Christian radio

A church with its own radio station

Radio Maria studio in Switzerland.

Brokered programming is a significant portion of most U.S. Christian radio stations' revenue, with stations regularly selling blocks of airtime to evangelists seeking an audience. Another revenue stream is solicitation of donations, either to the evangelists who buy the air time or to the stations or their owners themselves. In order to further encourage donations, certain evangelists may emphasize the prosperity gospel, in which they preach that tithing and donations to the ministry will result in financial blessings from God. Others may have special days of the year dedicated to fundraising, similar to many NPR stations. Although the solicitation of donations and the sale of airtime may resemble a commercial enterprise, such actions do not necessarily constitute a call to action, and thus this does not forbid them from airing on noncommercial licensed stations in the U.S. A minority of stations, typically music stations, use the traditional model for music radio and allow traditional commercial advertising.[1]

Numerous religious broadcasters own many of their own stations. In the U.S., religious radio stations are exempt from certain rules requiring radio stations to have some local operations, which allows them to have massive networks of transmitters covering far larger areas than a radio station would otherwise be allowed and may not face the same restrictions on the number of signals a broadcaster can own within one geographic area.

Most Christian radio stations transmit a mixture of Christian music and Christian talk and teaching.

Christian radio, particularly in North America, is dominated by Protestant ministries, particularly those associated with evangelical Christianity. The predominant Roman Catholic radio service is the Eternal Word Network, founded by Mother Angelica as a spin-off of her television service EWTN.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a sect whose place in Christianity is heavily debated, maintains some limited radio evangelical operations through BYU Radio, which owns a single FM station. The Seventh-day Adventists are most closely associated with Three Angels Broadcasting Network.

Most Christian radio stations as well as programmers based in the United States are members of the National Religious Broadcasters, a Christian organization. There are reportedly 1,600 Christian broadcasting organizations in the U.S. They range from single stations to expansive networks. It is common for religious broadcasters to purchase many small broadcast translators to create networks that stretch across large regions. Moody Radio was the first example, and still one of the largest, though most of its stations broadcast stand-alone programming as well as network feeds. Z88.3 in Orlando, Florida, the WAY-FM Network, K-LOVE, Air 1, The Joy FM, Reach Radio, 3ABN Radio, Radio 74, and the Bible Broadcasting Network are other notable examples in the world.

Christian radio expanded in the early twenty-first century. It became available in the United Kingdom with changes to broadcasting regulations. Premier Christian Radio is based in the London area where it is available on medium wave and DAB; elsewhere, it is available digitally or by Internet. United Christian Broadcasters is an international broadcasting and media company; radio stations are based in Albania, Australia, Canada, Denmark, New Zealand, the Philippines, and the United Kingdom. Trans World Radio is an evangelical media distributor broadcasting Christian programs in 190 countries in more than 300 languages, TWR-UK can be heard in the United Kingdom on Sky, Freeview and online.[2]

• Focus on the Family, an internationally syndicated daily interview produced by Focus on the Family
• Adventures in Odyssey, a scripted radio comedy/drama for children produced by Focus on the Family
• Patch the Pirate, a scripted radio musical comedy for children produced by Majesty Music
• Back to the Bible with Woodrow M. Kroll
• Unshackled! produced by Pacific Garden Mission in Chicago

• Christianity
• Christian media
• Christian pop culture
• Religious broadcasting – information on UK-based Christian TV & Radio, as well as overview of US-based networks.
• Sermonette
• Televangelism - the equivalent in television
• The World Family of Radio Maria
• Category:Christian radio stations
• List of Christian radio stations in Canada
• Islamic radio

• Lochte, Bob (2005). Christian Radio: The Growth of a Mainstream Broadcasting Force. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland and Company. ISBN 0-7864-2239-4.

• Billboard Christian Airplay Charts