WKNZ at Seaford Prayer Group

Bill Sammons Kim Willey recently spoke at the Seaford Wednesday Morning Prayer Group. He She shared the vision of this new radio station. Part of what is on her heart is here:

We want people from all walks of life to come together, to share and hear the truth about what an awesome God we serve. We want to be about community…..reconnecting it and joining forces to be God’s hands and feet.

That is one reason I believe in this new station. If you look over at WKNZ’s website, you’ll be able to read about it’s development. The hope is that enough money will be raised to go on the air in March of 2009. Thanks for your prayers and support.

(correction: Apparently I can’t read because I can’t tell the difference between “Kim” and “Bill”. Thanks to Andy Lynch for putting me on the right path.)

Delaware Family Policy Council On The Radio

Nicole Theis from the Delaware Family Policy Council will be on WGMD Monday morning (9/22) for the 7am broadcast hour. From a DFPC email:

I’m praying that we can bring to the forefront the issue of protecting traditional marriage. Please call in with your comments or questions and keep the conversation going after I’m off the air. This a great chance to communicate to others that this is an issue we care about passionately. I hope people call in and ask about religious liberties and where candidates stand and really feel informed as a result of our air time.

You can listen to WGMD on the radio at 92.7FM or online. The phone number to the studio is 302-945-9292. The Delaware Family Policy Council is on the web here.

WKNZ in The News Journal

Saturday’s edition of the News Journal (7/12) featured an article on WKNZ, the new Christian radio station in southern Delaware. The online version of the article is located here. Please stop by the radio station’s blog and take the survey. Give your input regarding this new radio station!

WKNZ - Let’s Spread The Word!

Editor’s Note: This is a post I wrote for the WKNZ - Z88.7 blog. This is a new Christian radio station starting in our area. The station’s blog is here.

WKNZ had a planning meeting this past Thursday, June 19. This was the first meeting I attended. Being the first, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. What I found was a healthy amount of excitement surrounding the new station. Bill shared some recent news surrounding the beginning stages. Andy shared the first results of the survey taken by the station. It was certainly encouraging reading over the responses.

Bill shared some of the vision he has regarding the station’s involvement in the local Christian community. This is something that resonated in me. While I’ve listened to many Christian radio stations over the web, they don’t provide the local connection that many of us in southern Delaware have had in the past.

Bill Sammons Sr. began the meeting with a Scripture reading and exhortation. He spoke about expressing a Christian world view. This is needed today, maybe more than ever. There is certainly a decline in a understanding of the Gospel and it’s practical applications in our day. Broadcasting the truth of the Gospel in a relevant manner is certain to not only encourage the believers in Christ but also draw those who need to be transformed by it’s power.

This is certainly affirmed in the Scripture. The Apostle Paul wrote, “I have become its servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness—the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the saints. To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. We proclaim him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ.” (Colossians 1:25-28, NIV)

One important thing discussed during the meeting was spreading the word about WKNZ. Several ideas for accomplishing this were brought up. I would certainly encourage those of you who are reading this post to past this blog along to your Christian friends in the area. Encourage them to visit and fill out the survey. Your input is valuable and needed to make the ministry here most effective. And if you have a blog yourself, please consider writing a post about WKNZ and provide links to the station’s blog located here.

This post was cross-posted on the WKNZ blog.

New Christian Radio Station Coming To Southern Delaware

A new Christian radio station for southern Delaware is in the works! WKNZ - Z88.7FM is going to be a 25,000 watt station with it’s tower in Harrington and studios in Milton. For some perspective on it’s power, those of you that remember the former WXPZ - The Light FM might not know it was only a 3000 watt station. Simply put, this station is going to cover a large area!

From their web site:

Probably the #1 one question I’m asked while telling people about the station is “what will it sound like?” One thing we do know, it will be non-commercial. Other than that, we are in the process of working on that… Click here to be linked to a survey that will help us put those pieces together. What’s important to you? We can’t wait to find out!

We are just literally getting started in the process of building a radio station. What do we need? Everything… Your prayers and financial support are first though! The station will probably be built in HD (or High Definition). There is not a significant additional expense to use HD when building from scratch in 2008. (It’s a very expensive upgrade, though!) HD allows us some very neat opportunities down the line…

Please stop by their web site, Z887.org, their blog, or jump right to the survey and let them know what you think! And please spread the word about the station!

He Just Wanted To Play Your Music

I stumbled across a blog entry on The Old White Guy Blog about his troubles trying to license music for a podcast version of his broadcast. I love these lines:

I’m mad as…well, really ticked…and I’m not going to take it anymore!

Do you know what I’ve been doing for hours? I’ve been dealing with idiots!

Uh…Jesus just told me that I couldn’t say that because they are idiots for whom he died.

Okay. Let’s start over.

I’ve been dealing with bureaucrats (a.k.a. idiots) whose purpose in life is screwing up the world.

Somebody somewhere somehow has got to make this licensing stuff easier. I’ve read numerous stories about recording artists who wish to re-issue some of their old albums but can’t. It’s due to the company owning them making it so difficult to license their own recordings. I know of one band that re-recorded their first album because they couldn’t get the original masters from the current owners. It’s a crazy mess.

Sean Hannity in Georgetown

Melody and I were guests at the Delmarva Christian High School Banquet Thursday evening. The school’s campus is located on the east side of Georgetown off of Route 9. We attended last year’s banquet as well. The school does a great job getting these events together. I saw a number of familiar faces at the event, including some political figures: US Rep. Michael Castle, State Auditor Thomas Wagner, and Sussex County Councilman Dale Dukes. We were sitting with some folks from our church along with Joel Hitchcock (glory to God, brother Joel!!!).

Delmarva Christian High School has a great facility, and they are looking toward finishing parts of the building including the kitchen, library, and the stage. This school year, they will be graduating their first class with students that have been there for all 4 high school years. In addition, I have known that they have yet to turn down a student for admission due to a lack of finances. That’s saying something.

TV and radio host Sean Hannity was the speaker for this year’s event. My wife and I wonder if he’s ADD or something, because he seemed change gears frequently during his speech. As you would expect, politics was a large part of his speech. He tossed in some funny jokes and impersonations of Bill Clinton (and I did think his Clinton jokes were funny). Being in a largely conservative Christian group, I thought he might talk more about his faith. Regardless, I thought he did a great job. I’d go see him again! He wrapped up his speech with a message of hope, which is what is needed in our times.

My wife and I wondered what was going through Mike Castle’s mind during Sean Hannity’s speech. Castle’s politics fall in the squishy middle; he’s one of those so-called “main street” Republicans. I’m not sure where that main street is, but I’m pretty sure it’s not around here. Hannity is a lot closer to the mainstream than Castle. So we were wondering how bad Castle wanted to get out of there. Some of the things Hannity said had to be getting under his skin. He had to be squirming to some degree. Anyway, that’s just what we were wondering.

9/11 Thoughts

Where were you? For the older generations, that brings up thoughts of Pearl Harbor or the Kennedy assassination. For me, prior to 9/11, it was only that I heard Elvis died while standing in front of Camelot Music in the old Salisbury Mall. Yeah, that’s right up there with the big ones! Our generation got ours in 2001.

I’m almost ashamed to talk about what was running through my mind that morning. At the time, we were homeschooling all of our kids. We would get started in the morning with the radio tuned to The Light FM (anyone remember WXPZ in Milford?). Around the 9:00 hour, they’d have a segment of prayer. As I was turning off the radio, I heard the morning announcer Andy Lynch say something about an airplane hitting one of the towers. It caught my attention, but we had to get down to school business that morning because we were behind schedule, as well as the kids had a dentist appointment that morning. I thought it was probably a small plane that had hit it, and it wasn’t a big deal to me.

We left the house around 10:30 for the dentist. The radio in the van wasn’t working right, so there was no music or anything except the hum of the motor and the chatter of the kids. After we had been at the dentist’s office for a little while, we learned from the staff of the morning’s events. We hurried home and turned on the TV where Fox News was showing us the pictures of New York City and all that had happened that day.

I can’t remember all of what was running through my head at that time except that I was concerned that more would happen. Were we safe? I think we prayed that afternoon, then I turned the TV to something else because we didn’t want to overcharge our children on the horror that happened that day about a 5 hour drive from our home.

Later that evening when President Bush spoke to the nation, he gave words of comfort and strength. I was very glad that he was our President, as I feel confident that the other candidate could not have given the same speech nor directed us towards a defensive posture. For all the bad things we may have in George W. Bush, considering the two men that have wanted his job, we could have done a whole lot worse, or even worse than that.

Unlike some today, I won’t forget the reason we fight the war we are in. I will not forget 9/11 and the evil men that attacked our nation and our people.