Good Things from Billy Graham

I have been a Billy Graham fan all my life. I was saved at Lieghton Ford Crusade. He was a Graham associate. I attended several Billy Graham events and worked at a counselor in a few. What some do not realize is that Billy and his namesake the Billy Graham Evangelistic Organization are still quite active and alive. Recently I found 106.9 FM The Light WMIT of the Blue Ridge Broadcasting. On their website they acknowledge they are a Billy Graham ministry. They also seem to quietly be helping a station in the Middle East that is a satellite station. This station' stream can be found at http://www.brb.org They are an HD station. They are supposed to have a youth oriented station called “the edge.” I have yet to find a stream or a website for it. The Light is a good mix of top contemporary music and ministry. They give you several ways to listen on the net with a windows player, apple or other ways.

Also this time of year Billy's group releases a video special. His “My Hope America” special the “Cross” recorded 100,000 decisions. It played on some broadcasting outlets and released as low cost DVD that folks can play for neighbors or give away. That year folks wondered out loud if that was going to be Billy's last message. Its a powerful video that presents the Gospel in a beautiful way. On www.myhopeamerica.org or https://myhopewithbillygraham.org/ you can get one free video of this year's DVD “Heaven.” The church I pastor, will show “Heaven” around Billy's birthday on November 7^th. I hope people will want to use it in other ways too. I hope I will use it to share the Gospel of Christ.

El Paso Anthony and Las Cruces Christian Stations

Well I have been away from the blog for awhile. I have moved and have gone back to active church work. I am now the pastor of FBC Anthony, New Mexico. My email of scotttalbert1963@gmail is still the same. With a new move, I wanted to make my first blog a band scan of Christian Stations in the area of El Paso, Texas, Anthony, New Mexico and Las Cruces, New Mexico. One main thing hit me pretty quickly is that as you move around this West Texas, South New Mexico area is that your radio choices will change drastically as you move about. A few factors really contribute to this. Most Christians stations here are satellite stations and low wattage. They get there programming totally from places very far from here. There programming originates in San Francisco, Florida and other distant places. These organizations can easily get station permits for low power stations and fill the major population areas up with there brand of programming. This is ok if you live in down town El Paso or Las Cruces. I will discuss one major exception to this situation later. As always, I am a huge proponent of internet radio with the web, a roku or other streaming instrument or an internet radio. (See earlier post about this or write me.) This allows me to listen to most of these stations even if my regular radio or car radio can not get them. As usual a car radio is your best choice for hearing a lot of these stations as you move about the area.

El Paso Christian Radio

88.1fm – KNMA – Christian Satellite Network, This station actually comes out of Tularosa,NM but can be heard in Anthony, NM with Static. The station originates in Twin Falls, ID and owns other frequencies in the area. They are fairly conservative in there teaching and music. They have a fine website at www.csnradio.com

89.1fm -K206C – KYCC - “Family Radio, Your Christian Companion” These folks are out of Stockton, California broadcasting locally with 10 watts, I can hear them with static in Anthony. They play a mix of music and teaching. WWW.kycc.org is their website. I did check the signal in North West El Paso and they came in fine.

89.3fm – KELP- This is the Las Cruces version of our local religious broadcaster in the are. It come is well with a little static here in Anthony. Lots of teaching and some praise music. 3000 solid watts. It also has a slightly different schedule than its sister stations in El Paso. They broadcast this station from a small town called Mesquite, New Mexico. WWW.kelpradio.com

89.5fm -KKLY – KLOVE – This is the El Paso outlet of the worlds biggest satellite driven Contemporary Christian station out of California. This is a quality station that has 3.500 watts of power for the El Paso listeners. WWW.klove.com Sadly this signal does not work too well in Anthony, but they use a low power outlet here at 102.7fm that works fine. I just have two buttons on the car radio.

90.3fm – K212EO – Christian Satellite Network- This is the same station that appears on 88.1fm from Twin Falls ID. At a raging 5 watts we can not hear it in Anthony. I did listen to this station in North West El Paso

95.1fm – KELP – Records show that KELP owns this frequency but has yet to use it.

91.7fm – K219BX - KEAR “Family Radio” this is another low watt station that originates from San Francisco, California. Looks like teaching. Website is www.familyradio.org I can not hear it in Anthony.

95.9fm – KELP – This is our local El Paso for KELP's am outlet 1590am. It has different programming than its Las Cruses outlet. They mainly have a strong lineup of good teaching shows and Christian radio standards. WWW. kelpradio.com. This is a great signal in El Paso as they have quite a bit of wattage. They seem to have a minor interferance problem as I headed North to New Mexico.

102.7 FM – KKLY- translator for KLOVE. Anthony's only real radio stations. It has a massive 53 watts. It covers the space between El Paso and Las Cruses. WWW.klove.com The station has a steady but noisy signal in town.

91.1Fm – KVER – “Radio Manantial” The best I can tell or research this is the only Spanish FM Christian station in El Paso. I finally heard this station in El Paso proper. I have heard the Las Cruses outlet. WWW.kver.org I believe this is music and teaching. Neither reach me in El Paso.

Las Cruces Christian Radio – I have only heard a handfull of these station by car, but I will verify them later as I go about the area.

88.1fm – Static Radio – Great Christian rock station that has transmitters all over New Mexico. They have a great website for music at www.mystaticradio.com. I really like the sound of this station. They have 250 watts in Las Cruses and should get out all over south Las Cruses. Very good Christian rock and personalities.

88.9fm – KRUC- KVER. “Radio Manantial 500 watts this outlet of KVER sounds better and I have heard it. Once again I believe this is the only Hispanic Christian FM station in the region. WWW.kver.org

89.3fm – KELP for Las Cruces – Once again our only local Christian broadcaster. Lots of teaching and a slightly different lineup than the El Paso outlet. 3000 watts. I can hear it fine in Anthony. WWW.kelpradio.com

89.7fm – Moody Radio – Only in Las Cruces. Satellite station from Chicago, ILL. Great Christian teaching station sponsored by Moody College. 500 watts. WWW.kmbn.org

90.1fm – K211EN Another 6 watt Christian Satellite Network station. They also have a permit for 90.3fm www.csnradio.com

91.9fm - K220gf – WPCS – Pensacola Christian College. A 6 watts its gets out well in Las Cruses. This is a very old fashion Christian radio station with teaching and a noon prayer time. They also have a lot of coral music and Southern Gospel music. WWW.rejoice.org

I present this list to give brothers and sisters in Christ a place to go to be encouraged and built up in the Lord. I will try to listen to all these stations and verify them if possible, in the future. If you know more info on these broadcasters please feel free to contact me at Scotttalbert1963@gmail.com

To find an initial list of any radio stations in any area I like to use http://radio-locator.com/ This site will let you enter a zip and a state. It will give you call signs, website (where you can listen to station most of the time.) and the ability to look up a coverage area and wattage.

A Good Encylopedia of Christian Music and a Great Classic Christian Music Site

My (Scott Talbert's)

Review of Encyclopedia of Contemporary Christian Music 

by Mark Allan Powell

I looked a long time for a complete catalog of Christian Music. I have been a fan of the music since my early teens. It was good to find such a large volume. Honestly I had never heard of the work. I have found other works not comprehensive enough. I think CCM music grew too fast for those involved to write a good work in the earlier years. This volume has some overwhelming positives and a few negatives.

First and foremost, its huge. It has a ton of artist entries. If a person sung or had anything to do with Christian music, you can find it in this book. I am a pretty varied fan of the genre and I found obscure bands and individuals for every taste.

I did find the intro to this book very funny. “Hey I took a years paid sabbatical to listen to music.”

He does give each entry a fairly good history,discography and basic biographical workup. That can be a huge task for some bands in the genre, who change members with every tour or don't exactly publish much information about themselves. His spade and information gathering is to be congratulated.

A few negatives persist. He is very opinionated about certain theological issues in the music. The one I bumped into, was his dislike of songs that mention military themes and victory. He also goes a long way in breaking down lyrics and discussing certain bands to the point of sheer board om. I found some entries more lyrical criticism than just a discussion of a band place in the world of CCM. The more minor the band was the more these discussions could be a waste of time. The last issue I have with the book is one that the writer can not control. With a 2002 publishing date this thing is dated. So much has happened in CCM since 2002. I hope somebody takes this franchise, shortens the editorials a little and makes it even more comprehensive.

Last and minor note. My CD got cracked either by me or on delivery. I did notice that it may be tough to run it on a modern machine. I would like to have tried it.

Lately I have been listening to a internet station at www.ChristianClassicRock.net They play classic Christian Rock from the 70s, 80s and 90s. This was the Christian hard rock that I grew up. Listening to the station is like a walk down memory lane for me. Thankfully growing up in Houston, we had good Christian rock radio, mainly on Saturday nights and some very good concerts like Petra, Resurrection Band, Steve Taylor and others. They play quite a lot of straight metal that’s pretty loud too. Take a listen, Christian rock has a 40 plus year heritage and this station seems to play them all. Also the station has places where you can listen to their other stations with power praise, hard rock, and Christian rock. As you switch to these other streams on the net you will get a website that has more about that stream. You can download their app to your android or i-phone. You can get the station on the Tune In app. You also have a choice of using almost any media player or just getting the mp3 stream to listen to. They really have a good site. This all belongs to a mother site called www.ChristianRock.net They are a non profit based in Springfield, Mo.

A Good Study of the the Growth of Pop Radio -- Amazon review

This is a review of Ben Fong-Torres book The Hits Just Keep on Coming I wrote and published on Amazon. If you are a history of radio fan like me you may find this is worth picking up. I am honest about what works and does not work in this book. 

I want to really like this book. I am a huge radio fan. I write a blog http://offaithandradio.blogspot.com/ on radio and faith issues. I have a job where I can listen to radio of my choosing for 8 hours or more a day. I have read several radio and TV history books. This review is part of trying to publish in this area. I am a fan. As much as I am a fan of radio, I wanted to be a fan of this book.

There are lots of reasons this book is a good reference book on a little written about topic. Fong-Torres gives his personal connection to top 40 radio. Like Fong-Torres, if you like radio you have played DJ with a hairbrush. I have. He then goes on to trace the early rise of DJ s. Pr-recorded music took awhile to get to radio. Records meant firing the orchestras many station used. Eventually DJ s playing popular records grew into what we call the Top 40 format.

Fong-Torres then takes you through the early days of Rock and and Roll. Alan Freed gets good mention. How a Top 40 was developed from record sales gets mentioned. The writer includes Top 40 charts from from 1947-1997. Ben Fong-Torres goes on to exhaustively list everyone of notoriety in this format. I was surprised how many I knew. Fong-Torres later takes up the subject of the transition to Fm from Am. You can barely hear music on Am anymore. HD radio could change that. He even touches on MTV. The book is too old to cover what I believes is the demise of Rock videos and the rise of the internet.

Fong-Torres even includes a cd of DJ samples. He has many of the masters on this CD with the magic of the “patter.” A DJ a good song and great audience could be an awesome thing to hear. Sadly, today we rarely hear more than song title announcement.

Still my big question. Why can't I love this book? It's a great study of a time and age of radio that still speaks to us today. It suffers from two problems. I feel Fong-Torres does not define Top 40 radio. Maybe you know it, when you hear it. He should have given it a try. Second this book is boring. By page 240 plus he has run out great stories. He does a lot of endless telling of where guys were and call sign. “He went from KILT in Houston to KXX in Nevada.” Wake me up when the listings stop. Maybe he could have discussed the rise of the format over and against its demise, but 1997 may have been early for this. As a reference this book gets an A, as interesting book it gets a C Plus.