Barbara Nicolosi blogs an email she received about an effort to start a new high-powered FM radio station in Boston providing contemporary Christian music to appeal to youth and young adults. See her site for the whole email, but here’s the nugget paragraph:
We at the Boston FM Project, a non-profit ministry, believe that God has plans to reach Massachusetts with the Gospel through a new, full-power hit Christian music radio station. Boston, the culture war’s ground zero, lacks the type of Christian programming that appeals to the younger generation. Our vision is to provide teenagers and college-age adults with Christ-centered music that ministers to the believer’s soul and appeals powerfully to the lost, not through proselytization but through a hit music style consistent with modern trends.
The group’s web site is at www.bostonfm.org. Since there are a lot of Boston readers of Bettnet, I thought I’d throw this out to you all.
Technorati Tags: Boston, Christian, Massachusetts, media, music, youth
That’s nice to see. Hopefully it will be a success. I wonder what their range of broadcast will end up being?
Well, I no longer live in Boston.
So, I’ll comment anyway.
So-called Contemporary Christian Music does not appeal to me. The stuff on EWTN’s Backstage is dreadful. It’s too, I dunno, felt-baner, or too Ned Flanders or something. (Too Protestant?)
I prefer the Easter Sunday country/bluegrass show the dj on ‘ZBC (Boston College radio) does.
Or the “Satan Is Real” CD by the Louvin Brothers from the 60’s.
The hillbillies get it.
Maybe the hillbilly stuff is more like the psalms. Action packed. You get a dose of sin w/ your redemption.
My 2 cents.
Anyway, after living in Boston for almost 20 years, (in JP, for those in the know) I wonder if there’s a market in Beantown for Christian anything? Except for maybe Christian Dissent, or Christian Suffering. And Christian Yellow-Journalism.
Pissah.
I travel a bunch.
They had “The Fish” Christian FM in Chicago. It went belly up.
It was really great. Not what Tony C expects. Backstage is really painful.
This is stuff like Casting Crowns, Michal W. Smith, Third Day, Jars of Clay, Point of Grace, Phillip’s Craig and Dean…
Much like Sold Out Soul Fest the have in NH every year.
If you listen to http://www.klove.com you will get a taste. Great stuff.
Real “evangelic” Bible based songs. Check out http://www.klove.com, and then I think you will be a supporter.
Massachusetts needs Catholic talk radio, too.
I hope this project works out: it could do some good. Is it reasonable to expect that the station would be mostly satellite-fed?
About Catholic talk: the market for that might be, oh, 5% of the practicing Catholics.
But you get the Truth out there for all ears. Ears and minds that get a steady diet of PC nonsense a la the Boston Globe / NY Times editorial board.
Worcester Diocese has looked into trying to broadcast EWTN on radio but it would cost $300,000 to start it up.
If you want good Catholic talk all day go to http://www.relavantradio.com. This is streaming audio and just terrific…
Everyday at 10:00 EST: Archbishop Fulton Sheen’s Life is Worth Living
Everyday at 11:00 EST: Fr. John Corapi’s Catechism Series.
Everyday 12:00 – 2:00: The Doctor is In with Catholic clinical Psychiatrist Dr. Ray Guerendi.
Just GREAT, GREAT STUFF… It is out of that Catholic bastion of course….
THE MID-WEST
I think Catholics need to be cautious about backing this. If it is just music it may be OK, but I turned away from my Catholic faith toward Protestentism for awhile due in large part to one of the Christian(read Evangelical) AM radio stations in Boston(590 EZE for those in MA)
I would also encourage anyone interested in this type of programming to look into satellite radio. Both XM and Sirius carry a variety of Christian music. For those who find much of it too syrup-py, try Revolution (66) on Sirius. About 10% of their playlist is hard enough to be considered metal. Sirius also carries EWTN (in English and Spanish). XM carried Ave Maria radio for a short time around JPII’s death.
Both services offer 3-day online trials, to see what the music is really about.
Relevant Radio, great minds think alike, Joe!
The Boston Archdiocese bought WCCM-AM 800 (Lawrence) in 1998. Anyone know what became of the property?
The Archdiocese also established WIHS-TV 38 (Boston) in 1964, and sold it in 1966 for $2 million.
Catholic Family Radio planned to buy a bunch of AM stations in New England in 1999, including WROL-AM 950 (Boston). The Catholic talk network, backed by Fr. Fessio and Tom Monaghan, featuring Ray Flynn, failed to come up with the cash to finalize the purchase of WROL, and switched to EWTN programming within the year.
A relay was set up in the Springfield area in 1997 to broadcast WIHS-FM from Connecticut into Massachusetts. The relay was shut down when the owner violated his license by upping the power 4000%, moving the transmitter to the top of Mt. Tom in Holyoke, and changing the content to a different (commercial) station.