The radio ministry in the Italian Union of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church has a long tradition, thanks to Adventist World Radio (AWR). The first FM radio station was opened in Florence on December 1st, 1979: it was the first private radio station in Europe run full time by the Adventist Church. And it was just the beginning, because in the following years the radio network developed itself and now covers a significant number of Italian cities, on FM, but also on DAB, satellite and through the internet streaming.
Interestingly, the Bible course - which plays an important role in the radio ministry - is operated by Silvia Vadi, a female pastor who is the daughter of one of the first persons who joined the Church as a direct result of the radio ministry in Florence. And one of the regular speakers of the studio in Florence, Claudio Coppini, used to be a listener, before joining the Church a few years ago.
More recently, what has surprised me is the ongoing relevance of old-fashioned radio broadcasting: the glorious short waves programs, so important at the time of the cold war, can play a significant, though more limited, role even today.
The radio ministry on short wave in Italy is still active with a one-hour program on Sunday morning at 11 (local time) on 9610 khz.
Every week we receive (on average) 15 e-mails with reception reports and some comments on the content of the program. We have noticed that our listeners are very much interested in the first part of the program (on ham stations and the world of radio broadcasting) but many of them keep on listening till the end of the hour (the second part of the program is usually more religion-oriented).
Just to give you a glimpse to the content of our programs on short waves, on Sunday 21st of April we interviewed Elettra Marconi, a 93-year-old lady who is Guglielmo Marconi's daughter, and we talked with her about her memories about her father (she was only 7 when her father, the inventor of the radio, died). After that, we talked with an Adventist pastor about a topic taken from the national newspapers, the Christian duty to take care of the environment and how to cope with suffering (we introduced a special Bible course on this topic). The program ended with a Christian appeal to open our hearts to Jesus who knocks at the door of our hearts.
As you may imagine, like most western countries, Italy is increasingly a secularized country, where religion is regarded as an important heritage of the past, but with very little relevance to present needs and hopes of the italian people.
However, the Facebook page of the sunday program, with a special focus on the first part of the program ("Obiettivo DX"), has reached 3100 followers, who are very active with a lot of videos and posts about our program, plus technical things about radio broadcasting. All listeners are satisfied with the sunday program, and some of them have even said they will choose the Adventist Church for the 8x1000, a special donation that italian people can give when they pay their taxes to the italian State.
As I said, this program is possible thanks to the commitment of AWR to offer an international service on short wave, but also thanks to the commitment of non-Adventist people who work with us with no financial reward, just because they are fans of the radio.ù
There is no competition between different types of broadcasting, they are all means in the hands of God to reach the hearts of people where they live, in their houses, cars, through their hobbies and their different interests. May God help us in our task, to bring peace in a world which longs for hope and meaning.
