|
 |
Christian broadcast station expands into Clay Co.
|
|
|
An Abilene-based non-profit Christian broadcast station has added Clay County to a growing list of communities, according to Mark Hinca, an announcer for KJIL radio, Radio for Life.
The station received approval for a locally based translator station on 96.7 FM and has begun broadcasting contemporary Christian music 21 hours a day and local news and Christian talk programming three hours a day.
"Our programming is determined by our listeners," Hinca told those at a recent Chamber coffee forum. "We have some information but mostly it is a musical ministry station."
The station operates from the former Farm Bureau offices purchased a year ago in Abilene where it moved from Herington. The $280,000-$300,000 cost of the broadcast operation is funded by donations from listeners and organizations, he said.
The flagship station was established by "a group of farmers in southwest Kansas" twenty years ago. "The group decided they wanted Christian radio so they opened a studio in Herington, Kansas."
Since then the station, operated by Great Plains Christian Radio, has added translator and satellators and re broadcasters in Kansas, Texas, Oklahoma and Colorado, making it the largest local broadcast system in the country, Hinca told the group. All programming is scheduled locally by the station's four employees and features James Dobson's Focus on the Family and a program called Family Life Today.
"We are not a church and we don't endorse any one church," Hinca told the group. "Our program is designed to encourage hope."
He said the station ministers to Christians in the area looking for a "common bond" through the radio broadcasts.
He said three out of ten of the stations listeners "don't care about God but there's something (in the programming) that ministers to them."
As part of the non-profit broadcast industry, advertising can't be sold so funding is dependent on donations. But Hinca says people shouldn't spend their tithes on the station.
"Give your tithe to your local church," Hinca said. "If we found out someone gave us their tithe, I would turn it back."
|
|
©Clay Center Dispatch 2009
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
Greg Newby |
Oct, 29 2009 |
| |
Hello: A correction to your Christian Radio station story. KJIL and Great Plains Christian Broadcasting is headquartered in Meade, kansas. On Hiway 54 south west of Dodge City. The Abilene station serves mainly as a transmitter for that station. They gave out certificates to the first 100 people who called in to say they heard the station come on the air. I was number three. I lived in Meade at the time.
|
|
|
|
Ruth Wohler |
Oct, 29 2009 |
| |
Praise God for Christian radio stations such as this one!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
