Southern Gospel History

Singing News

History

The Singing News is a monthly magazine devoted to Southern Gospel Music. It was founded by J G Whitfield in 1969. Originally published as a newspaper, the format was eventually converted to a colorful magazine.

In January 1970, The Singing News began publishing a monthly airplay chart. This chart was ultimately expanded to report the Top 80 songs each month. 1970 was also the first year of the Singing News Fan Awards. Over the next decade, the magazine's coverage and charts diversified to include other forms of Christian music including Spiritual/Soul, Contemporary, Country, and Inspirational. At times, five to seven different charts were published including a "Religious Hits" chart (later rebranded "Top 40") that compiled data from all the other charts.

Eventually, published charts were reduced to Contemporary, Traditional, and Top 40. As the popularity of Contemporary Christian Music (CCM) was surging, it became obvious that the Top 40 chart was based considerably more on what would be considered Southern Gospel radio airplay than Contemporary. The Top 40 chart was abandoned after the June 1986 issue and the Contemporary chart was eliminated three months later after the September 1986 issue. (Ironically, the cover story for that September 1986 issue with the final Contemporary chart featured Sandi Patty.) This shift to cease covering Contemporary music was also reflected in the magazine content in the months and years that followed.

J G Whitfield sold the magazine to Maurice Templeton in 1986. Templeton in turn sold shares in the magazine to diversify ownership including shares to Jerry Kirksey who served as the magazine's editor for many years. In 2006, Templeton and the other owners sold the magazine to Salem Communications.

Danny Jones assumed the position of editor after Jerry Kirksey's retirement.

In January 2012, a weekly airplay chart was launched with ten reporting stations initially submitting actual "spins."

Sea Walker Media Corporation purchased the magazine and other Singing News branded properties in 2021. That same year, they launched a video-on-demand service with occasional live events called Singing News TV.