Group provides rosary, catechism on AM radio

By Andrew Junker, The Catholic Sun
October 19, 2006

Every evening a program comes on the radio that has little in common with the usual fare of talk shows and sports roundups found on the AM dial.

Instead of a political pundit or sportscaster, this show features students at a Catholic school, priests from around the country and oftentimes Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted. Instead of the news of the day, this program focuses on one of the most well-known prayerful devotions in the Catholic Church: the rosary.

Radio Family Rosary is entering its 23rd year of broadcasting in Phoenix.

“We’re the longest running Catholic program on the radio,” said Dorothy Westfall, a founder of Radio Family Rosary. “We just want to be of service to the community.”

The program begins with a recitation of the rosary taped by different groups throughout the diocese. Music and a talk on a saint or a point of catechism follow.

Westfall said the whole endeavor began at the suggestion of a St. Francis Xavier parishioner more than two decades ago.

“There was this man who went to St. Francis who had severe arthritis. His idea was just to get a tape of the rosary and put it on the air” for those who had trouble getting out of the house, Westfall said.

She took his suggestion and expanded it.

“We really thought there should be more involved. We decided that we’d like to do a program that was local, so we’d have local participation, not just getting some tape with the rosary on it,” she said.

A generous donation from some Catholics in Sun City allowed the group to purchase airtime from a local Christian radio station. The rosary has been broadcast ever since.

Westfall said that the Protestant radio station (Family Values Radio) was wary at first of broadcasting such a distinctly Catholic devotion. But in the end, the station has been supportive and impressed by the number of listeners.

“The amount of mail that we get every month shows that we’re probably the most popular show on the station,” Westfall said.

She has received letters from a diverse group of listeners, from shut-ins, to families with young children, to men and women who tune in as they drive home from work.

“And we have Protestants listening too,” said Westfall, adding that the show has become a powerful vehicle for Catholic evangelization.

The group hopes a recent move in stations will help spread the rosary to even more Phoenicians.

Earlier this month the program made the move from AM 1280 to AM 1010, a station owned by the same company but with a much larger broadcast area.

Herb Maddock, Radio Family Rosary’s president, said the move would help increase the program’s reach.

“Hopefully there will be a snowball effect,” Maddock said. “As more people become aware of the program, more people will become interested, and we can expand our kind of programming.”

One idea is to begin offering the program in Spanish, Maddock said. The group also hopes to provide the show in various formats.

Radio Family Rosary already makes tapes of past shows available for purchase and the Family Values Radio Web site provides a stream of the previous day’s program so listeners can tune in at any time around the world.

Westfall also hopes to focus on the youth and young adult involvement in the program. She has noticed an increased interest among the youth in praying the rosary.

“We have recorded youth groups and they were very favorable. There are really positive vibes coming through” the youth these days, Westfall said.

“One of the things we want to do is make our ‘saint stories’ available for a reasonable price so that schools or religious education programs can use them,” she added.

“Saint stories” is a recurring feature on Radio Family Rosary. Sr. Jean Steffes, CSA, chancellor for the diocese, periodically presents a saint’s life and explores how it relates to modern Catholic living.

Both Westfall and Maddock emphasized that Radio Family Rosary relies entirely on charitable donations to provide all these services. The organization is based on volunteers and operates on a very slim budget.

“We get a grant from the Catholic Community Foundation and other organizations give us grants,” Westfall said, noting that the Knights of Columbus have supported the program since its very beginning.

The donations and support provided by organizations and individuals throughout the Valley has fostered a sense of shared responsibility and community in Radio Family Rosary.

“It’s everybody’s program,” Westfall said. “That’s the way we want it to be.”