Have you heard the news? After 175 years of reading the news, Alabama Baptists can now hear the news.
Through partnerships between The Alabama Baptist (TAB); WXJC radio, a Birmingham-based Christian radio station; and Square Core Media, listeners can now hear news of interest in two ways. Listeners can tune into WXJC—The Truth every Saturday at noon (CST) to hear “TAB News” by turning on the local radio station or using the live link at 850wxjc.com. Listeners also can find the podcast version of “TAB News” every Tuesday, beginning Sept. 4 at thealabamabaptist.org. The podcast will offer the radio show plus an expanded audio digest of the paper.
Radio broadcast
“TAB News,” the 30-minute WXJC radio program that launched June 9, takes a “deeper dive into some of the conversations taking place not only in Baptist life but in the Christian community in general,” said Jennifer Davis Rash, TAB editor-elect. As program host, Rash interviews a variety of guests who share on topics such as using community gardens in missions and ministry, prepping your congregation for an active shooter event and women discerning their call to ministry.
Local programming, such as “TAB News,” “is the beauty of radio,” said Brett Larson, general manager of Crawford Publishing which owns WXJC. “In a more generic, big box, broad, widespread world that we live in right now, people are craving local. They want local information, and they want to know how God is working in their community because we are still people who crave community.”
Before 10 episodes of “TAB News” had aired, listeners were “buying into the program — to the point of calling in and wanting details on what they’ve heard,” said Mickey Bell, operations manager for WXJC. “A lot of shows go a year without getting that.”
Radio, said Larson, is the “original social media. It’s a community — beyond even social media — because it’s live and interactive. It’s in the moment. That’s the magic of radio — it’s in the moment — and it’s fleeting so it creates an urgency.”
Local radio creates a connection between talk show hosts and listeners, he said. “It’s a great connection, a closer connection than we even understand.”
WXJC reaches much of north Alabama, but if listeners are unable to access the radio station, they also can listen to the broadcast live at http://player.listenlive.co/42671.
Podcast
The TAB News podcast debuted on Sunday, Aug. 19, which was Read The Alabama Baptist Day. The podcast will include an edited version of each week’s most recent radio program as well as a reading of major stories to be published in the upcoming TAB. Tuesday, Sept. 4, will mark the podcast’s weekly release at noon. In addition to its availability on the TAB website, the podcast also will be available on other online sources where listeners typically listen to podcasts, such as iTunes and Stitcher.
“It’s important to us at TAB to provide our content in as many ways as needed to get to all Alabama Baptists,” said Rash. Many who are interested in TAB content may be unable to read newsprint or have limited time, she explained, “so an audio version will better serve their needs.”
The editor-elect envisions the podcast expanding TAB’s reach “to a national and even global community.”
Partnership: A God thing
The partnership between TAB and WXJC, said both Rash and Bell, is a “God-thing.” Bell said he “reached out to TAB” because he knew that TAB and WXJC were serving essentially the same base of newspaper subscribers and radio listeners. He wanted to launch a program that would “speak to the issues” in the Christian faith world. As pastor of Grace Church in Bessemer, Bell is familiar with TAB and knew the paper’s staff is already doing such coverage. “I didn’t need to re-create the wheel,” he said, but rather “just tap into someone who already is doing a great job in covering” those issues.
“We were both thinking independently to broaden our audience reach. He filled a need that I had, and we have been able to bring some new content to their station,” Rash said.
Rash had been planning for some time to launch a podcast but needed a recording studio and producer to make it happen. WXJC provided the studio and radio show producer and Square Core Media provided the podcast producer and editor, Christian Piatt.
“I am excited about the opportunity to produce the first podcast by The Alabama Baptist,” Piatt said.
In today’s world of social media and online instant news, some print publications are struggling just to stay alive.
For TAB, the new radio show and podcast are breathing new life into the 175-year-old print publication as the new media expands the paper’s audience base, potentially reaching beyond Alabama Baptists, Rash said.
Even as Rash leads the TAB staff to put together each week’s print paper, she is looking at the headlines and deciding which stories will be included in the podcast and which story ideas might lend themselves to the “TAB News” radio program.
“I’m beginning to think more linear with all of our coverage so that it’s more multi-media,” she said.
The radio program and podcast are “allowing TAB to keep their 175-year tradition intact and reach more people with their work,” said Bell.
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