Church on the Way Launches Radio Station Offering Ministry, Music

Adding another facet to its mega-church status, the Church on the Way in Van Nuys has launched its own radio station, the first of what church leaders hope will be a network of low-power Christian stations.

The 8,900-member Pentecostal church is one of the relatively few congregations in the country with that distinction.

Only about 2% of the 1,648 religious radio stations in the United States are owned by individual churches, according to the Virginia-based National Religious Broadcasters.

Another church-related station in Southern California is Calvary Chapel’s KWVE-FM in Costa Mesa.

The Federal Communications Commission gave approval this month for Church on the Way to begin broadcasting on KTLW-FM, which is at 88.9 in the Antelope Valley and at 91.9 in parts of the Santa Clarita, San Fernando and Simi valleys.

The 24-hour music-preaching-and-teaching radio station, which began broadcasting July 4, will air recorded greetings to KTLW from various pastors and run the programs of the Rev. John MacArthur, who leads another San Fernando Valley mega-church, said the Rev. Gary C. Curtis, executive vice president of Church on the Way’s Living Way Ministries.

“We think we will have a friendly relationship with other churches and that people will not feel like they’re being overwhelmed by the Church on the Way,” Curtis said.

MacArthur has roundly criticized Pentecostal beliefs and practices--which include speaking in tongues, healing and prophecy--in his books and sermons. His programs will air on Saturdays and Sundays on KTLW.

Some people “would think his theology and ours would not blend, but we are looking forward to being good neighbors,” Curtis said.

Other voices--among them evangelist Billy Graham, Bishop Charles Blake of the West Angeles Church of God in Christ and the Promise Keepers men-only movement--will be heard, along with several church services from Church on the Way.

Church on the Way’s Sunday morning service already is broadcast live on a dozen stations, and an edited 30-minute version of that service airs on another 150 U.S. stations.

Curtis said the church saw an opportunity five years ago for expanding its local and national influence when the FCC made changes to allow noncommercial radio stations to retransmit programming by means of satellite to low-power translators across the country. The translators pick up satellite feeds from a home station and broadcast them over small areas.

The radio ministry anticipates a relatively low yearly budget of $150,000 because of the small staff needed. “We expect it to be a listener-supported station with some underwriting from local businesses,” Curtis said.

Unlike the dominant Christian station in the San Fernando Valley area, Glendale-based KKLA-FM 99.5, which carries mostly talk shows and programs, Church on the Way’s KTLW will air plenty of music. Curtis described the offerings as contemporary-inspirational, aimed at listeners 25 to 55.

Another Christian music station heard in parts of Los Angeles is KFSG-FM, which is operated by the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel, the parent denomination of Church on the Way. But Curtis said no rivalry is brewing. KFSG targets a younger audience with its music. “Our music will be more mellow,” he said.

KFSG was founded in radio’s pioneer days by evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson at Angelus Temple in Echo Park. It was more common for large churches to have stations then; the fundamentalist Church of the Open Door in downtown Los Angeles and Pasadena First Presbyterian Church had them.

And “Fighting Bob” Schuler --no relation to the Rev. Robert Schuller of the Crystal Cathedral in Orange County--had a running radio feud with “Sister Aimee” 70 years ago from his downtown Los Angeles Methodist pulpit and radio station.

Those doctrinal and evangelistic turf battles are rare today.

Church on the Way’s station will air twice daily the devotional messages of KFSG’s John Holland, the president of the Foursquare denomination, and KFSG will continue to carry a program by the Rev. Jack Hayford, senior pastor of Church on the Way.

Hayford’s church has put its stamp on numerous religious initiatives in the 1990s. This year, the church raised more than $100,000 to take over maintenance of the lighted Hollywood cross near the Hollywood Bowl and also announced that next year it will open the first West Coast seminary run by Pentecostal Christians.

Several years ago, Church on the Way formed the California affiliate of the politically oriented Christian Coalition. Hayford and the church also have been the movers behind a citywide pastors fellowship and this year’s regional National Day of Prayer observance.

church leaders hope to eventually set up a nationwide radio network.

“By September, we’ll start up a low-power translator in Frazier Park, and we’re studying other sites in New England and Alaska,” Curtis said.