I no longer have a link to the article, but a writer for GQ (!) attended one of the big-time Christian music festivals and wrote an article/review of his experiences. In the article, he made a point of differentiating between “Christian Rock Band” and “Christian Band”. His basic analysis came down to this: The term “Christian Rock Band” refers to a rock band that specifically and deliberately plays “Christian Rock”. The term “Christian Band” simply refers to a band whose members (all or most of them) happen to be Christians. U2, Black Happy, and the band I mentioned earlier, SHIM, are examples of “Christian Bands”.
The “Christian Rock Band” is [usually] going to have the kind of lyrics you would expect to find in a Christian song - quotes from the Bible, common Christian terminology, etc. The “Christian Band” members simply write what they want to write. As Christians they’re not going to write songs that promote things that a Christian would object to, like partying, extramarital sex, or drug use. They’ll frequently write songs about social issues that many Christians care (or should care) about; probably not in the form of “Jesus commands us to …” but rather in the form of “it’s the right thing to do”. If there’s an honest-to-goodness “Christian message” in their lyrics, it’s subtle.
This thread immediately brought to mind a song called “Left of the Dial” by The Replacements. Although they weren’t referring to the Christian stations, they meant the college stations.
I’ve always been able to identify a Christian station in about half a second, but I can usually identify a college station pretty quickly too.
I wonder if there’s some kind of difference in sound quality at the low end of the FM dial. Maybe the fidelity is a bit lower.
Back in the early 80s, the Schulke II stations that played a step above elevator music all had a unique sound and they were spread all over the country. You could always tell that it was a Schulke II station as soon as you turned it on. They were pretty much the only FM stations that used reverb.
I don’t think the Christian stations do anything like that since they’re all independent (I think) and have different management (other than the big boss up in the sky).
A popular Boston area talk show did a prank/parody on this theme. It is quite entertaining but seems to fit with the topic at hand (warning: Westboro Baptist Church interview).
As to the OP: I have at times not realized that a station was churchy immediately. Not sure whether listening to a lot of “Xtian radio” as a kid makes a difference to my Church-radar either way. But I suppose I would recognize a few different preaching & teaching styles with a sigh of tired familiarity.