TURN UP THE RADIO FOR TRIPLE DOSE OF CHRISTIAN MUSIC

Even after 11 No. 1 songs, Randy Phillips of Phillips, Craig & Dean, is still surprised that radio stations play his songs.

But the audiences have been turning up their radios since "Turn Up the Radio," first hit the airwaves in 1992. Now the group has released its newest album, "Trust."

Phillips, Craig & Dean, Kathy Troccoli and Scott Krippayne will perform Sept. 30 at 7 p.m. at Academic Auditorium.

Tickets are available at area Christian bookstores, KUGT Radio and the Baptist Student Union at Southeast Missouri State University.

"We've had 11 No. 1 songs and none are as special as the first one," Phillips said from his Dallas, Texas home. "We were wondering if anybody would be playing it."

They did. The self-titled album sold more than 100,000 copies and earned the group a Dove nomination as the Best New Artist.

"Dan Dean called me at 6 a.m. and said, `Listen to this.' He put the phone to the radio and his alarm clock had woke him up playing our song. It was the first time we heard it," Phillips said.

Whether the song plays on a pop radio station or a Christian music station doesn't really matter to Kathy Troccoli. She just wants people to be encouraged by her music.

"Music has the power to bring you down or build you up," she said from her Long Island, N.Y., home. "I want my music to encourage and bring basically good things."

Troccoli recently released her first all-gospel album in 10 years. "Sounds of Heaven" is classic in its sound and message, she said. "What I love most is its vulnerability and that the lyrics are very conversational."

Lyrics are an important part of the upbeat, pop sound of Phillips, Craig & Dean. The group reaches audiences of all ages, but typically it's an audience who appreciates strong lyrics. All three men wrote the songs produced on the album.

"Probably at first the company was interested in us as writers, more than our singing," Phillips said of their record label. "But with the success of our first album, then it was apparent that the audience and the radio were interested in our singing as well."

The three men -- Randy Phillips, Dan Dean and Shawn Craig -- have tried writing together, but usually end up in laughter instead. "We haven't had much success at co-writing," Phillips said. "We get so silly and start with something good but then just end up rhyming."

Because there are so many good songwriters and singers in the music industry, Phillips, Craig & Dean concentrate on strong lyrics, he said.

"We want them to say something. We want it to be meaty. So it comes from true life experiences or sermons we've heard. That's what gives us credibility."

Credibility and trust are important parts of Christian music. The title of Phillips, Craig & Dean's newest album, "Trust," came from an acronym -- To Rest Upon Sure Things, Phillips said. "The cross, the blood and the name of Jesus, you can trust in those things," Phillips said.

Troccoli also writes her music from life experiences.

"They run the gamut of what I've been through in life. Life is greatness and true hardness for all of us."

Music is about life and everyone goes through all the same things but at different times and different intensities, she said. "It's important to sing about a story but I know that I'm singing for all of us. I see their hearts as well as my own."

Phillips, Craig & Dean are singing to their church members as well as to their listeners.

Phillips has been involved in church ministry for 12 years. "We are called to be servants first and the stage life is more glamorous, but it's not reality. Reality is what we do when we put on our pastor's hats," he said.

Since all three men are pastors at their local churches, their first obligations are not to touring dates and concerts, but to their congregations.

Music isn't the only important ministry in Troccoli's life either. She also works with Life Teen, a Catholic youth organization, and Prison Fellowship Ministries.

Life Teen develops services that teen-agers can relate to, Troccoli said. "The music is geared to their lives. They can talk about things they are faced with as teens. It's a place where they are able to share anything."

They learn that it's a relationship with God, Troccoli said. "It's not just church. It's reality."

Troccoli writes most of her own songs from her own reality -- life experiences. Her past albums had been a mixture of mainstream and gospel songs. She reached the Top 5 in 1992 with "Everything Changes."

She has received two Grammy nominations and seven Dove nominations.