WBRJ - Baton Rouge

A new Christian radio station, WBRJ-FM, “The Word for Baton Rouge,” is on the air.

Located at 105.7 on the FM radio dial, the nonprofit, noncommercial station is a ministry of Jefferson Baptist Church.

The station features 24-hour-a-day Christian music and newscasts.

Licensed by the Federal Communications Commission as a “low-power” station, it broadcasts at 100 watts but can be heard all across the Greater Baton Rouge area.

On the church campus, WBRJ-FM went on the air Aug. 10, according to Rev. T.C. “Tommy” French Jr., but church leaders didn’t want to make a public announcement until they got all the bugs worked out of the computer programming.

“We want to communicate the Gospel of Jesus Christ and present quality educational programming from a Christian perspective,” French said. “We also provide wholesome music.”

WBRJ’s format is contemporary and traditional Christian music with hourly newscasts from United News International and weathercasts from The Weather Center. The digital music library includes more than 1,500 songs chosen by Alan Shoumaker, Jefferson’s minister of music, and volunteer program director J.D. Perry has so far programmed more than 800 of them into the station’s computer system.

When the station’s small recording studio is finished in the next few weeks, church leaders plan to produce local programming such as interviews and talk-shows, French said. They will also simulcast the church’s Sunday morning worship service and “stream” it on the Internet.

Money for the station’s initial funding, such as filing for government permits and paying attorneys, came from the family of now-deceased, longtime church member Dr. Richard Englerth.

French said Jefferson Baptist applied for the FCC license in 2000, but paperwork delays and Hurricane Katrina postponed the project until this year.

The station’s building, transmitter, antenna and other equipment cost around $100,000, French said, and it has all been paid for by church members. “We’re debt free,” he said.

Elephant Media of California, a Christian company specializing in low-power radio stations, provided all the equipment. John Boyd, Elephant Media’s owner, came to Baton Rouge in mid-July to install it. His voice can be heard on some of the station’s identification spots, but French plans to add local volunteers’ voices for public service announcements and programming.

The station is outfitted with a back-up transmitter and generator and is connected to the Emergency Broadcast System and other emergency communication systems, French said. “If a hurricane knocks the power out we’ll still be on the air to let listeners know what is happening.”

The church plans to eventually add remote broadcasting equipment so it can broadcast local activities such as school sporting events.

Democrats propose return to censorship

In the USA, leading Democrats have indicated they want to reinstate the Fairness Doctrine – a 1949 policy that once required broadcasters to offer airtime to opposing viewpoints concerning controversial issues of public importance.

A White House adviser yesterday announced that President Bush would veto such legislation if it reached his desk.

Allan B. Hubbard, assistant to the president for economic policy and director of the National Economic Council, issued a letter indicating the president's position. He recalled that the FCC dropped the Fairness Doctrine in 1987, largely because of the explosion of outlets for information. "Since then, the multiplicity of voices has significantly increased and the case for the Fairness Doctrine is weaker than ever," Hubbard wrote in the letter. "Reinstating the Fairness Doctrine would muzzle political debate and free speech."

Ashley Horne, federal policy analyst for Focus on the Family Action, said it should really be called the "Un-Fairness Doctrine." "It would amount to government censorship of the airwaves," she said. "The government simply has no business dictating radio content."

Christian radio is a prime example. If a program offered a biblical perspective on homosexuality, stations would be compelled to offer airtime to a voice from a pro-gay point of view.

When the Fairness Doctrine was in effect, many broadcast outlets – especially Christian radio stations – chose not to air issues programming, thereby avoiding the restrictions. Horne said it is very likely the same thing would happen again. "Christian stations would simply refuse to discuss the important issues that we need to hear," she said. "This is simply a liberal scheme to silence the conservative viewpoint."

Craig Parshall, spokesman for National Religious Broadcasters, called the veto announcement a "very positive sign from the White House." "If you are a Christian broadcaster," he said, "you have the right and the high privilege to be able to broadcast the truth and to be able to do so in a way that is relatively unfettered."


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