Thank you for a successful Sharathon!
“Holy Ground in an Unholy World”
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This year’s Sharathon ran Thursday through Saturday, October 20-22. Times were from 1-10pm Thursday and Friday, and from 9am-10pm Saturday.
Our regular budget goal for this year was $105,000. We were able to raise $96,500 toward this need, and are confident listeners will continue to commit to this need.
Pictures taken during the Sharathon are posted to our Sharathon Picture Page.
Our theme this year was “Holy Ground in an Unholy World”. Stations like Christian Family Radio are an oasis of truth and righteousness in a world that is increasingly hostile to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Our listeners have responded well to the additional costs we have incurred since the upgrade of KOLU to 39,000 watts and the expansion of the ministry through a translator reaching into Yakima last year. Yet, we need to remind our audience of both the cost and value of keeping this ministry on the air.
This year’s budget is $105,000. With our new, higher powered transmitter at KOLU, the cost for electricity alone is over $19,000. Annual increases in rental fees bring the cost of our transmitter sites to nearly $15,000, making these two items nearly one-third of our budget.
This year, we didn’t have any major projects but would like to continue our progress in making our on-air signals even more reliable. We’d like to replace our audio processor, which both enhances the sound to provide a consistent, listenable signal and prepares it for stereo broadcasting. This is a single “link in the chain” that has no backup should it fail. With a new processor, we will keep the old one and have both better sound and a backup ready-to-use. This year’s backup antenna and generator projects have made our over-the-air signal much more reliable. To make it even better, a powerful battery-based backup system will keep us on the air with a “medium power” signal while the generator starts, and should the generator fail to start, we’ll be able to stay on the air until we can get to the transmitter site to troubleshoot and repair any generator problems. These two projects are budgeted at $7,500.
Our guest hosts this year were George Zarris of Christian Media International along with his wife Barbara. Bro. Zarris has been instrumental in establishing Christian radio stations and television programs around the world, and was able to share how vital these ministries are at home and abroad. Dahn Demey, a national pastor that operates a Christian radio station in Liberia, also shared his testimony. We heard many amazing stories about the power of Christian broadcasting.
Listeners had the opportunity to drop by the studio and learn more about this ministry and meet many of us that keep Christian Family Radio broadcasting 24 hours a day. We had gifts for every visitor age 15 and over. Saturday brought a hot dog cookout as well.
Of course, regular support is still necessary to keep Christian Family Radio broadcasting, and these needs are also stressed.
You can watch our video covering the upgrades we made last year at our 2015 Upgrades link. This 8-minute video provides a lot of background information on this achievement made possible by supporters of Christian Family Radio. If you want to know more about the history of this ministry, you can also view our KOLU History and Expansion Video produced earlier.