Never has the future of Catholic radio looked brighter. In the early 1990s, fewer than 10 Catholic stations existed around the country. Now there are about 90 stations with full Catholic programming. Groups of committed Catholics in cities such as Denver and Washington, D.C., are mounting fund-raising drives to buy more stations. Across the country, airwaves are humming with faith-filled music and information. The Gospel is being proclaimed. Hearts and souls are being converted. But something is missing.

If you love radio like I do, you will listen to a lot of it. And in tuning in to different programs, on Catholic and public radio stations, the difference in the styles of presentation is startling. Notice that I'm not talking about the content. The content of any Catholic radio show has to remain faithful to the magisterium. That is because there is only one truth, and the Church possesses it. However, the way a program or segment is presented can be just as important as the content.

The Medium

The reason is simple: Radio is the most creative, intimate and personal of the mediums. But you wouldn't know it if you listened to a typical Catholic station. In comparison, tune in to a public-radio program, especially “All Things Considered,” “This American Life” or “A Prairie Home Companion.” Or hear the documentaries or feature stories done by radio producers David Isay, Joe Richman or the Kitchen Sisters.

These shows and producers bring to life different topics pertaining to the human condition and in the news by using various radio storytelling techniques such as ambient sound, sound effects and background music. The stories are crafted to have a definitive beginning, middle and end with conflict, emotion and humor sprinkled in throughout. As a result, the listener is often rewarded with “driveway moments” — the time spent in your car in the driveway after you arrive at home, waiting to see how a story ends before turning off the ignition and going inside.

Meanwhile, the majority of talk programming on Catholic radio stations are lecture or talk shows, with a host and guests and some phone calls from listeners with questions or comments. I love listening to those shows; they are faith-filled and faithful. But oftentimes the content presented only fills people's heads with catechetical information.

My hope is that Catholic radio includes more programs that offer stories from people's souls, aimed at listeners' hearts — the kind of stories that captivate a listener into having those driveway moments. As a journalist who has been trained at National Public Radio and has taught radio, it makes me sad to know that the full, intimate power of radio is not being unleashed on Catholic airwaves. The Gospel message demands it.

For Catholic radio to mature, for it to gain new listeners, for it to fulfill the Holy Father's call for “a commitment not to a re-evangelization but to a New Evangelization — new in ardor, methods and expression,” Catholic radio has to utilize the entire range of storytelling forms available — from audio diaries to vox pop (“voice of the people” segments) to radio dramas to skits to documentaries to feature stories.

It needs more stories that put a human stamp on the vibrant faith of lay and religious Catholics who are striving to be holy and working hard to bring the good news to others in their lives, actions and ministries. It also needs more programs that illustrate faith in action.

What I would like to see is a radio production and training company that would gather together talent. I'd like to hear from Catholics, across the country and from all cultures, with radio or journalistic experience who know how to tell stories — playwrights and actors who want to create radio dramas, imaginative and creative people who might not have a radio background but who are interested in learning how to interview and gather sound.

We need to produce, coordinate, teach and inspire others to produce faithful-to-the-magisterium and faith-filled stories and programs that would evangelize and catechize using public radio production values and storytelling techniques.

One example would be a Catholic variety show — think “A Prairie Home Companion” — a show filled with skits, music and short dramas that would entertain while educating. Another would be a show on Divine Mercy that would profile Catholics — the ones you sit next to in the pews but know nothing of their lives — who have experienced God's mercy or are striving to incorporate the Divine Mercy message as a way of life. Excerpts from the diary of St. Faustina Kowalska, whom Jesus revealed the Divine Mercy devotion to, would be weaved in throughout the show.

The means are there to make programs such as these available to Catholic stations across the country. Catholics must also train people at stations that want local shows to offer content that moves beyond the talk-show format. The technology is out there to make all of this possible. Donors to support this kind of production company, I'm praying, are out there, too. What is needed are people willing to become disciples with microphones.

In dreaming and praying about Catholic radio, I see a new generation of Catholics who have the necessary training, passion and God-inspired desire to use the creative talents God blessed them with — but who don't have the outlets or the resources — to create and place imaginative programs on the Catholic airwaves.

In 1999, Pope John Paul II issued a call that should be heeded by storytellers and radio people:

“Art must make perceptible, and as far as possible attractive, the world of the spirit, of the invisible, of God,” the Holy Father said in his “Letter to Artists.” “It must therefore translate into meaningful terms that which is in itself ineffable. Art has a unique capacity to take one or other facet of the message and translate it into colors, shapes and sounds that nourish the intuition of those who look or listen. It does so without emptying the message itself of its transcendent value and its aura of mystery. The Church has need especially of those who can do this on the literary and figurative level, using the endless possibilities of images and their symbolic force.”

Carlos Briceño writes from Seminole, Florida.

He can be reached at [email protected].