Six years ago, on the bridge between December 2018 and January 2019, the world lost its favorite Christian alternative station, Air1. Up from the ashes came a very different housing of songs and trends: the “new” Air1 with its motto “Worship Now”. It is now December 2024, and we’re getting very close to the bridge to January 2025.

That leaves me to wonder a little bit about the past six years of Air1. I want to take some time to reflect on my personal experience with Air1: how I discovered it and some of its most notable songs. Then, I’ll consider the big difference and feelings of switching the format way back in 2019 and what we can do about it. This is a long story with deep connections to all of us who have listened to Air1 and at least have some experience with what it stands for… so get ready. It’s going to be a big one.

A little while ago, I was reviewing the comments section on an article titled “Air1 Changes Direction,” and this story definitely catches my attention. As someone in one of the newer generations listening to Air1, I understand the frustration. It’s very sad to see something in its “glory days” and then watch it rapidly collapse to something considered not as exciting. Now, things seem to feel like they’re a bit more empty and that the excitement of the past will never light up again. That’s the type of problem that we run into where we can only call on God to save the day… but what is God going to do about this one? He has placed you and me into this time of reflection right now, and it’s not too late to surrender ourselves and wait for God to pull a miracle. But as far as I see it, we’re not going to get the old Air1 back… or at least that doesn’t seem to be on Air1’s agenda. The goal, I think, is to continue onward with the “new normal,” although I believe that things are pretty temporary in the long term and it’s only a little while longer before something just like the old Air1 can rise up, dominate, and bring back that sense of excitement.

I am very very sad to say that I was not around for the old Air1… or at least the “old” Air1 as people have described it. I first actively and knowingly listened to Air1 in December 2020. This was a little under two years into the new worship format, although there were many traces still of a variety of music styles. I had been coming from the massive year 2020 with all of the headaches and excitements that it had caused, dealing with some personal struggles, joys, and anticipations. My goal that Christmas season was to pack on as many exciting things as I could find, and since I had enjoyed listening to Christian music during that time, I had an opportunity. Why exactly did I end up choosing Air1? Well, that’s a pretty long story too.

The main Christian radio station that I listen to is WGTS 91.9. I discovered it early on when I was younger, as I was in the listening area and heard it being played on the FM, and it holds the music that I grew up listening to. I had listened to regular hit music stations before, but since I am a Christian, when I discovered Christian music, I had to switch over and listen to that since it felt more appealing… or maybe I just liked how a couple of the songs sounded and then just kept listening from then on. I still listen today, after many years, so I guess the original thought carried on pretty far.

In 2020, with the Covid-19 pandemic and the lack of excitement, one of the things that I turned to throughout the springtime was video games. Well, of course, I turned to God through video games. And God surprisingly used those video games to boost my faith more than it had ever been boosted before, but that’s a story for another time. When I would spend evenings playing video games, I wanted to make sure that I had music to go with it… because somehow I felt the need to play music while I was playing the games. And so, with my basic Amazon Music playlists, I kept adding songs. Normally, I would have a group of songs from Christian Contemporary Radio that I had known. One thing I liked about Amazon Music (this was before I knew what Spotify was) was that I could find Christian songs by familiar artists that I hadn’t heard on the radio.

I know this sounds very basic, and yes, my knowledge of Christian radio and Christian music was very basic. It has grown over time, and if I’m now at 50% of what I should know about the totality of Christian music these days, I was probably at 10% then.

One thing that made me excited was discovering Christian hip hop songs, or at least Christian pop songs with collaborations with hip hop artists. Some examples of those (which I found in Fall 2019) were “Love Me Like You” by The Young Escape with nobigdyl., “Every Little Thing” by Hillsong Young & Free with Andy Mineo, and “Even Louder” by Steven Malcolm and Natalie Grant. Note that all of these songs have appeared on the new Air1 at some point… I’m just not sure if the verse with nobigdyl. was there for “Love Me Like You.”

Long story short, with some Amazon Music recommendations, I was opening up to more and more Christian alternatives instead of just Christian Contemporary pop. For someone who had only kept track of WGTS and Contemporary, I was so new to all of these areas. I was finding rock, hip hop, live worship, and more. It sounded amazing! I loved the variety of all of these different types of songs. I was discovering artists like Local Sound, Neon Feather, FEARLESS BND, Everfound, Landry Cantrell, Planetshakers, Branan Murphy, Royal Tailor, ELEVATION RHYTHM, Joshua Micah, Capital Kings, GAWVI, WE ARE ONE, Cortes, Charlie Rey, Urban Rescue, Zauntee, Run51, and Mack Brock… a big variety of live worship, pop, hip hop, EDM, and more.

So that was the excitement that I needed as the pandemic came in. And those songs were very upbeat and fitting for me playing intense video games that required me to keep clicking my computer mouse for hours on end.

That’s what I wanted to hear. The music on Christian Contemporary Radio was there, but there were so many more areas to discover. And so in order to build onto my playlists, I decided to start listening to different radio stations to find some Christian music that wasn’t being played on WGTS at the time.

WGTS doesn’t put a whole lot of emphasis on brand new music. They tend to add music a little bit later on, so by the time when new songs are added, they’ve usually been out there for several months, and if/when they become popular, they usually stay popular for pretty long. For example, Phil Wickham’s song “House Of The Lord” and Maverick City Music’s “Promises” came out around April and May of 2021, but WGTS didn’t start playing them until around September. These songs became popular, and somehow they ended up still on heavy rotation at the beginning of 2023. They were still two of the top ten songs being played in the beginning of 2023, so they went through all of 2022 by being at the top! That’s a very late peak of playtime compared to how songs tend to go on most Christian radio stations. I guess that’s an extreme case, but generally, the songs at WGTS seem to be added later on compared to other stations. Since WGTS didn’t have as much new music as my rapidly growing desire to discover new songs was willing to take to be satisfied, I started looking in other places, like… K-Love.

I had known of K-Love, and I had known of where it was, so one week in the summertime, I decided to listen to it. I discovered a bunch of new songs that I didn’t hear on WGTS before… like “You’ve Always Been” from Unspoken, “Revolutionary” from Josh Wilson, and “There Was Jesus” from Zach Williams. Now, the last two ended up being on WGTS, so I was just listening to them a bit early before they were added. But “You’ve Always Been” from Unspoken has always been one of my favorites, and it has never been heard on WGTS as far as I know.

With that discovery, that opened the door to me finding more Christian radio stations. I had no idea what Air1 was at the time. It wasn’t until I was looking up something on the internet about K-Love that I found some type of forum or article or comments that had mentioned how K-Love had a sister station, Air1. So I went on the Air1 website… and I noticed something very special. They carried the playlist of my dreams, the other side of the songs that I had found on Amazon Music but had not heard on the Christian Contemporary Stations… with artists (I mentioned earlier) like Local Sound, Landry Cantrell, Planetshakers, ELEVATION RHYTHM, Joshua Micah, etc. They also had some other songs from worship artists I was familiar with, but this time featuring these worship bands’ live songs that were not on contemporary. You’d easily think of what I’m referring to: Elevation Worship, Bethel Music, Hillsong Worship, Vertical Worship, etc.

That was a big discovery. It felt so amazing to know that the songs I had discovered on my own were actually on a radio station! Throughout that fall, I had remembered checking the list of Air1 and each new group of songs they added every week.

It was December 23, 2020 when I was traveling for Christmastime when I finally took the opportunity to turn on Air1. After a long day of airplanes and airports, my family and I got into a rental car, on our way to drive to see family members, and I found the local Air1 signal. We turned on the station, and my world changed completely. It took a couple hours of driving (and some stops along the way) before we got to our final destination… but that drive was one of the most notable moments in the entirety of the Covid-19 Pandemic in my memories, mainly because Christian music had been so important to me at the time and I was just so happy to be able to listen to a variety of songs.
There were many things that made Air1 appeal to me at that time. First of all, it was called the “new” Air1. That gave me the feeling of new life, of a fresh start. Of course, it being 2020, everything around me had been changing rapidly and unpredictably, and I was happy to hear about the newness in the music.

These songs were exciting, and they had a big variety. I remember some of the first songs I heard were “Never Walk Away” by ELEVATION RHYTHM and “Fires” by Jordan St. Cyr. Then, I heard songs like “Sparrows” by Cory Asbury, “Just Like Heaven” by Brandon Lake, and Elevation Worship’s “Never Lost” and “My Testimony.” I liked how some were super upbeat and then the station would go straight into live songs with cheering and shouting. It was the kind of excitement I needed on a December 23, the night before Christmas Eve during a rough year of the Covid-19 pandemic. But wait! It was the night before Christmas Eve, and I was hearing… worship music? What about the Christmas music? Well, I had supposed that since it was a new worship station, it didn’t have any emphasis on Christmas music. I was aware that K-Love was playing a few Christmas songs here and then and that Air1 had an online Christmas music stream (at the time), so it didn’t seem to have to be a big deal that they weren’t playing Christmas music. After all, it was more like I was stopping listening to Christmas music for just one night before it came on full blast for the holiday days. It’s was like me opening my eyes to the discovery that there was this whole world outside of Christmas music that was still exciting.

I have never heard a single Christmas song on Air1… or at least a Christmas song on the playlist in the rotation. There was one exception in 2022 when Air1 replayed a recording of a live Christmas concert with Phil Wickham on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, but that was the only Christmas-themed music they have played that I have recalled listening to.

Another thing that had made Air1 seem to me like the coolest station ever was that they had played “long” songs. If you’ve heard Elevation Worship or Bethel Music live recordings, these songs sometimes go up to 10 minutes or even longer… and growing up, I thought that radio songs could only be about 3 to 4 minutes long. So I was surprised when seeing songs that were 7 minutes long appear on Air1.
Now, that was my memory when starting out. At this point, if I remember correctly, I think those songs had been edited to fit a 4 to 5 minute time slot instead of their original 7 to 9 minutes. But you get the idea… they’re playing songs with edits and versions that wouldn’t make it onto a regular contemporary station, so there’s even more variety.

I hung onto listening to the “new” Air1 throughout the rest of that December, and I particularly loved listening to the big variety. They played worship music, but they also played hip hop and alternative songs from artists like Tedashii, NEEDTOBREATHE, Lecrae, Apollo LTD, ELEVATION RHYTHM, and The Young Escape.

I recall that some of the top songs at the time were “My Testimony,” “Just Like Heaven,” “Battle Belongs,” “Never Lost,” “Make Room,” “Into the Sea,” “Sparrows,” “My Hands Are Open,” “God Turn It Around,” “You Keep Hope Alive,” and “Even the Impossible.” Of course, the worship songs took top priority and all of the alternatives songs were played sparingly… but they were still there!

Elevation Worship and Bethel Music songs were big… sometimes hearing Elevation Worship songs back to back since they were featuring the “Graves Into Gardens” album with the songs “RATTLE!,” “Never Lost,” “My Testimony,” and “Graves Into Gardens.” Now, Bethel Music actually isn’t mentioned on Air1 at all. Air1 lists the songs by the featured artist, so although most music sites would classify “Egypt (Live)” as a Bethel Music song, Air1 puts it under Cory Asbury. (The same thing I’ve noticed with Hillsong. In 2022, Air1 removed all traces of the word “Hillsong” and called their groups “Young & Free” instead of “Hillsong Young & Free” and “UNITED” instead of “Hillsong United.” For “Hillsong Worship,” the songs became divided under whoever the worship leaders were leading the songs… so “Cornerstone” was listed under David Ware and “King of Kings” was listed under Brooke Ligertwood, for example.) I don’t exactly know the reason why they did this. I do know that these big groups are generally seen as controversial, but will there be a day when “Graves Into Gardens” gets listed under Brandon Lake, when “New Thing Coming” gets listed under Tiffany Hudson, and when “Same God” gets listed under Jonsal Barrientes? I don’t think that’s going to happen. Elevation Worship songs are Elevation Worship songs.

That was my sense of the new Air1. That was a fun time listening to it. Unfortunately, it didn’t last for long. By summer 2021, most of those alternative songs were gone, and many of the previous worship songs too were replaced by some newer stuff… Maverick City Music, to be exact.

Now, I’m not here to discourage anyone from listening to Elevation and Maverick City. To this day, Elevation Worship and Maverick City Music songs are some of my favorite in terms of their style. It’s just there is a big habit of Air1 putting those songs on the top above all else… In 2021, if it wasn’t already apparent, Air1 started fixing its leaderboard of songs to host permanent slots for Elevation Worship, Maverick City Music, Phil Wickham, and Brandon Lake. Well, if this is how the listeners want it, then that’s good. On the surface, though, it just seems crazily repetitive. By the summer, exploding emphasis was placed on the rise of Maverick City Music, with their songs “Jireh,” “Promises,” “Move Your Heart,” and “Rest On Us” dominating the Top Songs list throughout the summer. Then there was Elevation Worship’s “Jireh” (yes, the collaboration between Elevation Worship and Maverick City Music which Air1 claimed as an Elevation Worship song and K-Love claimed as a Maverick City Music song although they played the exact same live edit with the same tag under Elevation Worship, that wasn’t even the same as the radio version released in 2022 by Maverick City). There was Brandon Lake’s “Gratitude” as well as Cody Carnes’ “Too Good To Not Believe” which featured Brandon Lake. And wait, didn’t Brandon Lake lead “Rest On Us” as well? Yes… so now you see the pattern. That’s the majority of what you hear: Elevation Worship, Maverick City Music, Phil Wickham, and Brandon Lake. That stayed the same for 2022 and 2023 and into 2024… It was usually a combination between Elevation Worship and Brandon Lake (as in “Might Get Loud,” “LION,” and “Praise”) or Phil Wickham and Brandon Lake (as in “Where I’m Standing Now,” “People of Heaven,” and “Love of God”) or Maverick City Music and Brandon Lake (as in “Rest On Us” and “Fear is Not My Future”) or Maverick City Music and Phil Wickham (as in “Worthy Of My Song”). Personally, I have loved listening to most of these songs, but the whole concept just gets a bit repetitive after considering how long it has been. Today, there are still Brandon Lake, Phil Wickham, Elevation Worship, and Maverick City Music songs that are at the top.

There was still some alternative stuff in 2021: Joshua Micah’s “Heart Stops Beating,” NEON Feather’s “The Long Way Home,” Social Club Misfits’ “Testify,” Mat Kearney’s “Ships in the Night,” and Landry Cantrell’s “Before You.” But those still quickly faded, too, and after 2021, I never heard them on Air1 again.

In 2021, the “new” feeling of Air1 was gone, and I heard the announcement that Air1 wasn’t considered “new” anymore. They had pushed out their alternative songs, and they were left with mostly all worship songs. At least there was some variety in the different titles of Brandon Lake songs that came out. At least there was some variety in the levels of shouting that appeared in the different songs. At least there was some variety in the difference between studio versions and live edits of songs. At least there was some variety in the different colors of album cover art that came from Maverick City Music and Elevation Worship. Those things I treasured… all the little pieces of variation that could come from a station as great as Air1.

In my eyes, the station continued to lose its “coolness” until early 2022, when they seemed to add a bunch of new worship songs that I hadn’t heard on the station before… but even then, it was just worship song after worship song. What happened to the alternative music? I would have to go to other stations to find it, I guess.

And now that it’s late 2024, it seems like there’s really no hope left. That’s a very odd statement for a station that plays worship music to give people hope. There is hope. There is a big bunch of hope. But as far as the hope to hear alternative music on Air1, maybe we should just hope for something else… because it doesn’t seem like it is going to happen. Unless… I see a little bit of more alternative songs coming back on. This isn’t a big improvement, but every now and then, we do get a couple of songs that seem to stand out. I think of songs from artists who were featured on the Weekend 22 countdown of Christian alternative music (which, by the way, is voice-hosted by the same Josh Ashton who co-hosts middays on Air1) like Tauren Wells’ “Take It All Back” (although this song pretty much blew up on every type of Christian contemporary, pop, hip hop, or worship station), Bodie’s “Whisper and the Wind,” and Forrest Frank’s “Lift My Hands.” Bodie is closer to a pop or rock style of music, while Forrest Frank is closer to a hip hop style of music, and it is surprising that these songs made it onto Air1. Also, Brandon Lake’s song “COUNT ‘EM,” which later became much more of a Christian hip hop song with the KB collaboration, is also on Air1. Although its lyrics are very worship-based, I know that at least how it sounds follows less of the worship format of music and more of rock. So we do have some hope of getting some alternative songs instead of just live recordings of worship sessions from Elevation Worship.

I generally enjoy listening to the songs on Air1. They are faith-filled and inspiring, especially during times when I need to keep more of my focus on God (like all the time!). I just hope to highlight that the concept of Air1 as a variety and an alternative is fading. It seems like worship music is its top priority (which is pretty obvious), but now it is putting less and less room for those alternative songs that we used to know it for. So in the end, it’s not something that special. With its music, it’s just another worship station, and with its programming, it’s just another version of K-Love. And for my purposes, that’s generally okay. It’s just nothing special. Air1 loses its uniqueness and individuality, and it becomes just another thing. Is that what we want?

I thought that Air1 was the special station. You see that red and purple circle and you think of the excitement that comes with listening to Christian music. You see that red and purple circle and you are reminded of the ways that God comes to you through these special lyrics. You see that red and purple circle and you think of salvation. But… it’s just a red and a purple circle. It doesn’t seem so special anymore. It has been losing its fire for quite some time (with less fire, the circle will become just like K-Love’s blue icon), and now it’ll be just like the others.

If that’s how Air1 turns out, then we can still overcome. We can listen to Air1 for what it is… so if you want to worship, turn it on. But if you want to discover the alternatives, stick around for something else. I’m in the process of discovering more and more stations as well as more and more alternative songs, and that’s primarily the reason why I am here to type down my observations.

What the “new” Air1 taught me with its theme of worship is that by playing a variety of music, we can worship. In the “new” Air1 worship music playlist of 2020, it didn’t matter if was hip hop or recorded in a huge worship concert. What mattered was the attitude and the focus directed toward God. That’s what worship meant to us in the music then, and that’s the same concept that I hold onto now.

What’s going to give us that effect of going closer to God? We want the songs that have a set of lyrics to make us stop and think, “What’s actually going on here?” Then, in that, you consider your life and then you consider God. You see how God is calling you to step out into the newness. But with something that just becomes the same old thing over and over again without any hope of getting better, you might have the risk of getting caught in the motions. That’s why it’s important to pray that God can give you a newness and continue renewing you.
When a song brings in a wave of something that no one has seen before, and that gets their attention, that’s a very special moment. That’s what Jesus did, bringing in a new way of seeing the world… as God sees it, not as humanity sees it. And so that’s what happened in the end… Jesus introduced us to the narrow path and hyped up people like us to push ourselves through it. In the end, God wins, regardless of what style of music there is. But as far as what God is doing to call us toward or away from Air1 is not my decision to make. That’s a decision that we should consider, think about, and realize.

Yes, I keep on hoping for the day when all evil will be gone and that our lives will be so exciting that the only music we need will be our shouts of praises to the Father in Heaven. But until that day, we’re clinging to the less-than-perfect reminders. The songs aren’t necessarily perfect in their lyrics, and neither are the singers. They’re just here to testify to the One who is perfect. We will see the victory one day, but for now, what’s going to carry us through so that we can be prepared when God calls us all in? That’s the question. And God might be calling you to your own personal style of discovery that is fit to the way He is going to bring you to Him. That’s fine. If it includes Air1, then be happy about it. Air1 has been a blessing for many. However, if it doesn’t, then don’t worry about it. I know of many other great stations out there that are much different from Air1 and might appeal to people in a greater way. That’s a door that is open…

So as far as the Air1 things go, we’re just getting started. Six years may have passed, but I think there are many more great, inspiring, and life-changing songs that can make their way through the Air1 path, for however long Air1 remains on the air… maybe another five years or a hundred or maybe for the remainder of time, however long that is. Or maybe the days of Air1 are very limited as it might get taken over by the expanding K-Love or another EMF idea. Whatever ends up happening, I am very thankful to God for the blessings He has given to you and me through Air1, and I hope He can continue to use it to spread His goodness throughout the world and show us how He is so good.

Next time, I will consider the comments I read on the “Air1 Changes Direction” article and see what I know about this big group of listeners who have been saddened by the change.