Christian Radio Poised to Influence Millions
 Today is Saturday November 23, 2024 in Canada. This is the day that the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it. (Psalm 118:24) David Spencer's Media Spin Canada provides information on:
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When two Hell’s Angels began drinking beer and smoking dope in a Fredericton, N.B. hotel room, they probably weren’t arguing about God’s loving kindness. Then they turned on the bedside radio, which happened to be tuned to a new local station called JOY-FM. Charles Stanley, an American preacher, was presenting a gospel message. The bikers listened and then “gave their lives to the Lord right there,” according to Garth McCrea, the station’s manager. Shortly after, still wearing their Hell’s Angels “colors,” the duo showed up at a local rally for Christian bikers--scaring everyone for a few seconds until they blurted out their still-fresh conversion story. “If it can happen to us,” the new believers said, “it can happen to anybody. Thank God for JOY-FM.” The story of the two bikers is only the first of several that McCrea knows about salvations influenced by his station’s local broadcast, which has been on-air only three years. The effect of radio among local Christians is even bigger. “We are also seeing an interconnecting happening within the Christian community here that we’ve never seen before,” McCrea says. Seven years ago, when there were only a handful of Christian stations in Canada, most Canadians would have dismissed such claims as self-promotion. But now as Canada boasts more than 30 stations, with new ones popping up almost every other month, such stories are happening simultaneously in province after province, city after city, town after town. They’re getting harder to dismiss. Skeptics will soon be faced with more such stories than they can count as a tidal wave of new Christian radio surges across Canada in the next five years. Reasons for explosive growth are manifold: a maturing of infrastructure, cooperation and technology, plus an increase in talent and money. Not to mention occasional opportunities to draw from the vibrant and enormous Christian radio industry in the United States. And, of course, pent-up demand from Canadian Christians. More: http://www.evangelicalfellowship.ca/NetCommunity/Page.aspx?&pid=1751&srcid=1752 |
