10,000 Broadcasts on National Radio Day
The other day, a young mother at my church found herself explaining what a radio was to her preschool boys: “It’s a little like Alexa, except it mainly played music.”
File that under things we never thought we’d have to explain, right? (I’m sure when the boys get older, she’ll add in listening to the Joni and Friends radio program)! Our options for listening to music and other audio messages have grown exponentially. Every few weeks, I hear about another app or smart-home device that people are using to catch their favorite tunes. But even with all the new choices, there is something unique about the “community” in radio listening… it’s something to celebrate on this National Radio Day.
It’s especially meaningful because all this month, I’m celebrating the airing of my 10,000th radio broadcast!
Back when I first started recording radio programs in 1982, I thought I would run out of things to say after a month. I remember writing eight radio scripts, and thinking, “Wow, I’ve done so many!” And now, here we are at 10,000!
What can I say except that God has been so faithful to teach me fresh insights on how his Word applies to my life—insights that I share with my radio listeners. Sometimes I feel like the poor widow who came to the prophet Elisha with nothing but a flask of oil.
In 2 Kings, we read how Elisha told her to gather as many containers as she could, and keep pouring oil from her small flask until all of the containers were filled.
It was just a little flask, but it filled many jars. And that’s what has happened over all these years. I have taken the little I have and poured it out. But in the pouring, I have seen God fill so many vessels.
Oh, I can’t say how many people have been “filled up” by listening to the Joni and Friends Radio broadcast, but each time I wheel into the recording studio at Joni and Friends, I pass a map that shows each of the 616 outlets across the US that air my four-minute broadcast. And many of those are then aired on relay stations that take the messages into an even wider circle of listeners.
It’s the same way with the one-minute Diamonds in the Dust and the translated 4-minute broadcast “Joni y Amigos” on Spanish language stations. That map reminds me of the cities and towns where people tune in to hear what God’s been teaching me. You can imagine how humbled I feel when I see a note from a radio listener. Thank you Lord, I will think, people really are being filled up! And what’s more? I consider each comment as from a friend.
Radio has been a marvelous outreach for Joni and Friends, not just here in the United States, but around the world.
The “Joni y Amigos” programs air internationally, as do programs translated into Chinese and Romanian! It’s just one more thing we’re celebrating this month and today on National Radio Day.
Hey, if you are one of those friends who tune in on a local radio station, would you thank your station manager for airing the Joni and Friends broadcast? And we’d love to hear from you, too. Let us know what radio station you hear me on. And if you stream it on your Alexa? Well, we’d like to hear that, too!
–Joni Eareckson Tada
Listen to Joni’s Radio Program
Be inspired through our 4-minute or 1-minute radio programs. Your soul will be lifted up and your faith strengthened no matter what trials you may be facing today!
