RELIGIOUS
FREEDOM
The
Battle for the Airwaves of Britain
By
Dan Wooding
Assist News Service
CBN.com
-- NASHVILLE, TN (ANS) -- American religious broadcasters have been asked
to pray for the new Battle of Britain - freedom of the airwaves to Christian broadcasting
in the UK. The plea was made by Peter Kerridge, Managing Director of Premier Radio.
Kerridge said that "today we need not only the help of our supporters in
the UK, we need your help, and the help of your listeners and constituents." He
went on to say, "Most of all, we need prayer support. We know that we're not just
fighting against the British authorities, but actually against much more, and
the only way in which we can combat this is by prayer. "You and your listeners
could also support us financially, which would be a tremendous blessing to the
cause of Christian radio in Great Britain." Kerridge began his talk by
saying that until the Broadcasting Act of 1990, it was illegal for Christians
to even advertise let along broadcast on radio and TV. "But then a number
of Christians lobbied to change that," he said. "Premier launched on June 10th
1995 as the first and only Christian terrestrial station in the UK. The launch
party attracted thousands of people - the event had been longed for and prayed
over for a long time. Many Churches and individuals had given sacrificially to
bring Premier into being, and had dreamed about what it would be like to have
a Christian radio station. We estimated that over 1/4 million people tuned in
over that first weekend. "Unfortunately it became clear that, just 5 months
after the launch, the station was not attracting listeners, advertisers or adequate
funding. All the money invested in Premier when it began had been exhausted, and
the station had borrowings of 1/4 million, which were growing by 100,000 a month.
The audience reach was below 1%, having been over 2% at launch. The trustees initiated
a complete change of the management team, which included initiating a project
to stabilize the financial position. "Programming was key to the rehabilitation
of the station and an early decision was taken to drop secular music and features
and to focus on the only distinctive content possible to the station in the crowded
London radio market - a consistent focus on Christianity. The whole of 1996 was
a struggle - the downsizing, the new music and speech content and the 'stretched
to the limit' financial situation." Kerridge said that although marketing
resources have always been limited, Premier does have the advantage of a loyal
and enthusiastic audience of whom over 90% describe themselves as regular churchgoers.
"Premier has an exceptionally loyal audience - not only do they listen
for 11 hours per week but 7% of them also make gifts to Christian Media Trust,
who own Premier," he continued. "If you were to walk into Premier today,
you would get a very different story from the bleak one of seven years ago. The
station has grown to such an extent that around 400,000 people tune in every week
- 220,000 listen on medium wave, 65,000 on Sky digital, 8,000 via the Internet,
and approximately 30,00 via cable. Premier is the place they turn to for Christian
news, worship, information, teaching and spiritual encouragement. We also broadcast
over the web through www.premier.org.uk. We publish 5 magazines, 4 websites and
operate a telephone help line, Lifeline, which receives approximately 1,400 calls
per week and is one of the top 10 help lines in the UK." Christian Radio
May Die He said that in September, 2001, Premier's license to broadcast
came up for renewal. "We re-applied for the license in January 2002 amid
fears that there appeared to be a trend towards multi-faith broadcasting at the
time," said Kerridge. "In practical terms, this would have meant Premier being
forced to become a station which broadcasted a number of religious points of view,
with for example, an Islamic show from 10am 11am, and then a Christian programme
the following hour, and so on. This caused a lot of contention not only amongst
the Christians in the UK, but also members of other faiths, and at Easter, we
launched a 'Christian Radio May Die' petition campaign, which allowed our regulators
and the government to realize the consequences of discontinuing our license. The
Petition campaign raised a lot of awareness, both from Christians and non-Christians,
and 140,000 showed their support - unfortunately we also came to the attention
of another group who were less enthusiastic. "In the middle of our preparations
on the re-application document, the Radio Authority received several complaints
about us by an organization called the Mysticism and Occult Federation (MOF).
This was a problem in two ways - firstly the nature and timing of their complaints
meant that the chances of the license being re-awarded to us were notably slimmer,
and secondly, the scale of the campaign they launched against us amongst the occult
community threatened Premier spiritually. The MOF were unhappy about a number
of broadcasts on Premier including sermons by Chuck Swindoll, Michael Youseff
and Adrian Rodgers. "The Radio Authority, who enforces the broadcasting
code, judged that these broadcasts were in breach of a section of the code that
refers to the denigration of other faiths; the Authority upheld the complaints
of the MOF, because they claimed that other faiths, including their own had been
abused. We were given a warning judgment and were asked to review our output.
We accepted the conclusions of our regulator and Premier's output was amended
accordingly. This took, and still takes a great deal of time, money and effort,
as it means staff listening to and editing every minute of broadcasting before
it is transmitted. "The whole re-licensing campaign was the beginning of
a learning curve that would prepare us for the times ahead. It heightened our
awareness of the need to be culturally sensitive whilst proclaiming the supremacy
of Christ without compromise - but also without needlessly offending other faith
groups. The campaign also brought attention to the dispute surrounding the right
of reply - the spotlight was suddenly very much on the division between faiths,
and this was also brought to light with September 11th. "The issue of denigration
regarding another's faith position is a matter of huge concern in the UK. As a
Christian broadcaster we walk a fine line as we endeavor to uphold the truths
of the gospel whilst respecting others who may not share our beliefs. The format
of Christian speech radio is particularly problematic in this regard. A sermon
is not a debate, an interview - both of which gives opportunities for a different
point of view. "The issue comes with the right to reply to arguments against
a person's faith expressed in the context of a sermon - put simply, if we aired
a view that differed from someone else's, they have the right to broadcast their
view in reply on Premier. For example a sermon criticizing witchcraft explicitly
will (whose followers are recognized as holding a legitimate belief system), call
for a right of reply on the station. So we are left with a question; Do we as
a Christian broadcaster wish to offer broadcast time to the occult? "This
is the broadcasting regime we operate under and, I would suggest, could, in some
form or other, be coming to the U.S. You have freedom of speech - but what happens
when freedoms collide?" Kerridge said that thankfully, the Radio Authority
re-awarded the license to Premier in March 2002, and a short while afterwards
removed the warning judgment that had been hanging over them as a result of the
complaints by the MOF. Then in September Premier moved offices, and this as well
as the relicensing, gave them the opportunity to "re-brand" and launch a new Premier
with a greater emphasis on testimonies and Christian commentary on the news, more
teaching, and more worship music. New Challenge "We entered
2003 with a new vision to take Christian radio stations to the rest of the United
Kingdom and immediately in the New Year we were faced with a new challenge - The
Communications Bill of 2003 states that religious people or organizations are
the only group who are not permitted by right to hold broadcasting licenses, i.e.,
'You are a disqualified person who may be allowed a license at the discretion
of the authorities', which is our position today," he said. "So under this proposed
law, you can apply to own a station by right if you're the publisher of Playboy
but not if you're Billy Graham. We believe we must resist this law, and fight
not only to stay on the air in London, but also to maintain our vision to spread
the Gospel over the rest of the UK. As Jesus said in Matthew chapter 10, we need
to be 'as wise as serpents, as harmless as doves.' "It's very much a case
of David and Goliath - as a small and relatively young radio station, we are faced
with a seemingly immovable governmental authority. On the other hand, the British
church sees us as an invaluable communication tool; ministry to the Church, as
well as an outreach to unbelievers. We have a battle ahead, and not much time
to plead our case and influence this legislation. This Bill will likely be voted
on in Parliament by March. We are continuing in our plans to launch new stations
across the UK, mobilizing Christians, influencing public opinion and responding
to the demand for Christian radio in every area of the country. "We work
closely with the church and have seen numerous examples of church growth from
people who partner with us. Our mandate is to be a Christian voice in the public
arena; a Christian conscience in an increasingly secular and multi-faith society."
Kerridge said that KMA of Dallas, Texas, had helped produce a brochure
that explains more about this battle with the British Government and has also
produced a CD with 30 second PSA spots so US listeners "can pray and support us
as God may lead them." Although Premier Radio is the only station in the
UK with a license to broadcast over the airwaves of the country, UCB Europe, based
in Stoke-on-Trent also broadcasts Christian programming via satellite and the
Internet with four channels to the UK and much of Western Europe. UCB Europe is
part of UCB International, which is headquartered in Auckland, New Zealand.
More
from Assist New Service Assist News Service is brought to you in part
by Open Doors USA, a ministry that has served the Suffering Church around the
world for nearly 50 years. You can get more information by logging onto their
website at www.opendoorsusa.org
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