BY JULIE IRWIN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
The Tristate's largest religious denomination, Roman Catholicism, is organizing to enter a field dominated by non-denominationalism: Christian radio.
The Catholic Radio Foundation of Greater Cincinnati has compiled a list of possible stations to buy and is gearing up to raise the $1 million or more it would need for a purchase.
The group, which hopes to broadcast original local programming along with syndicated offerings, is gathering the support of business leaders for help in raising funds.
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CHRISTIAN RADIO
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The Catholic Radio Network, based in San Diego, is financed through private investors who include Domino's Pizza founder Tom Monaghan. It is in the final stages of federal approval to buy 10 stations from the Children's Broadcast Corp. for $57 million. The stations are in Milwaukee, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Dallas - Fort Worth, Phoenix, Denver, Kansas City and Minneapolis.
The most popular Christian station in the Tristate area is WAKW, based in College Hill, whose powerful signal and adult-contemporary format led to a 15th ranking in the most recent Arbitron ratings. WCVG, a gospel station in Covington, was the second-highest ranked Christian station at 19th.
At least six Tristate radio stations have a Christian format (WCIN, at 1480 AM, broadcasts religious programming part time):
WAKW (93.3 FM): Adult contemporary Christian music.
WFCJ (93.7 FM): Traditional Christian music with some contemporary.
WNLT (104.3 FM): Adult contemporary Christian music.
WIOK (107.5 FM): Southern gospel music.
WTSJ (1050 AM): Christian talk and news.
WCVG (1320 AM): Contemporary and traditional gospel music.
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"The Catholic community is very healthy in many things, but in this particular area there's a hole," said David Rinderle, one of the three people who met a year and a half ago for the first foundation meeting. "We don't have it now, and we need it."
Non-denominational Christians have been enjoying unprecedented success in the medium. The number of religious radio stations in the United States -- nearly all of them Christian, and most unaffiliated with any branch -- has grown from 399 in 1971 to 1,588 in 1997, according to Virginia-based National Religious Broadcasters.
At least six of those are in the Tristate, with formats that include adult contemporary music, Southern gospel, news and talk. The oldest have been around nearly four decades, said Michael Listermann, president of Covington-based Morning Star Communications, which brokers ad time on Christian radio.
"This thing is huge. People are starving for alternative, positive entertainment, and you can't find it anywhere," said Mr. Listermann, who worked for years in commercial radio before starting Morning Star nearly five years ago. "I found it, as most people do, scanning the dial. Christian radio absolutely turned my life around."
According to Mr. Listermann, about 35 percent of the people who listen to Christian radio are Catholic, and another 15 to 30 percent are non-believers.
"Unfortunately there seems to be a constant line drawn in the sand between Catholics and everybody else," he said. "That needs to be erased because we're all believers. It's not about a church, it's about a savior."
But Mr. Rinderle nevertheless sees a need for a distinctly Catholic brand of the medium.
"We feel our segment of the Christian population isn't served specifically in the context of their own faith," he said.
"The Catholic community is very healthy in many things, but in this particular area there's a hole.' -- David Rinderle
Christian radio
Planning for local Catholic radio coincides with the launch of the $70 million Catholic Radio Network next monthin 10 U.S. cities, a move that will more than double the number of Catholic stations nationwide.
