In a venue usually reserved for only mega-acts like The Rolling Stones and U2, 33,000 ticket holders, mostly youth, packed into Houston's Astrodome last Saturday [Nov.1] for the Josh McDowell/ Newsboys "Counter the Culture" concert sponsored by KSBJ-FM/Houston and Josh McDowell ministries. The concert is being touted as the "largest-ever paid contemporary Christian concert."

The four-hour event was the culmination of a year-long area campaign in which McDowell spoke at various events throughout Houston beginning in October '96. According to KSBJ General Manager Tim McDermott, this is the largest paid event the station has sponsored.

"We began asking last year how we could impact our city," said KSBJ Special Events Director Jeff Scott, " and we feel like God had really been prompting us to dream big. When we started looking at venues for the concert and based on the popularity of the Newsboys in our area and the response we were seeing at Josh's earlier events, we decided to go for it."

The event was promoted as a Newsboys concert, McDermott said. "The kids were there primarily to see the group. Josh spoke for about an hour."

For the Newsboys, this was the largest crowd the group has ever played for outside of festivals, said Newsboys' Peter Furler.The group has played 50-plus concerts with McDowell but the Houston crowd was "by far the largest," Furler noted.

In May 1997, the sponsors laid down a six-figure guarantee for the stadium venue. To break even, Scott said, 16,000 tickets had to be sold. Tickets sold for $10 and $11 (floor) for individuals and $7 and $8 for groups through Christian bookstores, TicketMaster and the Astrodome box office. According to Scott, 75 percent of the tickets were group rates. "The Dome was surrounded with buses and vans from youth groups who had traveled here," he said.

KSBJ partnered with a network of 70 youth pastors in the area to accomplish the goal. The station also promoted the concert extensively, using numerous media channels, including secular media. KSBJ bought time on the top secular stations in town and produced TV commercials that aired on MTV, Nickelodeon and the station's own LightForce TV.

"We've discovered that young men don't listen to AC Christian radio," McDermott said. "We made a real strong effort to reach them. And we found out from a lot of people that [our] being on the secular radio stations helped Christian kids convince their non-Christian friends to the concert."

During McDowell's on-stage invitation, 1,500 attendees made their way to the back of the stadium and of that number, 998 were first-time commitments, McDermott said. "It reminded me of a Promise Keepers event where you see a tremendous amount of people stand up and respond to the gospel," recalled McDermott.

For KSBJ and Newsboys, those moments were the reward of the efforts. "This is what it's all about," said Scott. "If lives aren't being transformed, it doesn't matter how many people we have."

Furler echoed Scott: "We were entertaining angels that night. People can rave on about the numbers but the 998 people who made a decision that night that's where eternity lies for us. It really doesn't matter in the box office. One day we're going to be too old to go onstage, and it's things like that which are going to count."

KSBJ may attempt another mega-concert again in two years, McDermott said. The station regularly does 8,000- to 12,000-seat concerts every six to eight weeks. "We've proven we can do it, but it does take a lot of hard work." This year KSBJ has had its two largest events in its history. "We think it's time to step up to that next level," he said.

From CCM Update (Industry News), Nov. '97