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AN OPEN LETTER TO FRIENDS WITH QUESTIONS ABOUT WVFA’S PROGRAMMING POLICY
Recently we have received information that some Christian friends in the community do not feel WVFA is worthy of financial support because of what they perceive to be certain deficiencies in our programming. I would like to address those concerns to the best of my ability in a straightforward Christian manner. When WVFA was first conceived in 1998 to fill the void anticipated to be left by the shutdown of WGLV [owned by Family Broadcasting, Inc.], the then-directors of Green Mountain Educational Fellowship attempted to create programming that would meet certain then-unmet needs in the Upper Valley, and to do it on a much more limited budget since excessive overhead relative to available financial resources was part of WGLV’s undoing. Since a cluster of stations operated by Christian Ministries, Inc. [CMI] was already in operation, we determined that WVFA would not air programming that was essentially redundant to that of CMI [now known as the Light Radio Network]; since CMI aired numerous long-form teaching and ministry programs, WVFA decided to air a mostly-music format which was far less labor-intensive. Since ministry programs generally offered market exclusivity, as the “new guy on the block”, WVFA would have had to time-shift any of these programs we aired, which was even more labor-intensive. WVFA initially used the SkyLight Network, which was satellite-fed 23 hours a day and enabled WVFA to run almost entirely automated. We offered hourly AP News and community announcements and very few of the “bells and whistles” we have today! Another reason we didn’t air long-form teaching and ministry programs was that these ministries spent an inordinate amount of airtime soliciting contributions from their listeners, and since WVFA wasn’t charging them to be aired on the station, we didn’t want them competing with us for scarce listener support [WVFA does air short-form ministry programs 1 to 5 minutes in length]. In recent years WVFA has added long-form ministry programs, primarily on weekends. These include the Weekend edition of Focus on the Family, The Gaither Homecoming Hour, Eagle Forum Live, and others. Songtime USA, which formerly aired on weekday mornings as part of our morning drive time, is now aired each weekday morning and night for an hour, seven days a week, with the exception being the weekend edition aired each Sunday for a half hour.
AN EXPLANATION OF WVFA’S MUSIC FORMAT
Some Christian friends decline to support WVFA because they claim our music is mostly “Christian Rock”. Actually, nothing could be further from the truth. WVFA’s format is “Inspirational Middle of the Road” – what this means is that if music styles are rated on a scale of 1 to 5, with “1” representing Traditional Hymns and “5” representing Christian Rock, most of the songs aired on WVFA would be in categories 2, 3, and 4, where 2 = Southern Gospel/Praise & Worship, 3 = Light Christian Contemporary, 4 = Adult Contemporary. WVFA is many things to many people, with approximately a dozen different music mix “clocks” each day. Our more traditional and conservative music airs nightly between 10 PM (11 PM Sat) thru 6 AM. On Saturday morning we air “Southern Gospel Music” between a few programs and three children’s radio shows, later in the day is our specialized “Music for a Saturday Afternoon” which is a mixing of oldies and newer songs, and Saturday night the “Saturday Night Special” is when we play a more upbeat variety to include Christian Rock that’s geared toward our youth but some older folks may like it too! Sunday is a mix of Southern Gospel/Praise & Worship throughout the day between other programs as aired on Saturday being the “Gaither Homecoming Hour”, “The Gospel Greats”, “Songtime USA” and Daughters of Promise as “Daughters Nighttime”.
NOTE: Our program listing is shown below.
Also select the “Program Schedule” tab above for a matrix of the schedule!
WEEKDAYS
6-7 AM Pre-AM drive
7-8 AM Songtime USA
8-9 AM AM Drive
9-12 N Music for Morning
12-2 PM Music at Midday
2-4 PM Music Thru Afternoon
4-7 PM Afternoon Drive
7-8 PM Songtime USA
8-10 PM Music for Evening
10 PM-6 AM Music Through the Night
SATURDAYS
6-7 AM Southern Gospel/Bluegrass
7-8 AM Songtime Prophecy Edition
8-9 AM Gaither Homecoming Hour
9-10 AM Family/Kids’ Programming
10-12 N Southern Gospel Music
12-1 PM Eagle Forum Live (talk)
1-2 PM Focus on the Family (talk)
2-5 PM Music for Saturday Afternoon
5-7 PM The Gospel Greats
7-8 PM Songtime Family Edition
8-8:30 PM Daughters Nighttime
8:30-11 PM Saturday Night Special
11 PM – 6 AM Music Through the Night
SUNDAYS
6-7 AM Sunday Morning Praise
7-7:30 AM Songtime Weekend Edition
7:30-8 AM Unshackled!
8-9 AM Gaither Homecoming.
9-12 N Sunday Morning Praise
12-5 PM Sunday Afternoon Praise
5-7 PM The Gospel Greats
7-7:30 PM Songtime Weekend Edition
7:30-8 PM Unshackled!
8-8:30 PM Daughters Nighttime
8:30-10 PM Sunday Evening Praise (Contemporary)
(NOTE: Occasional Radio Specials Run on Sundays)
10 PM – 6 AM Music Through the Night
Each of the segments listed has a unique music mix tailored to the specific day part and day of the week – The selection and tempo are calculated to reach the audience likely to be listening at that time. The target audience is ages 25-49, but people on both ends of that age span find WVFA’s music mix appeals to them. There are networks offering traditional music (hymns, etc.), but most have contractual stipulations which give them censorship over programs they don’t agree with – such external control violates the FCC rules.