that wants to sell him something and a station that wants to share something *with* him. Christian radio thrives on the latter. Not because it's commercially smart, but because it's in the nature of the matter: your listener is your neighbor.

The better we are seen, the more we can achieve — and the more we will receive.

Lesson 03 Talent is something to invest in

While large stations cut budgets, the Christian segment invests in people. Groot Nieuws Radio actively seeks new radio talent and offers learning trajectories and permanent positions to a new generation of creators. That is precisely the “faith” Becker was talking about: the belief that talent is worth developing. Radio that only recycles existing names will eventually dry up. Radio that educates, plans for the future. It is the difference between harvesting and sowing.

Lesson 04 A hopeful sound is not a luxury, but a market gap

This might be the biggest lesson. The Dutch media landscape is overflowing with cynicism, commotion, and polarization. The tone is harsh. And precisely there lies a space that hardly anyone occupies: the hopeful sound.

Christian radio occupies that space out of conviction. But you don't have to be religious to see that there is an enormous audience yearning for media that connect instead of divide, that build up instead of break down, that offer peace instead of adrenaline. Unity, healing, truth, love, and restoration are not pious trifles. In the current climate, they are distinguishing characteristics — and thus an opportunity.

Lesson 05 Loyal listeners are worth more than bare reach

Lists like Groot Nieuws Radio's Top 1008 are made possible partly by the financial support of “friends” — listeners who care deeply about the station and contribute to it themselves. The same model supports the broader Christian media world: TWR (Trans World Radio) Netherlands & Belgium received over 3.3 million euros in donations from a loyal support base in 2024, an increase of seven percent. This is a fundamentally different model than stations that are entirely dependent on advertising euros, and thus on reach.

A listener who gives is a listener who believes in what you do. That's loyalty you don't buy with a giveaway. Mainstream radio measures success in market share. But a handful of people who *carry* your station sometimes say more about your future than a million passers-by who click away tomorrow.

A billion from the state — or a community in faith

And then the money, because that's where it truly becomes telling. The Dutch public broadcaster is largely paid for by taxpayers' money. The national media contribution for 2026 amounts to over one billion euros, out of a total media budget of about 1.2 billion. Converted, that is over 65 euros per Dutch person per year — making our country one of the highest spenders in Europe. And yet it is shrinking: from 2027, the NPO must structurally cut 156.7 million euros, about a sixth of the budget.

The consequence is predictable, and painfully telling: the theme channels are the first to go. In 2026, NPO Soul & Jazz and NPO Campus Radio will disappear from the air, along with the TV channels NPO 2 Extra and BVN. “With a heavy heart,” the NPO management itself admitted — because the budget is shrinking. A broadcaster with more than a billion euros a year has to let go of loyal listeners.

Compare that to GOD Radio. We receive no state support. No national media contribution, no guaranteed budget, no safety net from The Hague. GOD Radio is carried entirely in faith — by partners and by listeners who give because they believe in what we do. And the remarkable thing is: while the subsidized giant has to cut, we *grow*. Every day, loyal listeners are added. Every week, new partners come forward. Not despite the lack of state support, but perhaps precisely because of it — whoever builds entirely on trust, community, and mission, builds on a foundation that does not disappear with a budget decision.

The numbers confirm it. A listener survey among Christian stations showed GOD Radio had almost 200,000 listeners per month in the autumn of 2025 — over a third of the market, making it the clear number two in Christian Netherlands. Now, that number is over 250,000 per month. A growth of about a quarter in less than a year — fully supported by people who believe in what we do.

That's what I heartily wish for the established media. Not as a reproach, but as an invitation: it *can* be done with much less. It can be done without the certainty of tax money. It can be done if you know exactly *why* you are doing it — and for Whom.

Not a call to conversion

Like Becker, I am not asking the Dutch mainstream to *become* Christian radio. That's not the point. The point is that the parties doing surprisingly well in these times all have the same thing in common: they know why they exist, they invest in people, and they dare to offer hope in a time that desperately needs it. You don't need faith for that. But it helps.

At GOD Radio, we build on precisely that sound every day — radio from a mission, supported by a community, focused on discovering hope. GOD Radio originates from the WILD Foundation, established with the help of TWR Netherlands — part of the global media mission network TWR (Trans World Radio), which has been broadcasting the Gospel in over 190 countries and 200 languages since 1965 and supplies programs in the Netherlands to, among others, Groot Nieuws Radio, the Christelijke Omroep, and GOD Radio. This is not a coincidental background, but precisely the foundation this piece is about: an organization that does not start with reach, but with the message. Not because the market demands it, but because people demand it.

And perhaps that is the whole lesson: the market will naturally follow the stations that people dare to believe in again.

Occasion: Phil Becker, “What Mainstream Radio Can Learn From Christian Radio Right Now”, Barrett Media, May 29, 2026.

Listening figures: NMO Listening Research / RadioWereld.nl and Marketing Report, weekly measurements January–June 2026.

US — Christian media: Inside Radio / PrecisionTrak (religion largest radio format, Feb. 2026) and Pew Research Center, “Religious Radio Across America” via Radio World (± 1 in 4 stations, 4,000+); Deseret News and the media company behind The Chosen (300M+ viewers, 175+ countries); The Hollywood Reporter (Angel Studios, Sound of Freedom ± $250M).

NPO & state aid: OCW Media Budget Letter 2026 and NPO Budget 2026 (national media contribution ± €1B; cut of €156.7M from 2027; termination of NPO Soul & Jazz, NPO Campus Radio, NPO 2 Extra and BVN); Marketing Report and KasLek (± €65 per inhabitant).

Groot Nieuws Radio: grootnieuwsradio.nl, Christelijk Nieuws, Cvandaag and De Rijnpost (RadioRing final 2026; Golden RadioRing 2015; founded 2007, Veenendaal).

TWR Netherlands & Belgium: twr.nl, Reformatorisch Dagblad and Christelijk Nieuws (mission since 1965; annual report 2024: ± €3.3M, +7%).

Note: the relationship between the WILD Foundation and TWR Netherlands is based on internal knowledge of GOD Radio; please verify the exact wording before publication.