History of Flame FM To hope is not to dream - it is to turn dreams into reality Flame FM on Wirral is looking forward to full time broadcasting. The past 6 years has been the practice field:  we have learnt the value of a local focus in broadcasting (involving local people, raising local interest). we have learnt the advantage of the cohesiveness of drawing people from all denominations. we have built bridges into the community - via people being interviewed, making programmes, doing live broadcasts, being voices on air, being part of the technical crew, and helping in the office. we have proved that radio is very effective in providing encouragement, company, and a "background" to life - everywhere we go we hear the sound of a radio - we have proved that people want radio to bring a Christian input into their everyday life. we have been amazed at the number of people who have just found us on the dial, or have been told about Flame by friends - it seems to be so easy to tell a friend to listen to a radio station and far easier than inviting them to go come to church - from that step we can build a positive image of Christianity and the Christian life that leads people to want to go to church. And we are now waiting for Ofcom's granting of our request (submitted at the end of November 2004) for a full-time Christian and Community Radio Licence. Flame began from the Premier Radio "Millennium 2000" initiative of encouraging local groups to pick up the government opportunity of broadcasting under Restricted Service Licence. The brother-in-law of Premier Radio's Managing Director, living in Meols) passed the publicity leaflet to me in December 1999. My son and his technical colleague convinced me that it was "do-able". Premier radio's Project Manager provided a lot of encouragement and knowledge. We were encouraged by meeting at a training day by folk from Glasgow's GRF, HCJB and Bournemouth Hope radio whose experience told us that local radio was do-able - "when you get past the pain it actually becomes enjoyable" they told me. We wrote to as many Wirral church contacts as were aware of but there was little interest. A meeting at the Leasowe Hotel attracted less than 10 people. But this lack of support beforehand was offset by my determined feeling that this was what "God wanted me to do". Two long weeks in the USA, listening to Christian radio in my car on my way to and from work, and idling time away on lonely evenings and weekends, brought a constant "do it" challenge culminating in an angry emotional reaction to preachers saying "the unhappiest person is the one who clearly knows what God wants them to do, and does not do it". I came back from the USA in April 2000 determined to give local radio my best shot. Note: any individual can apply for a Restricted Service broadcasting licence (RSL) for a period of up to 28 days, to coincide with a good reason for broadcasting (Christian festival, churches together activity, training aspiration etc) and to make two such applications in any one year (separated by at least 4 months). Details are on Ofcom's web site www.ofcom.gov. Normally broadcasting is allowed in the FM band at 10 watts to cover a 5 km radius, with an aerial height up to 25 metres above ground level. By judicious choice of broadcasting site good "local area coverage" can be achieved. Our early memories are of fixing an aerial to the flagpole of a Church tower on 26th May 2000, only a few hours before starting broadcasting (after a week spent prayer walking in evenings around the church awaiting the Parish Council's agreement), and of setting up borrowed equipment on a table in a borrowed basement studio, and sitting with a small box of CD's in front of a microphone. Despite informing local churches (well the 40 we knew about) we raised very little interest before we started broadcasting - apart from within our own churches (Moreton Baptist Church and Wirral Christian Centre) and meeting new friends from Life Christian Centre in Bebington. Feedback seemed to indicate that people felt that the task was too difficult, and the costs too high - so our challenge was to prove that ordinary people like us can do it, at costs that are achievable and not astronomical. Our theme "time for a change" (planted by God in my mind) was reinforced by Bryn Haworth's great guitar-based track. Within a few days people started noticing us in the airwaves. The phone started ringing - "who are you, where are you, can we come in and help" - so the small team of 5 tired people grew in size and a day off became possible. We made so many new friends and the word about Flame just got around. Being on 106.2, we had to ask the pirates to move out of our way and let the gospel stream forth across Birkenhead - and then we became amazed to have phone calls from people who could hear us as far away as North Wales, Runcorn, Chester - and even Llandudno and near Matlock (the real enthusiasts). The Flame had started burning and the "Gideon's Army" completed 28 exhausting but enjoyable, rewarding and satisfying days broadcasting. It truly was time for a change for Wirral, and that change begun in 2000 is continuing. The Premier Radio "Millennium 2000" initiative resulted in 17 stations operating across the UK, including the team at Kingsway Church, Sefton (Liverpool) on 87.7. Note that since then only two of the other stations have continued (Glasgow and Bournemouth) and some of the Sefton team have joined us on Wirral. I was personally encouraged by the feeling that God was laying before me a path of 10 Flames - "you give me one and I will give you the other nine, Norman" - and as we had basically given the first from our own resources I took that as a simple "five year" plan and started off down it. The Flame was not going to be extinguished. Step two meant setting up a permanent studio and a proper site for broadcasting, plus a proper charity base for the organisation. The demand was there for Christian radio and we had proved that we could do it - so I invested my inheritance from my father in converting a disused men's toilet and a beer cellar which was "going spare" after a Bebington church had taken over an old night club. This was appropriate to the remembrance of a father whose career was in managing a builder's merchant's chain. We converted the rooms into a studio, control room, office and kitchen - thus making ourselves very comfortable for long days of work. New-found friends did free building work thus stretching the money a long way. Our proper broadcasting base came surprisingly from a walk in the Wirral woods and finding that the base buildings of the ex-IBA broadcasting tower were exactly like the buildings seen in a vision. So we started enquiring of the owners and were amazed to receive the offer of a site rental agreement (at a cost) so we now had a proper secure antenna on the Storeton broadcasting tower built in the 1970's to serve the Wirral; with a secure building in which to safely locate our transmitter. My first broadcasting memory from the new studio was of playing serious hymns whilst the carpet was being fitted under my feet. And then in spare time, whilst others were broadcasting, we fitted the double glazed window between the studio and the control room. "I just came in to help with a bit of building work  and now feel I am a key part of the Flame team designing the publicity" In the first few months of 2001 we built an administrative framework for the organisation, and defined "Wirral Christian Media" as a charity which became registered in April 2001. We had plans for broadcasting Flame 3 in June 2001 but were asked to delay our broadcasts by our landlords - because of holidays - so we applied for our third Flame licence for September 2001. We also applied to become a pilot "access radio station" in mid 2001 but Cross Rhythms were given that honour - so we continued to follow the "five years - ten Flames" path that the Lord had set before me. I had accepted that word from God but was completely unprepared for how it might happen - I worked for a major telecommunications company and my boss had questioned a few times "how much time do you spend at that radio station?" and my peers christened Flame "radio Norman". My work was not suffering but I was aware that doing both was affecting my health and so I opted for majoring on God's work which endures even when industry does not. A Bible verse that has featured much in my life is Galatians 6 v.9 & 10 "Don't get tired of helping others. You will be rewarded in time, if you don't give up. We should help people whenever we can, especially if they are followers of the Lord". I had always felt that I would retire at 60 and find voluntary work helping in some administrative role for a local charity. Twelve years of being a church treasurer and deacon (in Elim and Baptist churches), plus project management and marketing/commercial training during my 40 year career (including training in people management skills) made me feel that I could be of use somewhere. But here I was at 57 - having just set up a charity and with a radio studio beckoning me - a few days thought resulted in a big leap of faith.  I took the "early retired" route (re-fired they called it) in mid 2001 and opened up the studio 3 days a week in between broadcasts. A few unemployed friends started to join me and we spent happy days in the studio learning about the software and preparing programmes for broadcast. The adage "here is one I prepared earlier" became very true and having a cupboard full of programmes when we started each 28 days broadcast proved to be a position of strength. And we found that activity attracts helpers - we did not seek them, they just arrived - out of curiosity, or sent by friends. Radio work is very tiring, exhausting even at times especially when pioneering as we are, but we are beginning to see the rewards for our hard labours. Flame is helping countless people, especially those who are Christians. We were more prepared for our September 2001 third Flame broadcast but none of us were prepared for what would happen on September 11th. I was in the control room overseeing an afternoon's broadcasting when a phone call brought the first hint of the disastrous news We soon were getting full details and decided to act as responsible Christian broadcasters The professionals have plans, and prepared schedules for situations like that, but we had none - just a God to pray to. So we did - I prayed openly on air, and shared what scripture the Lord put into my minds - specifically John 16 v.33 "I have told you these things that you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world" - and we played solemn but uplifting and reassuring music in between news updates. If Christians cannot offer solace and comfort and guidance in such situations then who could? - so we just did - and felt a bit of Esther's "called for such a time as this" feeling. We are not ministers, we have not even been to Bible College, but we have been in the school of life and have been Christians for many years, and what the Lord gave to us we freely shared over the airwaves during those challenging days. What a privilege! Many of our listeners asked why we stopped broadcasting at midnight and did not start again until 7 am - our explanation was simple "we are only human". But that, coupled with disappointment at having to curtail our broadcasting to 21 days in March 2002 (because of lack of money) led us to experiment with overnight coverage. At first we played music from our computers into a video recorder during the day, and then left the video recorders replaying overnight. We wore out some good video players pretty quickly until we found that we could fit 10 hours of audio as MP3 onto a CD and that "media player" on computers would play the pre-prepared MP3 files reliably for long periods of time. Computers do not need sleep but we did learn that they need well looked-after storage and regular defragging to increase their reliability. So every evening we locked up the studio at 10 pm leaving the computers running, having reminded the Lord that it is His radio station and that we were leaving Him in charge. It became a joy driving to the studio in the morning listening to the radio and feeling God's pleasure at keeping the radio going round the clock. My emotion echoed that of Eric Liddell (Chariot's of Fire) "when it works, I feel His pleasure". It still seems amazing to recall that one simple computer supported 672 hours of continuous uninterrupted broadcasting - a latter day miracle. "You've completed the circle around the clock, now take it around the year &ldots;" that input from God gave me an understanding of the task ahead. We learnt that God guides by limiting our input of resources - He uses a lack of money to engender inventiveness and led us to simple automation for our overnight broadcasting. It all seems so simple now: 1.First get many good music tracks as properly named MP3 files into a computer - make sure they do not have long periods of silence or long fades at the beginning or end. Out of 25,000 music tracks in our library 5,000 are stored as MP3 on our computers. CD ripping software is readily available and free for this purpose. We also have stored a lot of short interesting and amusing speech inserts (from audiopot, lifelines etc) and we have plenty of short jingles or station identifiers as well. 2.Next use a simple file-listing programme (e.g." tagscan" - freeware) to automatically prepare a spreadsheet file of the stored track names with their track lengths. Then use Excel to select at random tracks to put into a standard sequence of music tracks and speech inserts - enough for around 56 minutes with an indication of the total length. Then select one specific music track by hand to make the length exactly 59 minute 45 seconds long (to allow for joining station identities) - print the menu out and store it for logging purposes. 3.Use a MP3 merging programme (e.g. mp3merge which is freeware) to join together the listed tracks from the menu of tracks. Store the resultant mp3 file. 4.Pre-prepare other standard one-hour programmes (59 minute 45 seconds) by joining tracks together of worship CDs, live concert CDs or other useful material. Include voice introductions with these programmes. 5.Join these "one-hour blocks", with station identifiers in between them, into a 10 hour sequence. Save the result in the computer for playing under media-player (again freeware). 6.Use highly reliable and stable computers to take the strain, with simple software utilities to keep them operating. 7.Run the same programme on two machines (starting both programmes at the same time) with the second machine providing the standby input to an auto-changeover unit (Sonifex Red-Box) so that if the main machine fails the listeners will hear the same programme from the standby computer) Very straight-forward - and cheap - and simple, and well within the reach of low budget organisations like us - "thank you Lord for computers and MP3". In the day-time, as well as presenters who manually select and play music, some presenters use our very cheap (£100-ish) "music DJ programme" (Mixopia) to flexibly prepare a play-list based on our computer store of MP3 tracks (manually selected or chosen at random). This programme can be left to play continuous audio unattended, or can be set to stop at track-end for the presenter to speak. The play-list can be changed at any time or can be pre-prepared. The play-list can also refer to complete half or one hour programmes. The programme automatically logs the tracks played and when, onto spreadsheet compatible files and this is far easier than reading the handwriting of many of our presenters! We are gradually encouraging our main presenters to use Mixopia and hence are now aiming to increase the number of CD tracks stored as MP3 files on our computers. The technical and administrative challenges have resulted in new friends and helpers, as well as causing much prayer: Early on in our learning how to run a studio, we taught ourselves to use Wavelab software for speech editing and processing. Since then many people have argued the merits of alternative software suites but our recommendation is pick a good software programme, learn it well and stick with it. Wavelab software, and its associated programmes have become a good friend. In 2002 someone joined the team who I had not met before but who has now become my closest friend. He seemed to know everybody in Liverpool which was something I, being a Southerner who had only discovered Liverpool 12 years previously obvious did not do. He also knew all about Christian radio because he had been involved with trying to raise interest for another newcomer to broadcasting, UCB, in the 1990's. And he know all about Christian music. Three great reasons why, I believe, God led him into our team. He is now busy increasing our vital contacts with our suppliers, resulting in a growing deluge of free CDs for our library.  His major delight is playing Christian rock and he also enjoys hosting the kids programme. He also plays Father Christmas, on 25th September although we dream of the challenge of broadcasting on Christmas Day this year. Shortly after literally crying for help with our unstable computers, God led another person in in 2003 whose simple "can we help you" question resulted in his team taking all of our computer worries off of us and building us up to our current position where we now have a large handful of very reliable machines. Another great friend gained. When facing major difficulties with equipment for our UHF link God led us to two people in 2004 who expertly tidied up our radio leads and connections and helped us through a complex time of coping with equipment supplier problems, and in fact saved us money on the route. We know that the future, especially full-time broadcasting and ongoing technical evolution, will bring further challenges but our experiences give us confidence that the God is always one step ahead of us, even in modern technology. Milestones on the way through our six years : We started on 106.2 MHz in 2000 (Psalm 106 v.2 says "who can proclaim the glorious works of the Lord or fully declare His praise"). 106.2 MHz was initially affected by pirates who moved away in a friendly manner when they realised we were using that frequency. But 106.2 also became threatened by the sale of close frequencies to large regional stations - our 10 watts did not compare with power of close frequency stations in Chester and in North Yorkshire - so in 2002 we moved to 87.7 MHz (Psalm 87 v.7 says "as they make music they will sing"). This frequency change was a problem - the main marketing challenge of any radio station is to get people to find us on the dial so changing frequencies is bad news. Our resources cannot stretch to painting buses or taxis as advertisements or to using large hoardings in public places or even putting large adverts in newspapers - we rely on free car stickers, church notices and notice-boards - and amazingly we find that whilst people seem to ignore posters and church notices (surprise, surprise) the message gets around by word of mouth. If the product is good then people will tell others about it. And we were amazed at the number of "found you by accident" stories - more about some of those later. Another problem is that many old-style radios simply cannot receive 87.7 MHz so many people who cannot afford modern radios cannot hear us. The start-stop nature of RSLs is also a major challenge. Settling into a March and September pattern helped but people still take a couple of weeks to find us and are disappointed that we are going off-air soon. Circumstances led us into our September slot and when asked by the Radio Authority as to "why broadcast in September" my answer was simple - "it is Harvest-time" (a nature-based harvest and an evangelical harvest). March is easier -  "it is Lent and Easter" which is well understood. We seem to be becoming experienced in handling sad news - as well as 11-9-01 we have experienced the Iraqi War, the Ken Bigley hostage crisis, and recently the death of Pope Paul - what an opportunity - bringing a Christian voice to the airwaves at times of sorrow and concern is an immense privilege as well as a challenge. We believe that "prayer on air" is a key part of our ministry praying for the world, our nation, our region and the media. In our Sunday evening prayer times during the Iraqi war we prayed for specific towns in Iraqi that the Lord would bring the walls down and protect the people. We believe that time will reveal that He answered that and many other prayers. Radio waves go where they want to - complaints about poor reception from people a mile away are evenly matched by people surprised at being able to receive us 30 miles away. Radio is blocked by high buildings and geography but loves water and the Mersey mud. At present our aerial is 25 metres up the Storeton Tower which itself is 65 metres above sea level - so we have a good high platform ("pulpit") from which to proclaim the Good News to over 300,000 people. Of note is the proven fact that both Flame FM on Wirral and Stoke City radio (our Christian friends) reach Alpraham on the A51 between Chester and Crewe. We often pray for that broadcasting tower and I still find it hard to believe that Flame is allowed to broadcast from it, but we decided recently that the tower has beautiful feet (Romans 10 v 15). We long for permission to broadcast from higher up the tower, and with greater power - and with a frequency that is in a good position in the radio band and not right on the edge. We challenge other Christians to set up individual local stations that overlap on the fringes, sharing and networking programmes thus achieving pseudo-regional coverage. We dream of Christian radio reaching in a belt across the north - Wirral, Wigan, Chester, Warrington, Manchester, Bradford, Leeds, Hull - add in Stoke and Preston and a large proportion of the population of northern UK is covered - dare we dream as large as that? - why not. Local Christian radio gives local people a voice and gives them easy access to the airwaves - to share their faith. Our programme content has a local focus with people's stories, interesting interviews, a wide range of music; all with a light touch - that is our simple menu which is much appreciated "I never knew Christian radio could sound so much fun, you all seem to be enjoying yourselves and your Christian life, and I am just amazed at your range of music" - a local professional DJ at local Soul and Jazz clubs who came in for a chat (because he met someone behind a shop counter who commented "I am just off to the local Christian Radio Station to do my programme" and then saw her picture on the front of our local paper, phoned up and found where we are). Now as a regular presenter (the Nice and Easy Show) he is also beginning to discover that the Christian life is well worthwhile considering. "Thanks for the opportunity of coming into your studio and sitting and chatting through my life story" - Charlie Landsborough, a local Birkenhead boy who hit the big time as a renowned singer/songwriter. Charlie has come back again and recorded two more hours of music and chat. He seems to enjoy sitting in the Flame studio. "The studio is unlike any other that I have worked in - the friendship just attracts me" - an ex-professional Irish radio presenter who reckons he first discovered Charlie Lansdborough in the 1980's - he is a local bus driver who loves taking over the studio on St Patrick's Day and giving Flame a true Irish focus. Wirral has a very strong Irish connection with Irish clubs, plus a large Catholic community who were informed by the Catholic Bishop of Shrewsbury that they should listen to our broadcasts on St Patrick's Day - what an opportunity - "God given"? yes we believe so. "Thank you for the interview programme - it is an extremely professional job and I enjoyed being in the studio and talking about my life and musical interests" - our local MP who first came and visited our studio on an Open Day, and came back to become a broadcaster. He was followed by another prospective MP who did her own one-hour interview programme. From this base we are bringing "The Chat Room" - one hour programmes with a wide range of focus from Jewish settlements in Judea, to Tsunami relief, plus Trans World Radio from Slovakia, and the Mothers Against Guns. We do not underestimate the power of people's stories - whether it is how God rescued them from child abuse, drug abuse, a prison background or marriage break-up, or the normal current "stress-related" illnesses. And stories of a life of Christian commitment, missionary activity, or spiritual growth also say a lot. We get more enquiries from these types of programme than we do from any others. Our "Haynesies Friends" programmes on our web-site give strong testimonies how people emerged "from darkness to light". We simply say "yes" to opportunities: a chance conversation after showing a few men around the studio in the summer of 2001 resulted in a "could you record my story" question - never having done anything like that before I simply said "yes". Three recording sessions later, plus hours of hard work at the editing software, resulted in "Aram's story"; the story of a stateless person born in Iran, brought up near Ninevah plus teenage years in Bagdhad and becoming a British national in Cyprus - emulating the CD title "trouble was my middle name" but most important of all finding his Christian identity in latter years on Wirral. An exciting story to crack our interviewing and editing teeth on. We passed 10 copies of the result product, in our own designed package, to him thinking "that was a task well done" and the promise that any sales money would come to Flame. Now 5 years later, with over £1,000 profit from sales, we are so grateful for this learning opportunity upon which I have based our method of working for preparing programmes - attention to detail, great care and a lot of time spent, plus creation of a professional looking product and package. I believe that it was based on our experience of producing programmes of people's stories that helped the Countryside Commission to decide to award us a grant for making a series of programmes on local heritage, over the next few years. This experience has also enabled us to confidently undertake other projects - "Stan's story" (the story of a local man who grew up in Liverpool, went to sea and in his latter years signed up as Purser on Operation Mobilisation ships, including shipwreck in the South Atlantic). This story is now available as a 3 CD package and has also been broadcast on Flame FM. "poems from Clive", who we were told read his own poems to local ladies groups, so we encouraged him to try reading them on radio. The result has been six excellent 30-minute programmes of poetry, with a classical music background and our audience, and our staff, find the poems so inspiring and uplifting. He has sold a number of CDs of his first two programmes and we are preparing CDs of his recent programmes. Considering his severe bouts of depression and stammer it amazes us how much a person can achieve in writing his own poems and expressing himself through them. It is a privilege helping him to broadcast. and "Hot Joel", (a 13 year old with deep medical problems) who loves coming into the studio to record his own music shows. We have learnt that radio is not for preaching - it is for communicating in a friendly manner, cognisant of the privilege of being invited into a person's private living space - and that is a place for warm friendly conversation and encouraging words, not for heavy preaching. Our experience is that people warm to a friendly light touch, and are then open to a bit of gentle "how about counting Jesus into your situation" approach. It can only come from open honest presenters, local to the people's area - and it is proving to be very effective. We encourage people to bring a teaching style to the airwaves and are grateful to new people who have joined us recently with that approach - we need more. We also ensure that all of our programmes are well introduced and branded, with good strong introductory themes. Preparing standard programmes, of known lengths (multiples of 15 minutes) enables us to have a well-structured broadcasting schedule. We have found that kids love being on radio, and they get their friends listening to them. They help with simple jingles and programme introductions. One person came to Flame studios from Pembrokeshire in 2002 and recorded his "Matty the Fox" stories, with a clever variety of animal voices. The resultant CD has given him a high profile in Narberth as the author who wrote and recorded the animal stories. "We are the kids from Life Church" was recorded in our studio and broadcast on Good Friday 2005 paid for by the Jerusalem Trust. A lady was teaching these children about Jesus using poetry about her favourite puppy "Tilly Tuppence" (the naughtiest puppy in the whole wide world) and we persuaded her that her poems suited the radio well. The result is now two recorded CDs of her "Tilly poems" (sold to raise funds for Flame FM) and we are encouraging her to record more of her poems. Merseyside has a reputation for comedy, as well as for music, so we mix both together and add a strong Christian flavouring. Some local music has been recorded in our studio for broadcast and some comes from other local "home-studios". By the way - our studio is called the "Green Door Studio"  because "we don't know what they're doing but they laugh a lot behind the Green Door" (remember that old song ?) so when I was asked what colour the strong secure metal door should be painted I said "green" of course. From contacts with local Chinese Christians came the idea of a regular 30 minute Cantonese teaching/music programme in the early evening and also late at night. This "Hallelujah" programme, as it became known because of its catchy theme music has become a regular. The Bible content is strong, it is in English as well as in Cantonese, and it includes Chinese Christian music. As Liverpool has the largest Chinese community outside of Asia, we also celebrated the Chinese Autumn Festival with a day of Chinese broadcasts including the history of the Chinese Community, travel to China, Chinese cooking, Chinese News plus the origin of the Chinese Moon Festival and its current significance. These programmes were enabled by Community Funding so were also a blessing to Flame financially. "Interdenominational and Ecumenical" are complex words which can cause fright, confusion and division amongst Christian ministries. But from the outset of Flame we felt God challenge us that our mission was to "give air to the breadth of Christian expression that is on Wirral". We have been led into contact with people from a rich variety of denominations, many of whom have joined us in broadcasting. One question I raised as a southerner who migrated to this area in 1989 was "where are the churches, how many are there on Wirral" - a number of people said there are almost 100 churches but could not detail them. I feel that a Christian radio station must know where the churches are, as well as being an information point on what is going on within the Christian community. We have now discovered 182 in Wirral - helped by "Churches Together in Wirral" and their mapping project with Chester College, which we took a strong part in and are now assisting with updating and maintaining a database linked to www.churcheswirral.co.uk holding up-to-date details of all faith activities on Wirral. This is a key part of God knitting together Christians on Wirral and we regularly use the list of churches in our "prayer on air" times naming each church individually at the throne of God. Using our Heritage Funding we are helping Churches Together put photos of these churches onto their web-site and our Powerpoint presentation has had the local Bishops standing and looking and saying "I did not realise there was such a diversity of church buildings on Wirral". We also have an Ordnance Survey map on the wall of the office marked with the locations of the individual churches. The other long wall of our office has photographs, many autographed, of the Christian artistes whose music we play. Talking about prayer - from the start of Flame we have felt that prayer is an essential foundation to our existence. From the beginning a few key people have held Flame in their prayers and have regularly phoned and encouraged us. We exchanged the stress of arranging prayer meetings, and the disappointment of people not coming, for the ease of having a "prayer wall" in our studio and posting prayer requests and details on the wall. Then visitors, and ourselves, can stop awhile, read the requests and pray about them whenever is convenient. The wall is situated immediately outside the loo door so all people pass it regularly. We leave requests on the wall after their expiry date and either put a green "answered" tick on them with detail of the answer, if appropriate, and we are realistic enough to put a red "no" on others - although the wall does have a strong predominance of green (not surprising really). We also populate the studio with "thank you Lord for" notes where items are sorely wanted but we are still waiting - and that is Scriptural. For the past six months we have been e-mailing all known contacts asking for prayer regarding the next Ofcom radio committee meeting and the volume of prayer and interest in us has grown each month as we are waiting - is that a reason for the delay (I wonder)? There are also prayer warriors who pray for a presenter whilst they are actually broadcasting - the phone often rings and a quick Bible verse of encouragement or exhortation is passed with "the Lord put this on my mind" message - and non-surprisingly the verse is so often extremely relevant. Are the costs of radio too high ? - not if you compare our £150,000 spent over 6 years with the achievement of bringing over 7,000 hours of broadcasting to a potential listenership of over 300,000 people. Most church improvements cost far more than that and we feel that Christian radio has brought real tangible "people growth" in terms of Christ's people on Wirral. The cost per day broadcast for an RSL is £160 for licences, and around £300 per day in total. With full time broadcasting our costs will barely double so the cost per day will reduce significantly. Notably our low cost is due to the eager willingness of volunteers who give their time and skills, and often resources as well, freely, and the "gifts in kind" outweigh our annual expenditure by a factor of four. Perhaps it is unfair to say it is "toys for the boys" but certainly radio is proving to be a man-thing judging by the predominance of men in our large team and they are glad to feel that their skills and experience are put to good use. We are so grateful for the willing free supply of music and programmes by a variety of Christian organisations and publishing houses - this is where true Christianity shows in an open, willing and co-operative "for the Gospel" approach which knows no bounds - a very strong testimony to the competitive secular world. Professional people who are not Christians cannot understand our finances because they fail to count God into the financial equation - in 2002 I was specifically encouraged by Malachi 3 v 10 "and try me now in this and see if I will not open for you the windows of Heaven and pour out for you such blessing" (well Lord, we proving that if we give our best we will be amazed at the resources You have for us). We based Flame finances upon local Christians who contribute £5 per month, plus some larger one-off gifts, some grants and a modicum of support from local Churches. However there is a challenge here to Churches to awaken to the opportunity and relevance of radio broadcasting as an evangelistic tool as well as just being good for Christians. We thank God for Rent free premises and free assistance with building work. Gifts of equipment, and ideas of how to make do with the equipment we have. A CD library of over 25,000 tracks mostly donated free of charge. Redundancy and disability enabling a core team of people to be available year round. An emerging training relationship with a professional body (Institution of Electronics) plus strong links with the Christian Broadcasting Council and Commedia. "Success is achieving within the resources that we have". We have also found that Flame is a recovery route for people - getting involved in the Flame team has been a therapy in terms of steps back into employment, finding confidence in themselves again, or finding abilities that they never knew they had. We do not go out seeking people - where would we look in such a disparate area across so many denominations and places. But God sends them in - and we maintain a warm welcome behind our Green Door - WIGWAM (we in God welcome all men/women) has been our motto. People have come in with appropriate skills at the appropriate time - that is our experience. Those who are "yet to become Christians" get an equal welcome and we deliberately take the risk of allowing non-Christians to be involved in our activities - by doing this we are putting into practice our aim of "building a bridge between the Christian Community and the community at large". People happily work with us within the bounds of our Christian broadcasting code. As expressed by members of our team : "I only intended to be controlling the desk and not to say anything or talk to anyone. But gradually over time I found many new friends and surprised myself on one occasion when no-one was at a microphone when a programme finished so I just went ahead and announced the programme myself. Now I just love the opportunity of broadcasting my own shows for five hours a week. Over three years Flame has changed my life" "I had a vision for Christian radio two decades ago and helped to establish UCB, now I am enjoying being a key part of what is happening at Flame, especially broadcasting my favourite rock music" "Leaving work, off-sick with stress that almost left me suicidal and afraid to step outside my flat, I took a brave step of showing an interest in the Flame team. They picked me up in a practical way to enable me to work in the studio, and that enabled me to pick myself up and rebuild my life. Now I can travel by myself on public transport to the studio and I enjoy keeping the CD library ordered and on a database." "Taking early-retirement has enabled me to focus on my family. I enjoy the challenge of getting the overnight programmes well ordered, and helping my wife present and record programmes. It is also a privilege looking after the finances" "Having been involved with UCB for 20 years, I had never actually broadcast. Flame dropped me in at the deep end and I enjoyed presenting on air so much that I insisted that UCB add me to their broadcasting team. Since then I have found that spend time working at Flame is far better than driving to Stoke on Trent, and there are so many interesting people to interview on Wirral" "My dream of a career in media has taken a long time to materialise but the time spent broadcasting on Flame gave me a step upwards in convincing mainstream local stations of my capabilities" "I have spent many happy hours putting together Flame programmes using the computers. I reckon my work experience at Flame was the best that any of my school year had" "Out of all of things in life my real love is to come into Flame, soak up the friendship and enjoy putting music programmes together I am looking forward so much to being more involved" "When A4E (Action for Employment) sent me to the Flame studio I wondered whether I would enjoy it - but if I had the chance to get involved more I really would" And two young members of our team, University "religious studies" students, trying new ideas out for a secular Saturday afternoon two slot, invented the "Snakes and Doves Show" and were delighted to be awarded "Best Newcomers" by the Jerusalem Awards, 2004. One of the duo inserted her Welsh humour, reminding us regularly that English is her second language, and her co-presenter put into reality his childhood dreams and games when he played radio stations with his best friend (who incidentally also broadcast on Flame for two years before obtaining a much cherished job in BBC religious broadcasting in Manchester). Now two of the Youth for Christ team have taken the challenge of our week-day drive team and keep us amused with their alternative news, 1 minute challenges plus their attempts at rapping. Dave is off to theological college but we are sure he will search for radio opportunities as part of his ministerial activities. And we can add some stories from our audience - often at a simple "you blessed us" level, or "that programme really helped me", or "please can I have a copy of that programme for a friend", but there are a few momentous times when we have phone calls from people who said: "I just touched my radio and it came on tuned to Flame and your programmes have really helped me whilst my mother was seriously ill". "I had taken an overdose and when I came to the following morning I reached out and knocked my radio onto the floor, I lay laughing at the programme thinking I must be in Heaven. I stayed tuned in during the day wondering who they were and where they were. When I phoned the studio they told me about Jesus". Note: the Duty Manager did lead the lady through a prayer that day, and the Flame team established contact with her. Now 18 months later she said a few days ago that her life is getting slowly sorted out, thanks to regular prayer and daily Bible reading. Incidentally the humorous programme was not intended to be a part of our schedule but was used as a back up because the intended CD could not be found - and was a recording of a talk by Adrian Plass. For the future our three key purposes in full-time broadcasting (learnt and put into practice during our five years of broadcasting) are: providing radio services to a group that is currently under-served - i.e. the Christian community on Wirral - and the strengthening of links within it improving local awareness of the Christian community, and bridge building to the local wider community and increasing social inclusion, welcoming involvement from all people in our broadcasting activities. Note that by the "Christian Community" we mean people who state, as religion, that they are Christians, i.e. more than just church attendees and Wirral demographics (2001 Census) put this at 320,000 (81%). Being a part of the Christian Broadcasting Council (and on their executive council) gives us a link to other Christian broadcasters - "comfort, credibility and clues" we say - and we find the interaction and support very welcome to fledgling broadcasters like us. We have been involved in writing comments on Ofcom's key strategy papers. We also belong to the Commedia (Community Media Association) and the Association of Christians in Broadcasting. We are grateful for the persistent work of the Centre of Justice and Liberty who champion Christian radio and the freedom to broadcast the gospel over the open airwaves. The battle for national Christian broadcasting may have been lost, but we believe that there is strong government approval for Christian broadcasting at a local level. We cherish our religious freedom that has been fought for and accept that the Christian Gospel is an offence to those outside but salvation to those within. As Christian broadcasters we do not seek to be offensive, either culturally or literally, in the way that we put our faith across. We do not intend to denigrate other faith groups or individuals and we seek to abide by the existing Programme Codes. But we do continue to seek to be able to broadcast the substance of our faith without fear of retribution; a substance that is summarised in Jesus' words "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me"(John 14 v.6). At present our patience is tightly stretched with awaiting Ofcom's decision on our full-time licence. We started preparing our application in March 2004, now two years ago. The application form, 65 pages long, was finished by August but then Ofcom delayed the closing date to November 2004 and said that they would take nearly a year to assess the 194 applications. At Conferences they indicated that stations like ours were good examples of the community stations they were looking to grant licences to, and that Charity groups were expected to be operating in a low finance few paid workers regime - just like ourselves. However it gradually became clear that the availability of frequencies was a major problem and this has been the major reason for almost a month on month slip in Ofcom's decision capability - and now 19 months after the closing date Merseyside is still awaiting Ofcom's decision. They say that "patience" is a fruit of the Spirit; I believe that but I often comment that if I was not a Christian following a God given vision, with Christians around me in the team, I would have given up a long time ago. However my determination to gain that licence has increased month on month to a point where losing is not an option. The grit and determination of the Olympics gold medal winners, or the recent World Snooker Champion, are the type of emotion that I feel over this decision. The "five year" path we have followed since mid 2000 has been exactly as God showed us.  In 2001 "access radio" was launched by the Radio Authority (now Ofcom) In 2002 the government started inviting comments on a new "Communications Act" and that led us into contact with our MPs as we wrote comments and input to the government plans In 2003 the Communication Act was passed and Ofcom was formed with, amongst a lot of tasks, a mandate for launching Community Radio based on the Access Radio model. In 2004 Ofcom published their Community Radio form and invited applicants by November 2004 and in that time we have now done 12 Flame broadcasts &ldots;. God's timing is always perfect, isn't it. And now Ofcom have almost concluded awarding licences, currently to 99 out of 191 applicants and we await their decision on the Merseyside applications - of course they have left the best until last. We acknowledge God's help In preparing and submitting a quality application for a full-time licence, including comprehensive information on the local Christian population and denominations, on Wirral deprivation, on the technical elements of radio transmission, and showing a sociological understanding of the purposes of community radio. In starting to broadcast our Heritage programmes with positive reaction to the quality and interest level of the programmes. And in the great variety of programmes we have for broadcast. In patiently waiting for 18 months for Ofcom's approval of our full-time licence and the prayer support (both local and across UK and beyond) that has built up for the Ofcom decision. In keeping the Flame team together, being able to broadcast more RSLs than originally planned (and meeting their costs) and in maintaining the vital financial help from our support base. In bringing new people into our team with key expertise that will be essential for our future. In bringing equipment and furnishings to us ready for our expansion, to a point where we are storing furniture in garages awaiting the day when we can expand our premises. When we are broadcasting at present our limited space is very, very cramped. The future ""Touching Heaven - changing earth" is apposite to Christian broadcasters. We do not want to outstrip God's plans for us but we are convinced of the effectiveness of local radio as a 21st Century medium for communicating faith - and changing earth. "We are also learning that the act of broadcasting is significant and is independent of the number of people listening. Spiritually the number of hours filling the air with Christian music is part of the Lord's plan - the battle for the media is a large part of the spiritual battle going on in the Heavenlies - we are privileged to be a part of it and will see the result in the coming years. We experience the scars of this battle and cherish the positive prayerful support of Christians across the UK. We believe that, with plenty of sharing and interlinking, the initial eight Christian community radio stations could increase, with stations each covering 10 km diameter and touching at the fringes covering a large part of the populous areas of the UK giving a Christian choice on the FM radio dial. In our publicity we bravely said that Flame is taking on this challenge in the North West and trying to lead the way, and we note the lead of other Christian radio stations near Glasgow and in Bournemouth. Yet a simple statistic says that amongst over 4,000 RSL broadcasts since 1991 there have only been 91 taken by 28 Christian groups, 17 of which have only broadcast once - only 6 groups have broadcast more than 5 times in the last 10 years (Branch FM, Caleb Radio, Flame FM Bradford, ourselves, Hope FM and Revival Radio). there are a multiplicity of RSL broadcasts from other faiths and at Easter they outnumber the Christian groups by more than ten to one. Whilst we are heavily focused on local FM radio, we are also starting to put our key programmes, with interesting speech content, onto the internet. We are aware that when have our full-time licence granted we will need more studio space and improved studio equipment. We are also trusting that Ofcom allows us greater transmission power and improvements to our antenna. We are actively preparing for this full-time opportunity and looking forward to seeing God's continuing miraculous provision, as well as far greater support from Christians within our broadcasting area. Our way of working over the coming months is summarised in a verse given us in April 2005 from Romans 12 v.12 (the Message) "Don't burn out; keep yourselves fuelled and aflame. Be alert servants of the Master, cheerfully expectant. Don't quit in hard times; pray all the harder. Help needy Christians; be inventive in hospitality". The "expectant" connotation implies a time of intense preparation, a long period of discomfort, and a definite and happy ending which changes life completely - and the edict to keep cheerful during the gestation period. Since being given the verse I have become a grandfather reminding me of the challenge of handing down a Christian ethic and life to a new generation - and I am convinced that the Christian media will play a far stronger role in maintaining the faith than the current churches in the 21st Century. Whilst "the real future is digital" there are no current government plans for turning off analogue frequencies. DAB radios are in the shops but analogue radios will still be in predominance for many years yet. DRM is an emerging digital technology which will better suit local radio. So "waiting for digital" is not an option - the other faiths are not waiting, they are leaping into the radio opportunity. And the experience gained with radio organisation, programme creation and studio technology prepares us for future changes in bearer technology whether it be internet or digital.