A Topic of Conversation : Christian radio, the domain of canned sermons and soft music, has begun to adopt the sometimes volatile news/talk format.

The topic that day dealt as always with the Bible, but this time, Christian talk radio host Rich Agozino veered into a controversy.

During his regular afternoon show, “Crosstalk,” on KBRT-AM (740) in Costa Mesa, he had wondered aloud, citing biblical law, whether homosexuality should be a crime punishable by death.

To Agozino, who has been on the air for five months, the backlash from gay- and civil-rights advocates must have come as a surprise. (He declined to comment for this story.) The topic of the Aug. 29 broadcast--biblical teachings on homosexuality and adultery--probably would not have fazed the audience he had addressed for 25 years as a pastor. But now he’s a radio talk show host, and the rules of engagement are different.

Was it “hate radio” or the word of God?

It’s a question Christian radio will continue to confront as stations shift from traditional canned sermons and music to talk shows, heeding a 1997 Billboard/Airplay Monitor figure that ranks news/talk the most popular format in the country. Though news/talk now accounts for only 11% of Christian programming, it’s slowly expanding, partly through the voices of conservative political commentator Jane Chastain, also on KBRT, Warren Duffy of KKLA-FM (99.5) and Christian talk pioneer Rich Buhler.

“The days of [Christian] talk radio where your local preacher buys some air time and gets on there and rants and raves is almost over,” said Michael Listermann, president of Cincinnati, Ohio-based Soma Communications, a consulting firm for Christian radio advertisers. “This is as interesting as [National Public Radio] and probably drawing more people.”

Almost 1,650 religious stations operate in this country, according to the National Religious Broadcasters. Of the eight Christian stations in Los Angeles and Orange County, several stick to preaching and popular music, including Calvary Chapel’s KWVE-FM (107.9). As providers of dialogue and political content, two others stand out: KBRT, one of 25 stations owned by Crawford Broadcasting of Blue Bell, Pa., and KKLA-FM (99.5) in Glendale.

On both stations, local input is mostly confined to weekday afternoons, with the bulk of the day devoted to “block programming”--syndicated sermons and the radio equivalent of TV infomercials. Despite its recent growth, news/talk lags behind such programming as Christian Preaching and Teaching (No. 1), which encompasses James Dobson’s widely disseminated “Focus on the Family” segments, Contemporary Christian Music (No. 2) and Southern Gospel (No. 3).

But Christian talk, observers said, speaks to two long-overlooked groups: people eager to discuss issues neglected by their spiritual leaders and political conservatives who believe Rush Limbaugh and other radio hosts skim over important topics such as abortion and school prayer.

“A lot of people in America have the feeling that there is news and information that the mainstream media aren’t giving them,” said KKLA’s Duffy, who broadcasts from Huntington Beach. “Without being a right-wing nut case, a lot of people are looking for an alternative medium, political, social and religious.”

In the wake of the TWA Flight 800 tragedy, for example, most media focused on the cause of the crash. But, Duffy said, his “Live From L.A.” show interviewed the airport chaplain who counseled the victims’ grieving family members, latching onto the religious aspect of the story.

“Our aim should be to ask, ‘What does the Bible mean and what does it say about our daily lives?’ ” said KBRT station manager Ed Personius, defining the mandate of Christian talk. “If we stray from that, we’re wasting air.”

Personius admits his station took a chance on Agozino, who was pastoring a Santa Maria church when plucked from a pool of 50 applicants. In interviews, he had been impressively conversant on issues compelling to Christians.

“I really looked for someone who understood the word of God, the Bible,” Personius said. “Head pastors wouldn’t have been right because they’re used to one-way communication.”

On the air, Agozino avoids the strident tone of some preachers. He usually takes the role of facilitator, asking questions of guests and callers. Topics rarely gravitate to the politically white-hot; he recently spent several shows exploring whether Mary should be considered a co-Redeemer.

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If not for the Aug. 29 broadcast, Agozino’s name would still be unfamiliar in secular circles. But according to excerpts from a transcript published in the Blade, a monthly magazine for gays and lesbians, he said: “You know, last week we talked about approaching our elected officials and telling them that God said that adultery was a capital crime and was worthy of death. . . . Lesbian love, sodomy are viewed by God as being detestable and abominable. . . . Civil magistrates are to put people to death who practice these things. That’s what God said. I’m very serious. . . . “

Rusty Kennedy, executive director of the nonprofit Orange County Human Relations Commission, fired off a letter of complaint to KBRT’s parent, Crawford Broadcasting. Kennedy says Agozino called to invite him on the show, but “I was not interested in being a part of his three-ring circus.

“Maybe Rich Agozino isn’t going to go out and kill anyone who’s gay and lesbian, but there are some people out there who will feel newly empowered by his incantations.”

Personius doesn’t dispute press accounts of Agozino’s comments. But, he said, the statements have been taken out of context. His host was “querying Christians on what the word of God says” about homosexuality,” not urging them to act.

The flap is ironic, said Rich Buhler, who hosted the interactive “Talk From the Heart” on KBRT in the 1980s, because Agozino is usually the opposite of controversial--he’s boring. The program is pleasant,” he said, “but I don’t think it’s very stimulating.”

Buhler now produces and syndicates Christian radio programming through his company, Branches Communications, in Orange. He spent much of his career in local news radio, working as a writer and editor at KFWB and KNX in Los Angeles before becoming a minister in the late 1970s. Buhler then decided to twin his interests.

“There was a void in terms of aggressive Christian talk radio,” he said. “[‘Talk From the Heart’] was done by Christians for Christians, but we tried to reach as broad an audience as possible. My model for the program was [KABC’s] Michael Jackson, in terms of engaging people in dialogue. The purpose of his program is not to hammer his opinion on you.”

Among Buhler’s guests was the founder of the Metropolitan Community Church, a national gay organization. “I didn’t feel the people who disagreed with me were evil,” he said.

While Buhler and Agozino are ministerial broadcasters, Duffy and Chastain fall into the category of Christian conservative political commentary. KBRT’s Chastain, a former TV sports reporter, broadcasts from a remote location “east of Los Angeles” that she declines to divulge.

“My national show could be lifted out of Christian radio and put into secular radio,” she said.

Indeed, her demagogic style is a lot like Limbaugh’s. The show, now in 18 markets, is geared toward urging listeners to influence their legislators on everything from national educational testing to campaign-finance reform. She’s filling a void, she said, left by Republican leaders “who haven’t stood firm on social and economic issues.”

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Duffy also came to Christian radio after a long career as a secular broadcaster. He spent decades in Top 40 radio, working as program director at then-rock station KMET (94.7 FM) in Los Angeles in the early 1970s.

In 1980, Duffy said, he found Christianity after battling cocaine addiction. He left radio and went to work as a public-relations operative for the Rev. Robert Schuller and his Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove. Later, Duffy became a pastor and founded a church on Kauai, Hawaii, according to his press biography--a narrative in which he eventually returns to the broadcast booth spiritually renourished.

Shortly after Duffy hit the air with “Live From L.A.” on KKLA in 1994, callers began complaining that Disneyland had held an annual “Gay Day” without warning visitors. Soon, the radio host was blasting Disney on air for everything from its rap music label to its publishing arm, Hyperion, which had put out a gay travel guide and transvestite RuPaul’s biography. The campaign gathered steam, Duffy said, and culminated in a march on the Disney offices.

“There’s a certain disaffectedness out there, especially in California politics,” he said. “To have a 10,000-person [church] congregation in Southern California is not much of an oddity anymore. And yet these same people are represented in the Senate by two very liberal ladies [Democrats Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein] who don’t reflect their values.”

Because paid block programming makes Christian stations less dependent on traditional advertisers, most don’t subscribe to Arbitron, the Nielsen ratings of radio. Without Arbitron, it is difficult to measure an audience.

KBRT’s Personius jokingly puts his numbers at “anywhere from 30 to 1 million people.” Duane Patterson, executive producer of “Live From L.A,” said Duffy gets up to 250 callers during his four-hour show, especially if he’s giving something away, such as tickets to the Christian Coalition “Road to Victory Tour” banquet.

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So how do the stations determine who’s listening?

By asking long-term advertisers, which on KBRT include an Orange County bankruptcy law firm, a dentist and a retail chain called Christian Discount Bookcenters, Personius said. Listeners range in age from young adult to elderly, he added, but most fall between 30 and 55.

They may not know exactly who’s tuned in, but KBRT and KKLA boast strong signals that reach down to San Diego and up to Santa Barbara. Buhler even recalls getting letters from an Arizona penitentiary inmate who could pick up “Talk From the Heart.”

“I’ll tell you this, I never experienced the visibility, even outside the Christian community, as when I did that show,” Buhler said. “Maybe they weren’t all listeners, but they were certainly eavesdroppers.”