There is a kind of archetypal image in American culture, of the young teenager, hidden in their room with a battery-powered transistor radio, listening to music that was very, very different from what they heard in their parent’s home. People who grew up in the fifties still recall how hearing Little Richard or Elvis opened up for them a new world (for good or ill).
I still have a vivid memory of hearing Paul McCartney and Wings’ "Jet" on a similar little radio and thinking that my life had changed forever. Having grown up on Hank Williams, church music and Broadway tunes, hearing the Beatles or Stevie Wonder simply was a whole ‘nother universe. It was much more than music, it was the common culture of my generation. Listening to American Top Forty on Sunday afternoons was like picking up a secret signal from Underground Command Central.
But The Rock and Roll became big business and listening to the radio inevitably became boring. ClearChannel is, for me, sure proof of the second law of thermodynamics; the universe is destined to dissipate and run down, becoming a thinly dispersed, dark cloud of matter at a uniform temperature just above absolute zero (unless Jesus comes back!).
So it was kind of cool to find myself delicately twiddling with the nobs on my radio tuner at home, the other day, patiently trying to pull in the weak signal of a new Catholic station in our area. It reminded me of how I had to finesse that old transistor to try and get my favorite AM station as a kid.
Relevant Radio is a growing network of Catholic stations across the U.S., carrying Catholic talk programming. Radio worth listening to! It’s like Underground Command Central all over again, but without the acne.
We are blessed to have a parishoner who leaped out in faith and got the station (KDUA – 96.5 FM) up and running. They broadcast from our parish hall (Rogers, Arkansas) and have only a few precious watts of signal power, but have plans to beef up in the future.
In the mean time, I get to hear faithful Catholic programs, including Fr. John "Tell It Like It Is" Corapi and Catholic Answers Live!, which frequently features our favorite apologist, Jimmy "Not Bad for a Texan" Akin. The static, for the time being, just adds to the counter-cultural thrill.
You can find out more about Relevant Radio at their WEBSITE, including broadcast schedules and locations.
Start praying! Maybe Relevant Radio will come to your area, too.
