Dawson McAllister Live
| Genre | Top 40/CHR, |
|---|---|
| Running time | 2 hour minimum |
| Syndicates | Benztown Radio / Hollywood Radio Network |
| Starring | Dawson McAllister |
| Website | TheHopeLine.com |
Dawson McAllister Live is a call-in talk radio show hosted by Dawson McAllister. The target audience is teenagers and young adults under 29. Issues discussed are determined by the callers, and include, dating relationships, friend and family relationships, substance abuse, loneliness, self-harm, divorce, depression, eating disorders and more. The radio show operates as a nonprofit, although it airs on commercial radio stations. along with noncommercial Christian radio stations. The program first aired in 1991 on Christian radio stations. In 2005, a CHR formatted version of the show was created and offered as a syndicated program to Top 40 stations. By mid-2007, syndication has grown to over 50 stations. On June 26, 2007, Premiere Radio Networks announced that they had signed the show to a syndication deal, effective July 1, 2007. Premiere syndicated the show through the end of 2012. At its peak it was aired by nearly 150 stations.
The broadcast is aired each Sunday night from 9:00 pm until 2:00 am Central Time. There are two versions of the show. The first, and most common version, is live call-in. The second is a CHR-hybrid version, which is entirely pre-recorded and on average contains nine songs, eight calls, two features, and one talk break from Dawson each hour. It is not carried on as many stations as the talk version, but stations in larger cities tend to opt for this version of the show.
In 2013 Jessica McVay joined the show as Dawson’s co-host. In 2015 Benztown Radio, a division of Hollywood Radio Network, signed the show to a syndication agreement.
Dawson McAllister Biography and Dawson McAllister Association History
1968 Birth of a Speaker—Fresh from Bethel College in Minnesota and beginning his studies at Talbot Seminary in Southern California, Dawson McAllister accepted the position of part-time youth pastor at Recede Baptist Church. Almost immediately, his fellow youth workers recognized his gift for presenting the truth of Scripture in simple, yet powerful ways. A pivotal moment was about to take place. Dawson recalls the afternoon he went to Griffith Park in the hills above Los Angeles looking for God’s direction for his life. It was there the Lord called Dawson to be a spokesman to, and for, teenagers. Almost immediately, he began to receive invitations to speak locally, and soon thereafter, across the country.
1973 Christian Television Pioneer—Dawson’s next challenge was creating a 13 episode TV series. With contemporary music and lots of Teenagers on camera, the show was designed to appeal to those who were unchurched, presenting Biblically-based counsel to their most pressing felt needs. When the taping was complete, Dawson got in his Volkswagen bug and drove to every TV market in the Southwest United States seeking and obtaining airtime. Lessons learned here opened new doors.
1975 Budding Author—Working with a youth pastor friend to help him create curriculum for his youth group, the first of Dawson’s 18 teaching manuals was written. It was so well received others wanted access to the material, or to have him teach it to their youth groups.
1975 Conference Innovator – Flush with demand, Dawson mass-produced his Discussion Manual for Student Relationships and invited youth groups from nearby communities to join him for several nights as he taught through this ground-breaking material. This humble beginning became the Dawson McAllister Student Conference. Over the next 2O years Dawson wrote and began to teach a new manual nearly every year. The conferences grew to arena-sized events with more than a million students learning deep truths about the Kingdom of God. The culmination of each conference was the Saturday night altar call – Dawson’s straight ahead challenge for each student to consider where they stood with God. And they would stream to the stage, many in tears, to indicate some kind of faith decision. Ultimately, well over 100,000 made life-changing decisions to follow Christ. The Conferences also became a development space for young worship leaders like Al Denson, Todd Proctor, Joel Engel and Chris Tomlin. And promising young speakers like Mark Matlock.
1988 An Unforeseen Crisis – Saturday night Altar calls began to become spontaneous. Students would come to the front of the stage before Dawson’s invitation, sometimes the moment he came on stage to speak. But all too many were in serious crisis. They shared stories of abuse, rape, cutting, addictions eating disorders, suicidal thoughts and more. These were youth group kids from good churches. They had youth leaders who cared about them. Most had parents who loved them. Many were already believers. They were desperate to be rescued from the things being done to them and the things they were doing to themselves. Almost immediately a partnership was launched with a crisis counseling organization. They sent trained counselors to attend all of the conferences. And when that was not enough, adult sponsors with crisis counseling training were asked to supplement. Then, with a little fresh hope, some very passionate prayers and some counsel about how to continue working on the issue, they boarded their buses and home with their sobered youth leaders.
1989 A Second Surprise – Early in the conference year, students started bringing notes to the front of the stage and laying them at Dawson’s feet, just a few at first. But week by week, more and more were brought forward until there were hundreds, until boxes has to be put out to collect them all – notes filled with pain and despair – notes from students who often would not come forward at an altar call for fear of being “found out” by friends, or youth leaders or parents. They were prisoners of self-condemnation and shame. What was to be done with all of this pain?
1991 The Birth of Radio – While Dawson spoke at over 25 Student Conferences each year, he only returned to any given city once in that year. As he was fond of saying, “We blow in, we blow up and we blow out.” In the face of the deep needs being uncovered each week, how could the ministry have a more sustained impact? One of the major conferences each year was in the Twin Cities. Their super-powered Christian radio station never failed to promote and cover the event. In the fall of 1990 they made an unexpected proposal – If they provided the air-time and technical know-how, would Dawson host a weekly call-in show for those 21 and younger? This was the sustained impact Dawson was longing for. The answer was YES. Thus, on January 27, 1991, Dawson McAllister Live! signed on the air. Northwestern College Radio, the parent network of KTIS, partnered with DMA syndicate the show making it the only nationally syndicated show of its day exclusively for Teenagers and Young Adults.
1994 Talk Show of the Year – In just three years, Dawson McAllister Live! not only acquired its 250th affiliate, but was named Talk Show of the Year by the National Religious Broadcasters Association.
2005 A New Radio Calling; Top 40 – Sometimes a calling can start with a question, like…What if Dawson could produce a version of his Christian radio show on secular radio? What if Dawson could translate Biblical values and thinking for millions of teenagers and young adults who were, “…harassed and helpless, like sheep without a Shepherd.” (Matt 9:36 NIV)? Those without the benefit of a Christian support system, or any support system at all. The answer to “what if” began to reveal itself in January 2005 when the Top 40 version of Dawson McAllister Live! signed on with its first affiliate station; KJYO in Oklahoma City. Eventually more 140 stations would air the show with a weekly audience of over 1 million listeners.
2012 Dawson247; Internet Radio—With Internet radio like Pandora, iHeart and Spotify gaining audience, it was clear that Dawson’s radio ministry needed to be in the this space too. 2012 saw the launch of the first of two 24/7 streaming internet webcasts.
2015 Return to Christian Radio – On February 28, 2015, with the Top 40 broadcast still going strong on Sunday night, Dawson returned to Christian Radio, this time on Saturday night. The new show, “TheHopeLine with Dawson McAllister.” was launched in partnership with the WayMedia Network and is currently syndicated on over 70 stations. More profoundly, Dawson’s radio ministry has been REACHING Teenagers and young adults every single week for 25 consecutive years.
DMA’s REACH Today
On Radio: For the first time in many years, we have live shows on both Top 40 and Christian radio; 135 affiliates (up from 68 in 2014) with an estimated 150,000 listeners each week. The 7 most recent Top 40 affiliates are with broadcasting giant Cumulus, with clear intent from them for the affiliate count to grow over time. On Streaming Internet: 254,000 listeners racking up 154,000 hours tuned-in. Through Social Media: 29.1 million impressions Our website: 3.4 million visits to TheHopeLine.com, an increase of 570% over 2014, and 1580% over 2013. 65 new blogs and 10 new e-books were created and posted. In-Bound Marketing: In competitions with thousands of mostly for-profit clients, we won the HubSpot in-bound marketing campaign of the year award for our e-book on self-esteem. It generated almost 15,000 views, downloads and contacts in over 100 countries.
The Future of DMA’s REACH
Outbound text messaging, Podcasting and custom YouTube programming are the next opportunities on the horizon. Why? Because expanding our Reach to a generation in need of Biblical values – in need of Jesus—is not optional. From the airwaves, through the internet, and on every mobile device on the planet, we long to let them know they are loved, God is real, hope lives here and help is available now!