Industry News Bits Tue 6-7-22
At WDJC/Birmingham afternoon talent Russel P (Wall) & Jessica (Borkland) are moving to mornings starting Monday June 13th. The duo has hosted PM Drive on WDJC since right before Covid hit in 2020.
Russell joined WDJC in 2008 and Jessica arrived in 2012.
Russell told HisAir today, “Jessica and I are very excited to start our new morning show Joyful Noise on 93.7 WDJC. Our aim is to be playful and lively, joyful and encouraging. We’re going to tell stories and offer encouragement. Jessica has the craziest laugh you’ll ever hear. We call it the goat laugh. If the alarm clock doesn’t wake folks up, her laugh certainly will.”
Russel P & Jessica fill the opening in mornings left in Feb this year when Roxanne & Ace exited. Stay tuned for info on the new WDJC afternoon show.
After 17 years with Ambassador Katie Burke has exited. Katie will Through the Word (an audio guide to the entire Bible, one chapter at a time) as marketing director.
Vidare Creative will offer a FREE webinar previewing the Fundraising 2022 conference taking place next month in Nashville. The webinar will be on June 14th, 9am PT, 10am MT, 11am CT, and 12pm ET.
Sign up HERE
TWR reports that 100 days since the Russia invasion of Ukraine, the number of people in Ukraine accessing gospel resources on the TWR360 web portal had shot up over 80%, with 572,215 total “events” logged. An “event” is any action taken by a person while using the website, such as viewing a video or playing a recording, and the total number of events is called an “event count.”
Ukraine-related web sessions from other countries – such as Ukrainians living in the U.S., Germany or Poland – also have risen significantly. Surprisingly, people in Ukraine have accessed the site 60% more often in Russian than in Ukrainian, both languages being widely spoken there. In Russia, on the other hand, strong restrictions placed on the internet as a result of the war makes it hard for people to access TWR360 for now.
TWR360 Operations Manager David Creech said the web ministry has increased its budget to reach out using Google search channels and make people aware of the site’s Ukrainian Bible-based content. Despite the upheaval of war, he said, resourceful people are finding ways to connect to the internet by phone.
“We are seeing that Ukrainian users are spending more time listening and viewing the content, based on the increased user engagement durations,” Creech said. “This tells us that the users are finding the content meaningful enough to stay with it longer. And since the content is about hope and encouragement during times of great conflict, this tells us that the users are attracted to it.”
TWR360, which houses more than 100,000 Bible-centered audio, video and text programs in over 100 languages, has become the digital hub for the global media ministry’s outreach to the war zone. From the Ukrainian home page (twr360.org/Ukraine), people can access audio programs such as “Lessons for Christians During the War” and “How Not to Lose Your Sanity When Life Isn’t Going According to Plan.”
The Southern Gospel community is remembering Byron Steward. He passed away Saturday June 4th. Mr. Steward was 48. He played southern gospel music for over 30 years and was part of groups including Gold City and Tony Gore & Majesty. Funeral services took place Tuesday in Hackleburg, Alabama.
Milestones:
Sterling Tarrant 16 years at KSBJ/Houston
Frankie Morea 23 years at WPER/Fredericksburg
Kevin Anderson 27 years at Salem Media/Nashville
Carol Davis 20 years at Blue Ridge Broadcasting
Lauren Glancy 1 year at Dunham+Company
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