Has Video Killed the Radio Star?

Or how we came to ignore Tik-Tok in favour of DAB! Neil Hook describes life on air

Every Sunday morning the Revd Sophie Whitmarsh and I broadcast to well over two thousand people from Studio Two of Pure West Radio in Haverfordwest. Listeners online across the world and throughout Pembrokeshire, Carmarthenshire and Ceredigion listen in their cars, in their kitchens, on their smart devices, via apps on their phone and even on a normal radio!

We began the journey to becoming ‘disc jockeys’ three years ago when our local independent online radio station Pure West Radio was looking for pair of presenters who might take over the existing Sunday morning hour of religious broadcasting between 8 and 9 am.

We were invited in to be interviewed and to broadcast a trial show. From that point on things have really exploded! We have been invited to have regular slots, every Tuesday and Thursday on the Breakfast Show, and to regularly participate in outside broadcasts.

When it comes to exercising a Christian radio ministry, we must be very careful that we pitch it correctly, especially because we are broadcasting on a commercial local radio station. Not only are we responsible to the listeners, to our co-presenters and the other members of the Pure West Radio family but also to the advertisers as well. Only recently Pure West Radio was granted a DAB licence and now broadcasts on five transmitters across Wales. This means we fall clearly within the remit of OFCOM and there are clear rules and regulations that we must adhere to.

Whilst undoubtedly our aim is to deliver access to Christian teaching through music and talk to a wider audience, we try to do so less in a didactic way but more in a way that models what living a complicated Christian life might be like. That includes the delicate balance between humour and seriousness, evangelism and proselytism, and not assuming any basic Christian literacy whilst not talking down to any of our listeners who are part of a religious community.

We are very privileged to reach a large audience across a wide geographical area, in particular people who might not regularly attend church services, perhaps because they’re unchurched, de churched, or because their own personal circumstances. They may even be housebound or not able to access a local faith community.