KJCR Spins Family Friendly Tunes

by Glen Robinson, KJCR manager, and associate professor of communication & Alexis Franklin ,junior communication major (posted 4/12/04)

 

 

            Southwestern Adventist University’s radio station,  88.3 KJCR,  has just celebrated its 30th anniversary.  Alums, who were DJs as early as 1974, visited the station recently during Homecoming weekend. Since its founding, the station has been sharing the good news of Jesus Christ, representing SWAU to the community, and training  Christian broadcasters.  Many of the former KJCR staff work as broadcasters for various stations around the world, some in Seventh-day Adventist stations.

KJCR’s play list includes music, short educational and ministerial programs, and sermons on Sabbath and Sunday. KJCR is a Christian outreach medium that is not limited to Adventists. “We have always put the focus on music instead of sermons, because sometimes music reaches people in ways that sermons do not,” said Glen Robinson, general manager of KJCR and associate professor of communication.

Keene resident Steve Cavender, who worked at KJCR from 1974 to 1975, was the first student on-air at Southwestern. Cavender was a broadcasting minor, and especially enjoyed the technical aspects of the student-run station, and did a fair amount of production.

KJCR’s broadcasting capabilities have advanced with the times. Jason Mustard, was a KJCR employee from 1996 to 2001. “We changed everything while I was here,” said Mustard. “In my first training session, I learned how to play records, and choose the music using a rotation ‘clock’ that was posted on the wall.” By the time Mustard left the station, turntables and reel-to-reel tape recorders were history, and everything had gone digital.  “Now the signal is so much stronger, and you can pick the station up all over the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex,” said Randy Yates, student DJ from 1984-1985

KJCR is run almost entirely by students. “The work experience is something I can put on my resume to help me get a job in the career world someday,” said Kristina Pascual, promotions director of KJCR and a sophomore broadcasting major. The student workers not only gain valuable work experience, they also receive a blessing through the music they promote. I definitely gained a blessing working here,” said Kevin Greer, a DJ at KJCR and a senior communication major student at Southwestern. “I see that we are touching lives and helping people to receive a blessing.”       

            Often, Christian radio is overlooked by Christians as an effective ministry. But KJCR has seen first hand, the way music can encourage people and draw them closer to Christ. Each year during Sharathon, we hear many testimonies of how the music has blessed people’s lives. “People’s lives are touched through songs, Bible verses, and through the words that we are able to speak to them,” said Ben McPhaull, the Program Director at KJCR and a theology student.

            “When people call in to say they were lifted up by the music, or something said, I can’t help but get a blessing as well,” said Ethan Tatum, PSA director and senior journalism major. “In this world that changes so rapidly and violently I’m glad that God has provided a venue through Christian radio to keep people focused on Christ,” said Mike Holland, a listener who is pastor of the Warehouse 413 Christian Fellowship church in Cleburne, Texas.

 

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