Third Way Media

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New Mennonite Radio Program Launches Jan. 2

HARRISONBURG, Va. (Mennonite Mission Network) – Shaping Families, a new 15-minute weekly radio program will launch January 2, 2010, on at least one set of stations in eastern Pennsylvania, and tentatively also on stations in California, North Carolina, Ohio and Virginia.

In contacts with radio stations and across the church, various persons asked for a Mennonite voice on radio and particularly a voice focusing on family issues and Mennonite perspectives.

The main focus of the program will be in-depth interviews with persons sharing their stories of grief, mental illness, difficulty over tough parenting issues, surviving the suicide of a loved one, serving others, strength in community, poverty, disaster, divorce, aging, and more.

The first program, “Losing My Son,” features an interview with Barbara Borntrager, author of A Mother Held Hostage, about her son Jon’s difficult journey and too-early death. Barb Borntrager

Burton Buller, director of Third Way Media for Mennonite Mission Network will host the program. Previously he served as host of Connecting Point, a radio program produced by Family Life Network in Winnipeg, Manitoba, where he also worked as director.

The inaugural stations are both in the eastern Pennsylvania and northern New Jersey area: WBYN-AM 1160 at 10 a.m. Saturdays and WCHR-AM 920 at 3:30 p.m. Saturdays.

In addition to interviews, weekly “My Turn” three-minute segments in Shaping Families will feature the following commentators:

Natalie Francisco, co-pastor at Calvary Community Church in Hampton, Va.
Steve Carpenter, conference coordinator for Virginia Mennonite Conference and film and media reviewer for Third Way Café Web site.
Harvey Yoder, licensed professional counselor at Family Life Resource Center, former pastor, and host of “Centerpiece” radio program on three stations.
Rebecca Thatcher Murcia of Akron, Pa. author of 14 historical, biographical, sports, and scientific books for children and young adults.
Sam Heatwole, a freelance voice talent in the Richmond, Va. area who excerpts James G. T. Fairfield’s newest book, Frog Hollow Journal.
Emily Ralph, worship leader for Swamp Mennonite Church, Quakertown, Pa. and a former radio announcer.

Melodie Davis is the program’s producer and co-host. Davis has been a producer/writer for Third Way Media for the past 34 years. She also writes the syndicated newspaper column, Another Way and Heart and Soul (in Mennonite Weekly Review).

“The purpose of the new program is to reach a broader and more consistent audience who we hope will become supporters of the program and its outreach,” notes Buller. “Our mission is to impact and entertain weekend radio listeners with insights to deal with family, personal and spiritual conflicts and dilemmas from a Christian perspective.”

Shaping Families marks the first entry back into radio on a regular basis with a program broadly representing the Mennonite churches through Mennonite Mission Network and Mennonite Church USA. The Mennonite Hour inspirational program went off the air in 1979. The Your Time radio program with Margaret Foth, a Mennonite daily radio program geared to women went off the air in 1987. The Calvary Hour, the longstanding and oldest Mennonite radio program (independent) with Bill and Bob Detweiler, went off the air December 2007.

“I began hearing encouragement to get back into radio almost from my first day on the job for (then) Mennonite Media,” said Buller. “In contacts with radio stations and across the church, various persons asked for a Mennonite voice on radio and particularly a voice focusing on family issues and Mennonite perspectives.”

Buller also noted, “We have many shelves full of tapes of very moving interviews from the documentaries produced in the last nine years” to draw from for the initial programs. The documentaries were only able to use the tip of the iceberg of material.

“We are pleased to be able to share these stories with wider audiences in a more in-depth way,” Buller continued. “This is getting additional mileage out of projects and dollars already invested in mission. We hope Shaping Families will build stronger families, congregations and, very broadly, community,” he adds.

Beginning in January, ShapingFamilies.com will feature host and program blogs, monthly podcast subscriptions, giveaways and promotional items, links to books, DVDs and other resources mentioned, and podcasts of each program. The podcasts (downloadable from ITunes) will feature the full 14:30 minute program as aired on radio stations.

An initial production and distribution grant of $35,000 from Odyssey Networks has provided start-up funding but sponsors need to be found in most areas where the program will air. In some cases, radio stations will air the program as a public service on a free time basis.

Buller said churches can extend their reach into their own communities by purchasing airtime on local stations. Churches may wish to partner with other local churches to cover airtime, which can run between $25-100 per week, depending on the size of the community and station.

“For business owners, sponsorship of this program associates their businesses with a deep concern for the state of the family,” says Buller. “We are searching for a national sponsor that we would recognize on air, and also on our Web sites. We feel there are great advantages for both churches and businesses to become associated with this program.”

Third Way Media program manager, Sheri Hartzler, is actively looking for additional leads for stations, sponsors and churches. For more information, call 800-999-3534 or email .