If you turn your radio to AM 930, you’ll hear English-language Catholic programing broadcasting in Los Angeles for the first time in 14 years.
Archbishop José Gomez flipped the switch to launch Immaculate Heart Radio (KHJ AM 930) Nov. 17 at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels.
The archbishop quipped that, since Angelenos spend a lot of time on the freeway, they will have plenty of time to enjoy Immaculate Heart. Listeners will have Catholic radio to inform, inspire and enlighten them.
“Our message is always Good News,” the archbishop said, “the good news that God matters and that we matter to God.”
Immaculate Heart Radio provides talk shows and current events with a Catholic point of view. KHJ AM 930 will broadcast to more than 15 million people in Southern California, including nearly 5 million Catholics living in the L.A. Archdiocese.
Catholic radio is a gift from God, the archbishop said, and another way God speaks to his people.
“Friends, this is the amazing reality of Christianity. God sent Jesus Christ into this world to speak to us,” the archbishop said, “to speak to you and to me and to speak to every human heart.”
Doug Sherman, president and founder of Immaculate Heart, said the addition of the Los Angeles station means the station is now reaching more than 50 million souls.
“All of the thousands of stories we hear have a common thread, and that thread is truth,” Sherman said. “We put the truth and beauty of the Catholic faith on the air for anyone to hear.”
The station will provide the archdiocese with one hour daily to air special programing on local issues. KHJ AM 930 and Immaculate Heart’s KCEO AM 1000 in San Diego cover California from Oxnard to the U.S.-Mexico border.
Father Dan White, president of KOLS-LP in Oakford, Calif., said Catholic radio is another way to answer the call of the New Evangelization.
“There are many levels on which we communicate the Catholic message,” he said before the switch was flipped. “This is one more format that enables us to reach others — and people do listen.”
It makes a difference, Sherman said.
“Lives and communities are changed,” he said. “We are proud of the thousands of listeners who have shared stories of saved marriages, new vocations, babies saved, averted suicides, ended addictions and transformed lives over the past couple decades.”
