Celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, St. Gabriel Radio – central Ohio’s AM 820 station – has many longtime radio hosts to recognize – individuals who have been with the radio station since its early days.
St. Gabriel, an affiliate of Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN) Catholic Radio, provides EWTN programs while adding local news, information and content. It has been broadcasting since 2005.
Most of its local programs and news content are delivered on-air voluntarily by faithful in the diocese. Many are eager to donate their time and talent to spread the faith and bring souls to Christ.
Chip Stalter has presented news and information on the station for 18 years. Photo courtesy St. Gabriel Radio
Chip Stalter has delivered the station’s news reads for about 18 years.
“It’s been a great run,” he said. “It’s been really enjoyable, and, you know, I’ve learned a lot from being able to do it.”
Stalter’s young dream was to be a radio announcer. He had some practice in college, but he said it took a few years for it to come to fruition. He is now living that dream.
Equally fulfilling is getting information to listeners that helps them grow in faith.
“I get lots of feedback from folks that say they heard something on there that they wanted to attend or they wanted to go check out – event at a parish or somewhere in the diocese that they wouldn’t have known about otherwise had it not been for St. Gabriel,” he said.
“It’s kind of a, not breaking my arm, but it’s kind of a pat on the back or something like that. You know, gives you some validation that people are tuned in and listening, and they’re hearing things they need to hear.”
Stalter finds St. Gabriel Radio’s shows featuring diocesan priests and seminarians particularly impactful.
He said the diocese’s increase in vocations could likely, in part, be attributed to the radio station. He suspected that showing priests in a different light, outside of church on Sundays, and giving them a space to talk about discernment and how they came to the priesthood has increased vocations.
A part of St. Gabriel Radio now for nearly two decades, Stalter has seen the station evolve.
He began volunteering prior to St. Gabriel Radio’s acquisition of the AM 820 station. St. Gabriel, formerly 1580 AM, operated out of a basement on Bethel Road, located in north Columbus.
St. Gabriel moved to its current location on Winterset Drive in Columbus in 2009. Two years later, it acquired the AM 820 station.
The station currently offers 12 local shows in addition to producing local news. Stalter recalled the evolution from early days of limited content to today’s variety of local programs.
“To see the growth from the number of people that are working out of a basement to now where we’re at, it’s just amazing,” he mused.
He noted the importance of having various types of content.
“Having a focus on Christ and the faith is beautiful, and it centers everything, but what’s really nice is how all the different programming flowers around that. There’s something for everybody on the station,” he said.
“I think that variety of the programing, while all still focused on the same goal, is really what’s led to the success here at St. Gabriel. I think that hitting people where they’re at, which is something we’re preaching in the Church – you’ve got to meet people where they are – and this station does that.”
Msgr. Frank Lane has hosted Foundations in Faith for 19 years. Photo courtesy St. Gabriel Radio
Msgr. Frank Lane, administrator at Chillicothe Our Lady, Queen of the Apostles parish, has hosted St. Gabriel Radio’s “Foundations in Faith” since the radio station was a year old. Beginning in 2006, Msgr. Lane shares insights into Sunday readings proclaimed at Mass on the program.
Foundations in Faith is one of the station’s first local programs and its longest-running. Msgr. Lane has hosted approximately 52 shows a year for almost 20 years, equating to more than 1,000 episodes and upward of 600 hours of reflections on Sunday Gospel readings.
At the radio station’s 20th anniversary gala on June 26, Msgr. Lane was one of two hosts to receive the St. Gabriel Radio Mother Angelica Award for radio hosting.
“It’s an honor and a privilege to be able to do what I’ve been able to do,” he said, receiving the award. “When I was ordained, I made a promise to the Lord that I would never say anything that I couldn’t justify by using Denzinger, which is a compendium of the Magisterium of the Church.
“It’s been a great honor and great privilege, and there has been nothing more wonderful than to speak the word of the Church in to the midst of our community.”
St. Gabriel has nearly two decades worth of listeners’ stories and testimonies from Foundations in Faith, revealing how the program led to personal conversions and a love for the Word of God. Several of the show’s listeners are priests.
“I remember receiving a phone call a number of years ago from one of our diocesan priests asking if I could put all of the Foundation in Faith episodes on flash drives so that he could use Msgr. Lane’s insights to help prepare for his homilies,” recalled Bill Messerly, executive director of St. Gabriel Radio.
“We’ve heard similar stories from other priests, many of them former students of Msgr. Lane. These requests led us to create an audio archive of all these episodes as well as archives of all of our locally produced programs.
“Our data shows that Foundations in Faith has downloads around the country, indeed, even around the world, evidence of the power of God’s Word and the clarity, understanding and passion that Msgr. Lane brings to every episode.”
JoAnn Wilson and her husband, Chuck, hosted the Sacred Heart Hour for eight years.
Chuck and JoAnn Wilson hosted St. Gabriel Radio’s Sacred Heart Hour for eight years.
The program is broadcast the first Friday of the month, honoring Christ’s Sacred Heart. The Lord makes 12 promises to individuals who respond to the pleading of His Heart, including a promise to those who receive Holy Communion on First Fridays.
The Wilsons said they have passed the baton to hosts Father Stash Dailey, a diocesan priest; their daughter, Emily Jaminet, national executive director of Welcome His Heart Sacred Heart Enthronement Network; and Messerly.
The couple spent the past 42 years evangelizing and were involved in many apostolates in the diocese. JoAnn witnessed an increase in devotion to the Sacred Heart during that time.
“I think that it’s just growing because we need it, and it is the remedy,” she expressed. “And, you know, as we share, as the world gets a little more, I want to say darker, but maybe hearts are harder, times are difficult and technology hasn’t really brought a lot of connection. The ground is fertile, and people are hungry, and they’re looking, and one thing we believe is the Sacred Heart is the answer.”
Sacred Heart Hour offers listeners a deeper understanding of the devotion and enthronement to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and ways to live out the devotion in daily life. Episodes include how to enthrone, personal testimonies and how to honor and renew enthronement.
The hosts also discuss the importance of the First Fridays devotion. Christ promises the grace of final perseverance to those who receive Holy Communion on First Fridays in nine consecutive months.
Chuck recalled enthroning the family’s home to Christ’s Sacred Heart in 1990. The couple had a priest friend over to their house for supper. The dinner and home enthronement began a life-long devotion.
“We had no clue to the magnitude of the flow of graces that was going to come in time, and as we say, Sacred Heart often reveals to heal,” JoAnn explained. “Oftentimes, it’s not pretty what needs to go, what needs to change, but we now can look back, and we can say, ‘Wow, that was the beginning of new peace in the family.’
“I used to say (to Chuck), ‘You’re the king of this house.’ And I think, ‘Oh, you’re not the king anymore. You can be the chief.’”
St. Gabriel Radio said the station is grateful for community support. Volunteer hosts enable the station to follow EWTN foundress Mother Angelica’s mission to communicate the Catholic faith in word and deed.
“It’s so important to see models like the hosts of the Sacred Heart Hour, or Chip Stalter, or Msgr. Lane,” Messerly said.
“People need … an example. They need to see what evangelization looks like at their parish and in their community, and that it’s real.”