Religious Radio: Spreading the Word

Religious media efforts grew faster than other types of charitable causes, a ‘Chronicle’ analysis finds

Airwaves for Jesus began broadcasting from Fort Myers, Fla., last March on two 3,000-watt FM stations, accomplishing

a goal held for the past 10 years by its founder, Art Ramos.

“No one was catering to the mature, adult Christian listener,” says Mr. Ramos. “We wanted to fill the void.”

Airwaves for Jesus plays religious songs known as “soft praise” music and broadcasts programs that offer Bible lessons and other Christian teachings, he says. While they are located in the same city, the stations, WJYO and WBIY, broadcast in different directions, reaching a combined 13,000 listeners a week.

Christian Groups Dominate

Mr. Ramos is not alone in his passion to communicate a

religious message on the radio dial. Religious groups that own radio stations or produce programs for such groups have grown substantially since 1999, according to an analysis of Internal Revenue Service data by The Chronicle and the Urban Institute, in Washington.

From 1999 to 2003, the number of new charities classified by the IRS as “religious radio” grew from 46 to 201, making them the fastest growing type of organization in the nonprofit world.

The increase in new radio groups is part of a surge in the number of religious media organizations in general. Groups classified by the federal government as “religious media,” which includes radio and television broadcasters, as well as publishers of religious materials, rose from 308 in 1999 to 1,147 in 2003.

While the federal government does not specify the type of religion the new nonprofit groups espouse, a review by The Chronicle found the overwhelming majority to be Christian.

A small number of Jewish and Islamic charities, and at least one Hare Krishna group, are part of the growth in religious media as publishers.

For example, the Jewish Learning Group, in Bay Harbor Islands, Fla., offers books that teach Judaism’s traditions, such as its forthcoming “Going Kosher in 30 Days.” “There’s a big, big hole in the Jewish world for beginners,” says Rabbi Zalman Goldstein, the organization’s founder and president.

Yet despite the interest in publishing, it is religious radio organizations that have experienced the largest percentage increase.

The Catholic Radio Association, an association in Green Bay, Wis., that started in 1999, says the number of Roman Catholic radio stations has increased from 7 in 1996 to 70 in 2003.

According to Frank Wright, president of National Religious Broadcasters: “Christian broadcasters have found radio a unique outlet. It’s an extension of the mission of the church to extend the gospel to the ends of the earth.”

National Religious Broadcasters, in Manassas, Va., represents 1,700 nonprofit and commercial Christian radio and television broadcasters.

Diversity of Musical Approaches

The growth of religious broadcasting has been brought about in part by an improvement in the quality and diversity of Christian music in the last 15 years, helping to expand the audi-ence for such music and improve the ability of radio stations to gain listeners. “A lot of people don’t think it’s Christian. They think it’s secular music because it’s so well produced,” says Mr. Ramos.

Indeed, the popularity of Christian music has risen so much that Billboard, a magazine that covers the music industry, added two new charts in 2003: “Hot Christian Singles & Tracks” and “Hot Christian Adult Contemporary.”

Another factor is the creation of low-power radio service, which the Federal Communications Commission established in January 2000. The service allows approved nonprofit groups to broadcast up to 100 watts, which reaches a radius of three to four miles.

According to the National Federation of Community Broadcasters, in Oakland, Calif., as of September about 50 percent of the 283 organizations that have received licenses for low-power signals are religious organizations.

Technology Changes

The costs of operating a station, even one with a signal larger than that of the low-power groups, have become relatively inexpensive now that technological improvements and syndication have made them almost entirely automated.

“Sometimes you have great heart, but not the tools. That’s changed,” says Paul D. Nelson, president of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability, in Winchester, Va., a membership organization of Christian charities that includes 186 “radio ministries.”

According to Jon Holder, general manager of WGRW Grace Radio, in Anniston, Ala., his station operates on less than $70,000 a year. “We’re about as lean as it gets,” he says. “Our intent was not to make money. Our only goal is to break even.”

Mr. Holder says the station keeps its costs low by having one full-time employee — himself — and getting about 80 percent of its programs from the Moody Broadcasting Network, a nonprofit group in Chicago that produces Christian radio shows.

Also, the station’s president provides rent-free offices to the charity from a building used by his electrical company and donated the land for WGRW’s transmitter.

Like most religious broadcasters, WGRW Grace Radio raises the majority of its budget from listeners. But the station does not solicit for donations on-air for fear of driving away its audience. “If you make your need known, you run the risk of alienating people,” says Mr. Holder.

Instead, Mr. Holder speaks at churches, nursing homes, and civic groups, and even rides in the local Christmas parade to advertise WGRW. “We do anything we can do to get the word out.”

Grace Radio also receives a smaller portion of its budget from underwriting by local businesses and from the producers of the shows it broadcasts, which pay a percentage of their earnings from the books, compact disks, and other items they sell to WGRW listeners.

At other stations, like the ones owned by Airwaves for Jesus, the producers of the programs pay to have their shows broadcast. Mr. Ramos says on average he charges about $50 per half-hour of airtime; even so, 80 percent of his $300,000 budget comes from donations from listeners.

Stephen Gajdosik, president of the Catholic Radio Association, says that most Christian radio stations can operate on about $100,000 a year. “Even in major metro markets, it’s not that expensive. As long as they can purchase the station, the listeners can do the rest,” he says.

But acquiring a major radio signal, say above 3,000 watts or so, does remain expensive.

According to Mr. Gajdosik, an FM signal usually costs $4 to $8 per potential listener living in the broadcast area. In Seattle, a signal costs a one-time fee of at least $4-million, he says.

Raising Money

Due in part to those costs, some of the new radio groups receiving charity status do not own a signal yet, but are raising money to purchase one.

For example, Take a Stand Media Ministries, in Braddock Heights, Md., is soliciting donations to buy a local station from a National Public Radio affiliate. The group’s donors have also supported efforts by Take a Stand’s president, Michael Payne, to report on the war in Iraq from a Christian perspective.

In an e-mail message to The Chronicle from Fallujah, Iraq, Mr. Payne says the purpose of his trip to the Middle East was “to send back encouraging stories about the truth of the extremely good things that our military is doing here to improve the lives of the Iraqi people. Also we are here to be witnesses of Jesus as to how to have peace while in the middle of danger.”

Mr. Payne says he e-mails his account of events in the war to about 30 news media organizations. “These outlets in general have not made any hard commitment to use the material, but I submit to them in faith that some might glean something useful. It might also be a reminder that what the networks are producing is not the full story in several ways.”

‘Not Just About Sunday’

A common theme among many religious-broadcasting organizations is a desire to appeal to a broad audience.

“I’ve known since I was 11 that God wanted me to produce Christian TV that would be acceptable to a secular audience,” says Joseph E. Mullins, president of Nsight Multimedia, in Lubbock, Tex., which started two years ago to create Christian television shows, such as biographies of religious celebrities. “The purpose of Nsight is to show the world that being a true Christian is not just about Sunday morning.”

So far, Mr. Mullins has raised a small amount — $7,000 — but, like the radio broadcasters, says Americans increasingly want wholesome entertainment.

He compares the concept of putting Christian messages in programs that will appeal to nonreligious viewers with his mother’s efforts to get him to take medicine when he was a child; she hid it in a peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich.

“I would eat that thing up and not recognize the benefits,” he says.