Industry News Bits 2-3-20
Due to restructuring KJIL/Meade station manager Glenn Hascall will exit the station in a few weeks. Glenn has served at KJIL and KHYM for about 14 years. Glenn told HisAir, “It was a pleasure to be a part of the team. So many great things happened and I am grateful to have been a part of the history of a great network of stations.”
New station WKJA/Barberton, OH (Heartfelt Radio) plans to go on the air Feb 14th. WKJA is 24,000-watt at 91.9 FM serving most of northeast Ohio, including Akron, Canton and parts of Cleveland. Christian Healthcare Ministries, a health cost-sharing ministry and Barberton’s largest employer, purchased the station from from California-based Penfold Communications.
The WKJA format is to provide an eclectic mix of Christian music and programming, including some children’s programming. Longtime Northeast Ohio radio broadcaster Mark Zimmerman will host mornings with interviews of local Christian leaders as well as internationally-known Christian speakers and musicians.
Southern Gospel music radio program, Paul Heil’s “The Gospel Greats,” celebrated its 40th anniversary on the air the weekend of February 1st. The program’s anniversary edition included congratulatory voice messages from such artists as Bill Gaither, Billy Blackwood, Gerald Wolfe, Mark Trammell, Jonathan & Joyce (of the Martins) and others, almost two dozen in all. Begun in 1980 on a handful of radio stations, the weekly two-hour program has aired on hundreds of radio stations across North America and even overseas over the years, as well as on SiriusXM in recent years. “God has certainly blessed this program over the years,” Heil said, “and it’s because we seek always to honor Him through the program’s content.”
Program founder and host, Paul Heil, is an inductee in the Southern Gospel Music Hall of Fame and is winner of the Gospel Music Association’s Impact Award for Southern Gospel radio. A former president of the Southern Gospel Music Guild, he is often called the most widely-recognized radio voice in Southern Gospel music. The ministry-oriented, music-based broadcast features fast-moving interview clips with today’s top Southern Gospel artists, usually speaking to the messages in their songs. The artists become very personal to listeners who hear about their struggles, their lives, their ministries.
Tyler, TX based Encouragement Media signed on its Spanish Christian music station Fuzión (102.3 and 103.1) January 17th. Fuzión is part of the same ministry that operates KVNE/Tyler. Check out local TV coverage HERE. Encouragement Media plans to launch another station named “The Well” with a Bible teaching format in March.
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