Relevant Radio compared to EWTN

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Tommy999

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I’ve been listening to my local Catholic radio station for a few years now. In the past, they’ve mostly aired EWTN programming in addition to a few locally produced shows.

Now, at night they play ‘The Patrick Madrid Show’ from Relevant Radio network instead of encore versions of earlier aired EWTN programs.

Just curious how Relevant Radio compares to EWTN in terms of programming reputation and how Catholics feel about it.

For example, is it more conservative, liberal, or about the same as EWTN?

To be honest, I hadn’t heard of Relevant Radio previously and thought EWTN was the main source for Catholic radio programming
 
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Relevant Radio does a huge amount of promotion around here in terms of leaving holy cards advertising their programming in many churches. I have quite a collection of them. I still don’t listen to Relevant Radio because it’s mostly talk shows and apologists and so forth. And frankly, a lot of it is political, or about how to have a good marriage or family life or some such. I prefer to hear things like Masses and talks by bishops and priests on my Catholic radio. I never needed marital advice or call-in Q&A.
 
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In my opinion, both EWTN and Relevant Radio support traditional values and Catholic teaching extremely well. It’s extremely rare that you’ll run into anything that contradicts Catholic Doctrine in either source.
 
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Personally, I think they BOTH are very faithful to the Church. However, they are both very different in their focus - which is why a lot of people who used to listen to Immaculate Heart Radio (on the West coast) hate Relevant Radio.

EWTN Radio focuses more on faith sharing (as did Immaculate Heart Radio before it merged with Relevant Radio). It’s more theological in its approach & will have more clergy, etc.

Relevant Radio on the other hand is more “faith in the public square.” It’s more about living out the faith.

Both have their apologetics shows & both offer Mass & some devotionals. Both have priest lead shows & lay lead shows. However, the general theme of both channels different slightly.

EWTN tends to be more devotional focused while Relevant Radio is going to have more news like & magazine type shows.

I hope this helps
 
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Thanks for the replies. Very helpful. I was mainly just curious how they differed since Relevant Radio programming is new to Oklahoma Catholic Radio.

Before, at night they had a little bit of local programming and then encores of the EWTN afternoon shows, such as Called to Communion and others.

Now, they have replaced those afternoon EWTN encores with ‘The Patrick Madrid Show’ from Relevant Radio at night and said a few other RR programs will be added on the weekends.Glad to know they are reputable, although a bit of a different focus.
 
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Didn’t they drop Mother Mariam and Jesse Romero? That seemed to indicate a move to liberalism though I haven’t listened.
 
Sounds like they have somewhat different jobs to do in the service of the Church. That is fine. There’s no need to think that all Catholic radio networks will be exactly alike.

The Catholic Channel on Sirius XM is also pretty good, very snappy presentation, I’m going to make the assumption they are doctrinally orthodox 100% of the time, in that they are affiliated with the Archdiocese of New York. When I retired, I could no longer justify the cost of Sirius XM, so I don’t listen to it anymore.
 
Hi Maxirad,
The article you supplied seems to indicate that Relevant Radio doesn’t carry Catholic Answers Live anymore because RR wanted exclusive rights to the program whereas Catholic Answers Live wanted to continue to offer it to Relevant Radio and EWTN and others.

On the surface, it sounds to me like a move meant for Relevant Radio to gain a competitive advantage over EWTN instead of co-existing with it. It looks like it may have backfired on Relevant Radio, as EWTN still carries Catholic Answers Live, which I enjoy listening to when I get a chance.

I must say I prefer EWTN, but then that’s what I’m more used to.
 
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Tommy999 said:
Hi Maxirad,
The article you supplied seems to indicate that Relevant Radio doesn’t carry Catholic Answers Live anymore because RR wanted exclusive rights to the program whereas Catholic Answers Live wanted to continue to offer it to Relevant Radio and EWTN and others.

On the surface, it sounds to me like a move meant for Relevant Radio to gain a competitive advantage over EWTN instead of co-existing with it. It looks like it may have backfired on Relevant Radio, as EWTN still carries Catholic Answers Live, which I enjoy listening to when I get a chance.

I must say I prefer EWTN, but then that’s what I’m more used to.
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I don’t think it was a about having a “competitive advantage.” It’s simply that Relevant Radio made a business decision to own the shows they air. The last shows they didn’t own were aired on the weekends, which they have finally phased out this summer.

My guess is by owning the programs, one of the advantages is they get to pick the guest hosts (hosts who fill in when the main host is on vacation, pilgrimage, or sick).

Unlike EWTN Radio (which does not own any radio stations & doesn’t charge independent Catholic radio stations for their content), Relevant Radio owns the majority of their radio stations. So Relevant Radio is exposed to a lot more financial risk if a radio host (esp a guest) goes nuts on air.

So, one might disagree with their decision, but they wanted some level of control over all the shows.
 
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yankeesouth said:
Didn’t they drop Mother Mariam and Jesse Romero? That seemed to indicate a move to liberalism though I haven’t listened.
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I don’t think it really has much to do with “liberalism” as one might think.
  1. I think the show formats for Jesse Romero & Mother Miriam (while both are really great) really didn’t fit the style of Relevant Radio. I honestly think this was the primary reason.
  2. Relevant Radio does have direct relationships with several of the bishops in their listening areas. So it is possible, that if one or more of their bishops disagreed with some content from any show, that could be a contributing factor to the show’s removal. But I think this would be less of an issue than #1.
Since Relevant Radio owns most of their stations, they know which programs are listened to the most. And they know which programs their affiliates play and which programs the affiliates don’t play.

It really doesn’t make sense for Relevant Radio to keep airing a good show that has poor ratings, when another show might prove to be more popular.

And honestly, the fact that Relevant Radio cut them both has really been a good thing because it lead to both of those programs becoming headliners for two other Catholic Radio Networks:
  • Mother Miriam is now on The Station of the Cross - a growing network that now produces three radio programs, plus several more podcasts.
  • While The Terry and Jesse Show was awesome (and I know Terry Barber from my time with Lighthouse Catholic Media), it’s cancelation has lead to the creation of the new Virgin Most Powerful Radio Network (https://virginmostpowerfulradio.org/)
Again, I love both programs, but in my opinion, they didn’t really fit with the other Relevant Radio programs & most likely many people turned those two programs off after listening to a previous show.
 
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Fair enough, phil19034. You may be right since you seem to have more inside info on Catholic radio.

From my perspective, to choose to cancel this popular show altogether from Relevant Radio stations just because Catholic Answers refused to give RR exclusive control over it - and remove it from EWTN - just seemed like an arbitrary decision that hurt Catholic Answers Live, but that admittedly is just my personal view from the outside looking in.

In the end, it doesn’t affect me because my local Catholic radio station still airs many EWTN programs in addition to a few Relevant Radio selections and I can hear Catholic Answers Live regularly on EWTN, but I feel bad for folks who liked Catholic Answers but whose only Catholic radio station choice only airs Relevant Radio-owned programs, although I guess they could still listen to it on the Catholic Answers app, if there is one.

The saddest part, in my opinion, was that Relevant Radio forced Catholic Answers to choose sides and inevitably lose overall radio listeners to their evangelistic-minded show that helps reach millions of non-Catholics throughout the US and elsewhere.
 
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Tommy999 said:
The saddest part, in my opinion, was that Relevant Radio forced Catholic Answers to choose sides and inevitably lose overall radio listeners to their evangelistic-minded show that helps reach millions of non-Catholics throughout the US and elsewhere.
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Well, we honestly need more Catholic radio stations! We have several Catholic radio networks now:
  • Relevant Radio
  • EWTN Radio
  • Station of the Cross
  • Virgin Most Powerful Radio
  • The Catholic Channel (Sirius XM radio)
  • etc.
Protestants have a ton of radio stations. We Catholics need A LOT more. In my view, every major city needs several Catholic Radio stations with a mix different programs.
 
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