Industry News Bits Thu 10-27-22
Fundraisers this week .. KEEH/Spokane .. WPOZ/Orlando .. WMVV/WMVW NewLife Radio/Griffin, GA .. WIHS/Middletown .. WBGL/Champaign .. KLOVE
WGTS/Wash DC is purchasing AllWorship.com, a nonprofit Christian Internet radio station that provides commercial-free worship music in five formats: contemporary worship, praise & worship, Spanish language worship, instrumental worship, and all Christmas music. AllWorship.com is heard globally in 190 countries and territories. The sale should close by the end of October.
“Our goal with the AllWorship ministry has always been to give people in every corner of the world an opportunity to hear Christian music. For 19 years, we have poured everything we have into this ministry,” says William Hardekopf, board chair at Reality Radio, Inc., owner of AllWorship.com. “Online radio has changed dramatically since we began in 2004, and with this transition, AllWorship will now have access to more ministry resources and incredible radio expertise. WGTS is highly respected as a group of radio professionals and Christians who love the Lord. We couldn’t be happier to hand them the AllWorship baton and are excited to see them reach many more people with wonderful Christian worship music.”
“For almost two decades, AllWorship.com has provided worship music to the global community,” says Kevin Krueger, president of AGC and president and CEO of WGTS 91.9 FM. “We are excited about the opportunity of continuing to offer and grow the ministry of AllWorship.com. We want to build on their legacy as we work to provide a place to focus on worship.”
WIHS/Middletown, CT, and God Loves Marriage Conference award a gift certificate to a weekend conference.
Pictured L-R presenters Richard and Claudia Steele, winners: Jacqueline and Kevin Holick, and WIHS General Manager Steve Tuzeneu.
Fair Trade artist CeCe Winans made Dove Awards history this year as the first Black female solo artist to win Artist of the Year. When accepting her award, instead of an acceptance speech, she sang a few lines from the Andrae Crouch classic, “To God Be the Glory,” moving many in the audience to tears.
“It’s amazing when we come together and we love each other and we stand for righteousness, it’s amazing what God will do,” Winans said after accepting the award for Song of the Year. “It’s amazing what He’s already done. But He wants to do so much more. I’m believing for God to move in this industry greater than He ever has before. The God we serve responds to faithfulness and the testimonies I’ve heard through this song have blessed my life.”
She and co-writers of “Believe for It” were also awarded Song of the Year. CeCe has won 25 Dove Awards including the very first New Artist of the Year award in 1988 with her brother BeBe Winans.
Independent label Black Smoke Music Worldwide announces a distribution and label partnership with Motown Gospel and Capitol CMG’s Re:Think. Led by Founder & CEO Kerry Douglas, Black Smoke Music Worldwide will release new music from 11-time Stellar Award winner Pastor Mike, Jr. with “Impossible” feat. James Fortune.
KKHT/Houston has launched a new radio show entitled “Got Teens?” hosted by author, speaker and television host, Shannon Perry. The new show on the Salem owned station will feature Perry answering questions from parents of teens she has met either in one-on-one counseling sessions or during her mother/teen daughter conference tour, “In Her Shoes.” Perry says the questions range from the common problems of simply learning how to communicate with teens to more pressing issues of identity.
“We are living in a culture that is doing everything it can to confuse our girls and tell them that not only does it not matter what they do with a guy, it doesn’t matter what they do with a girl,” says Perry. “The issue of gender identity was something I addressed long before our government decided that we should be accepting of everything that goes against God’s Word. I am very clear on this issue with the girls, and I give them Biblical and real-life reasons as to why it is important to refrain from same-sex relationships. Girls tell me they often feel very pressured to be accepting of the gender issues our culture so heavily skews. As Christians, we’ve got to know how to address this issue because it is not going away.”
For over a decade, the staff of RTM Colombia (RTM is the Spanish translation of TWR) has worked tirelessly from their homes to distribute content for broadcast at home and abroad. Now, TWR Latin America and Caribbean leaders are building a studio in the capital, Bogotá, so the ministry can step up and have a bigger impact in reaching this region for Christ. The new studio will also take on a supporting role for TWR’s major production hub located next door in politically and economically beleaguered Venezuela.
Hope Media Group is upgrading its WayFM stations transmitter facilities in Florida, Colorado, Texas, Oregon, Kansas, South Carolina, Kentucky, Alabama, Indiana, Tennessee, and Georgia. HMG will be installing GatesAir Flexiva FM and HD Radio systems at its transmitter sites.
“We have picked up our pace of GatesAir installations since we started replacing more of our older tube transmitters four years ago,” said Phil Jennings. “All of the major transmitter suppliers offer great products today, but the difference is that GatesAir really has its finger on the pulse of the FM radio industry. That extends beyond their transmitters and into their HD Radio and Intraplex STL products. They make products that are compact, easy to use, and in the case of their transmitters, offer a true return on investment.”
Citing successful past installations in Alabama (Huntsville), Kentucky (Louisville) and Tennessee (Clarksville), Jennings reached out to his friends at SCMS, a leading radio industry supplier and GatesAir channel partner, to discuss replacement transmitters for KAWA-FM (Dallas), WAYF-FM (West Palm Beach, Fla.) and WAYM-FM (Nashville).
“We have been adding HD2 feeds to many of our FM stations, and in some markets we are using HD Radio channels to feed translators that extend our over-the-air signals,” said Jennings. “HD Radio also gives us an opportunity to expand our latest formats including Vida Unida, our Spanish Christian format. We considered all these factors when we reached out to SCMS, and even very forward-looking opportunities such as SFN (single-frequency network) broadcasting that would help us take full advantage of our market penetration. GatesAir checks all these boxes for us.”
According to Jennings, GatesAir helps them provide the best possible HD Radio experience for their listeners. “The clarity of the HD Radio signal from the FAX exciter is pristine, and then you add the Flexiva FMXi 4g to the mix and things get very interesting. This is a complete, embedded HD Radio Importer and Exporter system with perfect time alignment as
analog and digital signals blend. We can also send The Artist Experience through it, which provides album art and other data to the receiver. We evaluated other HD Radio systems that glossed over some of these benefits; GatesAir builds everything we need into the system to deliver an engaging HD Radio audience experience, and it’s still very easy to use.”
Milestones:
Tim Land 41 years at KAMB/Merced, CA
Mike Trout 22 years at Clear Media
Dan Arthur celebrates 26 years in radio (started at KRWQ/Medford Oregon in 1996)
Prayer List:
Al Ross
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