Day Of Hope: UPDATE
UPDATE: It was (and still is) a “Day of Hope” at Christian Radio across the US and Canada today. Christian Radio stations went on the air praying for the may needs to be met regarding the coronavirus pandemic. Each hour had a specific focus for prayer from anxiety & fear, wisdom & strength, protection, elderly, etc. Stations featured local Pastors, influencers and listeners on the air as well. The entire idea started with KSBJ/Houston PD Troy West, and KSBJ production director Sterling Tarrant created and provided on air imaging elements to stations.
Here’s what stations are saying today regarding “A Day of Hope”
Troy West/KSBJ Houston – “Things are going well with Day Of Hope. Our on-air and Social Media team are creating engaging content. We’ve gotten great listener phone calls and influencers calling and asking to pray. My hats off to all the labels and artists who have made great contributions as well.” FOX26 and KPRC are both here shooting stories for their afternoon news shows. I am just blown away at the participation from other radio stations, the big Networks, artists and labels. Sterling Tarrant has also done an amazing job getting audio to all the participants.” Here’s the link to the Fox 26 Houston STORY.
Scott Smith/KLOVE – “The response from K-LOVE listeners has been overwhelming! So many have been calling to actively join us in prayer, many of our prayers on the Scott and Kelli show have been led by listeners who are from the very groups of people that we are lifting up, truck drivers, medical professionals, parents and those who have lost their jobs due to the changes that we have all experienced as a result of the coronavirus. We have all been reminded today that prayer should never be seen as the least we can do, but the most we can do; because we are putting an impossible situation into the hands of God, who makes all things possible!”
Robin Robinson/WHIF Palatka – “I’m grateful for others within our industry that have such amazing ideas and share their creativity with us! We were excited to lead our listeners in prayer and thrilled to know our friends across the country are doing the same. We loved having prayers shared by our artists, too!”
Joel Burke/KCBI Dallas – “We’re grateful to KSBJ in Houston for organizing the Day of Hope,” said KCBI PD Joel Burke. “Our listeners have been responding – praying with us and thanking us for sharing the hope found only Jesus in the middle of the COVID-19 crisis. We have invited listeners to submit prayers requests, and we have had a flood of requests pour in.”
Here are a couple of KCBI listener quotes (from social media):
“Great idea!” writes KCBI listener Donna Penn. “How great is our God – and He will bless this!”
“The power of prayer is where it is at,” said KCBI listener Lou Roushar. “We need it more so now than every before!”
Mark Boyer/WSOH Bellefontaine, OH – “Anything we can do as a station to build unity…count us in! It is an honor to partner with many stations from across the nation for this Day of Hope. We were able to get eleven pastors from our community to pray throughout the day. It is a blessing to work together to continue to bring hope and encouragement to our listeners.”
Brad Linnard/UCB Canada – “What a humble feeling to work together with other Christian stations to offer Hope in the midst of so much chaos. In addition to setting aside each hour to pray specifically, UCB Canada setup a special phone line that listeners could call or text for prayer. Pastors from all across Canada volunteered each hour to take those calls and pray for people. Each hour we had pastors and other community leaders pray on air too. For many of the pastors that joined in this, they really felt a sense of purpose and community, as they are looking for ways that they can be of service while socially distancing. The response we’ve heard from our audience shows how important Christian radio is in these uncertain times. The connection we’ve had with people through this has been deepened! Thanks to the good team at KSBJ! And a very special THANKS to Sterling Tarrant for all his work in getting production elements out.
Paul Tipton/Christian FM – “The Day of Hope was a huge success. Listeners were engaged all day long and expressing thanks for doing this in a time that was so needed. It was challenging getting everything in place with staff working remotely but it came together. Can’t thank Sterling at KSBJ enough for all the work to help make this day happen.”
Chris Chicago / NGEN Houston – “It was so amazing to be a part of an event like this! NGEN reaches a totally different audience than your typical Christian Radio Station, since we play Hip-Hop. I am sure the Lord used these prayers today to impact our community greatly. Audience Response has been great, we had many listeners call and text us thanking NGEN for the prayers and encouragement. We also had many listeners offer up prayers as well We were visited by 2 local news stations, KPRC Channel 2 and Fox 26. Hoping that coverage can be even more encouragement for the city of Houston. Since we are a Hip Hop and Pop station we had to produce everything from scratch using sound design that fits our format. Zach Roys who does our production here at NGEN came in clutch!”
Bill Sammons/WKNZ Milford – “We’ve had incredible response from listeners today! Great stories about how they’ve been encouraged. See below. Our team of Mark Dickey, Andrew Jackson and Denise Harper pulled all the resources together, relying on Sterling Tarrant’s beautiful work, the audio provided by labels and local prayer. Thank you to Troy West and KSBJ for taking the lead on this. No pics since it was all done remotely from our homes!”
Good Morning! I wanted to give you a shout out and let you know how much you are appreciated. I am a police officer and on patrol, I listen to your radio station in my vehicle, it has always been my comfort, but now just a bit more, or maybe I just am paying more attention. Seems to be what we are all learning, to pay more attention to what is important. I believe that God is my shelter and protection, I am not a perfect Christian by any means, but I know God as my father and I am so thankful that he protects my family and I. I am a single mother of 7 children, some are adults, but I have four school age boys at home, and two college students that have come back to Maryland due to the current situation. My daily prayer is that as an essential employee, I can not only serve the public, but keep my own family safe, as I shelter them at home, but still come home after being out all day. I am believing Psalm 91, and I know that he will surround myself and my family. I am believing he is the best PPE I could ever have. Listening to your station is a constant reminder when I feel down or discouraged, even scared, yes cops get scared, we just don’t admit it very often. Shhhh don’t tell anyone (laughing as I type this) We just know that we must go and do no matter the circumstance. We run in when others run out, but that does not mean it is easy. So Thank you…thank you… this Day of Hope of the radio today, the regular prayers while I drive all day is a huge blessing.
