The numbers tell one story about K-LOVE, the Christian radio network that started at a single station in Santa Rosa 40 years ago and has mushroomed into a coast-to-coast service that reaches a reported 20 million listeners per week.
They speak to a broadcasting juggernaut, fueled in part by the demand for contemporary Christian pop and rock music, which amazingly took root in what Lifeway Christian Resources says is the least religious market in the country. Today — on Easter Sunday, 2022 — it is the largest Christian radio network in the country and the second-largest radio network of any type.
But to the officials and on-air personalities behind K-LOVE and its sister service, Air1, it’s the personal stories that are even more important and help define why they do what they do.
Those stories include Eric, a man who fled his family and his problems in North Carolina and, seeing no way out, had driven to the Golden Gate Bridge in 2016 to end his life. But before that could happen, he discovered K-LOVE on his vehicle radio and, even though he’d never listened to the station before, called into the “Scott and Kelli Show” to share his story on the air. The result was a huge outpouring of support from Bay Area listeners, with many calling in to invite Eric to their church. Tragedy was averted.
“It was just unbelievable — only something God could do, and it is nothing we could ever take credit for,” recalled Scott Smith, a longtime co-host of K-LOVE’s midday show with Kelli Caldwell. “But that’s how God uses this ministry.”
Although K-LOVE’s on-air programming is dominated by the latest hits from such multiplatinum music acts as Chris Tomlin, Lauren Daigle, TobyMac and Lecrae, on-air personalities and staffers spend a lot of time taking calls from a wide array of listeners, many of whom are referred to what the network says is a fulltime ministry staff that deals with an average of 1,000 prayer requests and at least one potential suicide…