January 10, 2007

NEW YORK – With the airing of The Interfaith Connection on WKTU on the last Sunday of 2006 (Dec. 31) a unique New York public service broadcast experience that began with a special Christmas feature on WNBC-FM in 1978 and morphed into a successful weekly interfaith broadcast ended. The unique New York-oriented public service broadcast experiment outlived several changes in station owners, call letters and formats in its extraordinary 28-year run. The decision to call it off was made known by Rob Miller, WKTU's recently-appointed Program Director. WKTU is one of six Clear Channel Radio stations in New York Metro.

Tri-State Media Ministry, Inc. (TRIMM), an ecumenical agency for public service religious media projects in the New York market, was the cooperating community partner with the stations in the production and presentation of the program for its entire run. The Rev. N.J. "Skip" L'Heureux, Chairman of TRIMM, said, "Our participation in The Interfaith Connection was a privilege and provided a community public service that hearkens back to an earlier time in broadcasting when religious programming was directly related to the community it served and was not subjected to commercial exploitation. We are grateful to Clear Channel, Westwood One, NBC and the other owners of this station for the opportunity to provide this ministry. Given the extent of current interest in religious matters, we question the merit or intent of this cancellation. Even so, TRIMM does appreciate the cooperation and support enjoyed over the years that made this special ministry possible."

The original program, titled The Christian Agenda, was ecumenical; it was one of thirteen public service programs started on WNBC-FM when the FCC mandated separate programming on co-owned AM and FM stations. When TRIMM was asked to broaden the content to include all faiths its was named The Interfaith Connection. It's purpose was to increase understanding of the listener's faith by learning of the beliefs of others. In a time that saw mounting interreligious conflict in America and abroad, it upheld a high standard of respect for all religions and emphasized the desirability of learning broad precepts of one another's faiths.

Veteran religious broadcaster Ben Gums, an ardent advocate of public service broadcasting and an active presence in the New York market area for nearly forty years, produced The Interfaith Connection for its entire run and was program host for all but one and a half years. He says his regret at the ending of The Interfaith Connection at this time reflects his enthusiasm for the high quality of the guest roster in recent years. He said, "We aimed for guests who articulated their faith commitment with personal insight and who were people of accomplishment in their professional life. In the last few years our guests included top religious and creative personalities from all parts of the world. It was a privilege to bring such distinguished proponents of faith to ‘KTU's devoted listeners."

A TRIMM website will be up by the end of January with an archive of The Interfaith Connection and to give information about new TRIMM program projects: visit http://www.tristatemediaministry.com/ to stay informed.

Tri-State Media Ministry