Rural leader says with local radio gone Christian radio has moved in

Published: 2007-01-16

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (CNS) -- After out-of-town interests bought local commercial radio stations in rural America, evangelical Christian interests obtained broadcast licenses on that part of the FM dial reserved for noncommercial use, according to Dee Davis, president of the Center for Rural Strategies in Whitesburg, Ky. As a result, there are now 2,000 evangelical radio stations in the United States, up 85 percent from 1996, when federal laws were changed to permit greater media concentration, Davis said. "The only format that's larger is country" music, he added. Davis made his comments as a panelist during a workshop on media justice as part of the third National Conference for Media Reform, held Jan. 12-14 in Memphis. "The story of mass media in rural America has been one of abandonment," Davis said. He cited an instance of a weather emergency in North Dakota. Calls were placed to radio stations in Minot, N.D., but nobody answered the phones. Nobody was inside the radio station buildings; the on-air material was being beamed to the stations for broadcast by satellite.

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