Why doesn't the Church sponsor Catholic Radio?

[JackPaul]

I have often thought that Catholic Radio is the best way to get out the Word about the Church and what it teaches. I live in Colorado where the population is about 10% Catholic. We have tons of radio stations catering to other denominations, but nothing Catholic. I have often thought that if I came into any real money, I would start a radio station of my own, but that is not likely. I have also wondered why the Church doesn’t cough up some of that cash and put a Church owned radio station in each state. I know it would be expensive, but I am sure they would get listener support to defray some of that cost. Seems like EWTN has been a big success, it seems like a US radio station would also be successful. How many souls would have to be saved for the Church to realize a worthwhile return on their investment?

 

[chicago]

The bishops conference did have a satellite TV network for a time over the last couple of decades. It was a failure, so they eventually shut it down and sold off the equiptment. Allegedly, there was some bad feelings among some of the episcopate because EWTN suceeded so well and their network went nowhere. (It was actually more of an in house communications thing. Some schools used it and all, but I don’t think that they even solicited the cable carriers or focused much attention on developing programming for the average Catholic viewer outside of those who might somehow get to watch a show through a parish or diocese.) In places, there could be politics involved which complicate things, however.

It can cost a lot of money to get this sort of thing up and running and to do it well. Even when dioceses have radio shows of their own, they are usually pretty low production and sound like vanilla public service programming which you might hear late on a Sunday night. Your average, run of the mill, public radio station can usually do better and even some college stations run more worthy quality shows. Dioceses also tend to be the havens of either young, inexperienced persons who may not be ready for the task or lifer hanger-ons who may not be particularly good or experienced at accomplishing such things in media, and are often very parochially focused on their own little world of signifigance and work.

I fear, then, that if the dioceses actually got involved, it would most often end up being incompetent efforts which end up failing and crippling Catholic communications even more, in the long run.

 

[Deacon_Tony560]

Our diocese has its own T.V. station which always runs in the red. Now they must have money for the change to digital. All stations must become digital within a certain time frame. They carry some of EWTN and some local programs. Also, programs in different languages are shown. Our bishop has had positive feedback of folks that have come back to the church because of this station. I think Catholic Radio has also been the reason for the return and conversion of some. Each local bishop has the opportunity to sponsor Catholic Radio, but since it is not owned by the diocese, we probably will never see it happen. Our bishop was offered free time on our local Catholic Radio, but has declined. I urged him to reconsider, but he did not change his mind.

 

[Della]

The Church’s job is to spread the Gospel, and it does that through it’s own channels–dioceses and their parishes. Extra efforts, such as missions, media, hospitals or any other such apostolates have always been done by people who feel inspired to start such efforts and are supported by donations. Even the pope’s apostolates are privately funded by donations. The biggest one, Peter’s Pence, is funded in large part by donations made by the Knights of Columbus, a lay, fraternal organization of faithful Catholic men and women (Ladies Auxiliary). And, they collect their donations through a variety of programs from spaghetti dinners, bake sales, car washes, and that sort of thing. Very low tech, but quite effective.

 

[HagiaSophia]

And there is Vatican Radio which many listen to.