Radio Station

WDTF Two Year Celebration
June 2006

The following is a speech given by our President, Marion Thomas, at the second annual celebration of the implementation of our radio station in Berkeley Springs, West Virginia.  This station is owned and operated by the Defenders of the Faith, Inc. We operate 24 hours per day, seven days per week at 107.9 FM.  We provide the best of Catholic programming, provided free by Relevant Radio.  Reading through the speech you will see how we got started, how it brought many of us together to evangelize, and how we enjoy our mission. It is included in our newsletter in the hope that those who read it may be motivated in starting their own station.  We would be very happy to assist.
Jim Fritz

Marion Thomas
As you know, this dinner tonight is to celebrate our two years of WDTF operation and to thank our many sponsors.  At the completion of our dinner we will have a short meeting of the members of the “Defenders of the Faith, Inc.”

WELCOME TO ALL OUR EVANGELISTS

“Proclaim the good news to all creation” is what we are encouraged to do in Mark’s Gospel.

We need God’s help to do this—let us bow our heads in prayer as we pray before every meeting.    In the name--    Come Holy Spirit---

In the spirit of prayer, let us

• Thank God for the May 2002 e-mail we received from Catholic City.com which stated that there would be made available licenses for low power FM radio stations somewhere in the United States.
• Thank God that a group from Starboard Network agreed to help with the costs and expertise.
• Thank God that there were 5 days left to complete this application.
• Thank God that our group, Defenders of the Faith, was already incorporated.
• Thank God our application was approved and in Berkeley Springs.
• Thank God for sending us the intelligent volunteers to do the necessary work.
• Thank God for those who helped us financially to support our station.
• Thank God that this was how in January 2004 we were able to give birth to our Berkeley Springs Catholic radio station—WDTF at 107.9 FM

WHERE WE ARE NOW:

Our yearly expenses are about $12,000 if we don’t have problems or do some expansion.  These expenses are:

Rent $6,600, Licenses $500, Phone $450, Insurance $261, cost of Defender Newsletter $2,000, Our monthly newsletter which is intended to bring new listeners and increase individual donations is about $1000. This year we have already exceeded our expenses because we had to do considerable remodeling for our own private space, however we had volunteer workers to accomplish this.  We had a transmitter failure.

Fortunately our “angels” rose to the occasion and we are still in the black.  Now we have our own space and a back-up transmitter.

A SHORT HISTORY LESSON:

The Defender founding fathers are:

• Fred Paschall, now in Heaven, was a conservative Catholic genius
• John Burke, with us tonight, is a gladiator and prolific writer
• Jim Fritz, whom God blessed with the most talents and tenacity of all

It is pretty exciting to actually know our founding fathers!

Now for our younger angels--

• Curtis Perry who is our hard-working VP and has lots of clever ideas.
• Kelly Wakelin who is our Treasurer and a very busy Mother
• Susan Mcbee who has creatively worked very hard as Secretary
• Dave Flynn who is the brains behind the computer system
• Carol Ambrose who is station manager and radio host of Across the Kitchen Table
• Alan Jemison who is host of Traditional Music of the Church and commentator and interviewer
• Mary Solsbak who edits The Defender and lives in California
• Bob Ezolt who is master of all trades
• Nancy Ezolt who is Bob’s beloved helper
• Frankie Thomas who is carpenter and hammer-and-saw expert
• Mike Fritz who is jack of all trades.
• Patrick McBee who is a whiz with his computer innovations
• Peg Perry who knew our station would succeed and prays and pays for us

We are also blessed with all of authors who write informative and enlightening articles.

A special thanks to all of these people and to every one who has helped in any way. We know that you will get your rewards in Heaven, but we wanted to mention you tonight.

I want you to note that we have no paid staff or expense accounts.

We are blessed with many volunteers—everyday people with God’s help.

HOWEVER, YOU DO NOT NEED TO LIVE HERE TO WORK FOR OUR STATION. THE TELEPHONE AND COMPUTER KNOW NO BOUNDRIES.  IF YOU HAVE EXPERTISE LISTEN LIKE SAMUEL WHEN GOD CALLED—“SPEAK LORD, YOUR SERVANT IS LISTENING”.

And now a word FOR our Sponsors:

• One of our first sponsors was Maria’ Garden and Inn with Peg’s “fine spaghetti sauce you can’t get until Thursday” (this refers to Harrison Mc Bee’s question because he couldn’t quite understand why she waited so long to serve her spaghetti!!”
• Harry Waddell our lawyer “who is always looking out for you”
• Dr. Paul and Pam Quarantillo whose favorite show is “The Doctor is  In”.
• Mio Ranchito whose “specialty is  chili re-yen-os”
• Tanglewood Hair Salon operated beautifully by Heidi Perry
• S&S Network Consulting who also does our computer maintenance
• Dr. Frank Thomas whose wife hasn’t had time to figure out the ad
• And our latest, Acorns and Oaks where you can find “Quilts and More”

Many thanks to all of our angel sponsors that are not mentioned on the air but contribute on a monthly basis.   We won’t go into names here as most want to remain anonymous.  They range from a lady who mailed in a check for $5 to contributors who have donated several thousand dollars.  They are our special angels and have kept us operational through some trying times.  We love these people as well as the unpaid volunteers and the on-air sponsors and we need to keep them in our prayers.

Plans for future financial achievements:

• Meet future expenses—average $12,000 without repairs or glitches
• Need equipment for public emergency information transmissions
• Would like dual receivers—cost $1700
• Increase list of sponsoring businesses-we need marketing expertise.
• Encourage individual and business donations
• Continue fund-raiser with Finders Key Purse.
• Plans to expand reach of Relevant Radio:
• Attach sign to St. Vincent de Paul church sign.
• Develop increased listener base
• Consider and develop newspaper ads
• Put notices in church bulletins
• Talk to more people about our special blessing radio station
• Motivate listeners
• Motivate volunteers
• Give out T-shirts for surveys as advertisement
• Encourage listening on the Internet 24 hours a day.

IN ADDITION TO ALL OF ALL OF THESE PLANS WE HAVE EXCITING NEWS FOR THE FUTURE—

Tonight we ask every person here to be a committee of one to work with the Holy Spirit with the goal of evangelizing every child of God with whom we come in contact.

Pope John Paul II, in the Splendor of Truth, told us to proclaim the Gospel with an evangelization which must be new in its ardor, methods and expression.  Relevant Radio was part of the answer to his call—and you helped the dream come true.