Catholic Radio in West Michigan

[Feature/writer]

In March I dropped in for a visit to WVHF-AM (1140) in Grand Rapids.
It's called Holy Family Radio – Catholic radio for West Michigan .
The station was wrapping up its spring on-air pledge drive in its newly-located studios – the second floor of the Sun Title building on Plainfield Ave NE in GR's Creston neighborhood,.
Holy Family Radio has low power FM frequency affiliates in Grand Rapids (98.3) Battle Creek (89.7) and Kalamazoo (91.5) (the 1140AM frequency is daytime only).
The Catholic talk-formatted station took to the airwaves in 2010, after purchasing the 1140 frequency license from the former WJNZ-AM.
One of the early general managers was former WOOD-TV news anchor Larry Nienhuis.
Most of their programming is from the ETWN and AvaMaria radio networks.
Holy Family Radio is listener supported, and is not owned or operated by any area Catholic church or diocese. The executive director is Vince Gale, while Jim Thorndill, who has the religious title of Deacon in the Catholic church, is the development director.
Certainly the West Michigan radio market has a greater number of Christian radio outlets than most others. It's sometimes hard to keep track of them all. But .I think this particular station is too easily overlooked among them....

[cckadlec]

Don't forget that 103.9 Ludington - also an LP signal - is an affiliate too and IDs with Holy Family Radio and WVHF-AM.

[ChrisWL1980]

I really wish Catholic radio offered more in terms of variety than "blah blah blah blah Abortion is evil blah blah blah blah Evil LGBTQ+ agenda blah blah blah blah Pope Francis is too woke" etc. It just comes off as a slightly "gentler" version of typical right-wing talk radio, and for me it gets tiring fast. Catholic stations like KLUX in Corpus Christi, KHOY in Laredo and WJMJ in Hartford program music formats that likely appeal to the same 70-something church ladies that support the talk and teaching, and frankly I'm surprised more Catholic stations don't try a similar approach. Some, like Spirit 90.5 in Tampa, even play Contemporary Christian music. Obviously that genre is saturated in West Michigan and other markets where Catholic stations exist, but I think a music format similar to KLUX/KHOY/WJMJ, even if on a part-time basis, would be a true breath of fresh air in Christian radio, and could even attract listeners who wouldn't otherwise listen to a Christian radio station. It'll never happen, I know, but I can dream.

[Feature/writer]

Agreed, ChrisWL1980, but there aren't many resources for a local station to take on a bunch of air staff to do locally produced programming (just like most mainstream stations). And I'm not sure what network sources exist for that type of air-fare. (I'll have to check out Spirit 90.5 in Tampa).
I wish they would at least do a music segment with contemporary Catholic artists featuring songs from artists such as Matt Maher (although I have heard interview shows with such types... and Maher gets music on a wealth of other Christian stations). Or perhaps interviews with local church music leaders?
The network-originated "Catholic Answers" program gets a surprising amount of "curious Protestant" callers about this or that item in Catholic teaching, etc. But the station is so thoroughly Catholic ("Saint of the Day" and numerous reports from The Vatican, for example), that it's a bit tedious for the average non-Catholic listener.

[Graham Wellington]

I really wish Catholic radio offered more in terms of variety than "blah blah blah blah Abortion is evil blah blah blah blah Evil LGBTQ+ agenda blah blah blah blah Pope Francis is too woke" etc.

Unfortunately EWTN embraces Church Lady radio and too often gets stuck in culture war mode. Church Ladies are addicted to being offended and scared, and will send in big donations to keep their fix coming.

Teresa Tomeo's show is ultimate Church Lady radio. Constant scary topics spoken in a Karen delivery.