GOSPEL RADIO TO APPLY AGAIN

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32384, 25 August 1970, Page 1

GOSPEL RADIO TO APPLY AGAIN

The Gospel Radio Fellowship would make another application to the Broadcasting Authority for a warrant for a radio station later this year, said the chairman (Mr R. N. Clarkson) in Christchurch yesterday.

He said that the fellowship was not discouraged by the authority’s refusal to grant its last application. The new application was planned for submission in December and the public hearing was expected to be in April. This year the fellowship had been reorganised so that the station would be working at the time of the next hearing, said Mr Clarkson. “We have planned a brand new radio station complex

with all the necessary technical requirements, and a full staff is expected to be employed by the time of the hearing," he said. The Gospel Radio Fellowship had altered its broadcasting format from that proposed in the last submissions to the authority. WORK ON STATION Work on the proposed new radio station is expected to begin in the next two months and it is hoped to have it completed by next April, said Mr Clarkson. He said that the Gospel Radio Fellowship proposed to broadcast for 15 hours a day,

seven days a week, in Glenfield Crescent, from its new facility. The cost would be $105,000 to build and equip the new station, plus $35,000 for annual expenses after that. Mr Clarkson said that the building complex would cost $30,000, the technical equipment $65,000 and a working capital of $lO,OOO would be needed.

SOURCE OF FUNDS No appeal would be made to the community for this money. It would come in the main from concerned Christians of all denominations. “The fellowship believes that through the religious programme it will broadcast, many persons will be faced with a completely new and challenging way of thinking of Christianity,” he said. The programme provides for music (about 40 per cent of on-the-air time), cultural programmes (25 per cent), spiritual programmes (15 per cent), spiritual music (5 per cent), news and commentaries (10'per cent) and sports and hobbies (5 per cent).

Many programmes would be broadcast live with audience participation, he said. Mr Clarkson said the fellowship intended to bring an up-to-date, alive, interesting and positive approach to religious broadcasting which would benefit all sections of the community.