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By Tom Burke
Catholic San Francisco
Easy listening radio took a new turn Dec. 10 when Immaculate
Heart Radio signed on as owners and producers of San Francisco’s
1260 AM frequency — formerly KOIT and now KSFB.
“This Bay Area project could not have succeeded without the blessing
and support of Archbishop George Niederauer and Oakland’s Bishop
Allen Vigneron,” said Doug Sherman, who founded Immaculate Heart
Radio in Reno in 1997.
Sherman, a homebuilder by profession, took out a loan to buy “the
least expensive station I could find,” after he and his family attended
World Youth Day in 1993. The next step was a fundraising letter sent with
the assistance and signature of well-known faith-related author and broadcaster,
Scott Hahn.
“We mailed it out across the country and received donations from
every state in the union plus Guam and Puerto Rico,” Sherman said.
Contributions paid for the station and “helped ignite the fire of
Catholic radio across the country,” he said.
IHR purchased the San Francisco station from Bonneville Broadcasting,
an entity of the Mormon Church, for $15 million. About $11 million in
pledges and cash has already been raised, Sherman said.
Hahn hosts a regular show on IHR and will be part of the Bay Area line-up,
Sherman said. Other programming for the 24-hour station includes includes
Father Frank Pavone of Priests for Life and Franciscan Father Benedict
Groeschel, known for his work on the Eternal Word Television Network.
Sherman said the inaugural IHR station in Reno was “the seventh
Catholic radio station in the country” noting the number today is
closer to 150. IHR broadcasts from 20 outlets in California, New Mexico
and Nevada.
IHR programming is “primarily catechetical, devotional and inspirational”
and follows a Vatican II directive “to evangelize” and call
“all members of the Church to use radio” to that effect, according
to its mission statement.
“IHR declares an absolute faithfulness to the Holy Father and the
bishops in union with him. We are bound to accurately and fully transmit
the faith as proposed by the teaching authority of the Church.”
Sherman said “many good sources of Catholic programming” exist
and that IHR is “very close to Ave Maria Radio in Michigan and Catholic
Answers Live in San Diego.”
The network’s main production studio is in Reno and IHR expects
to build a local studio in the Bay Area. Sherman said that whenever he
starts a new station, he offers an hour a day for free to the local bishops.
Immaculate Heart Radio is entirely listener-supported by donations and
business sponsorships. “We try to develop good relationships at
the parish level where our potential audience is,” Sherman said.
“We offer to support all parish and diocesan events with free public
service announcements.”
The Immaculate Heart Radio website is www.ihradio.org.
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