Vision Radio Network

Last updated

Vision Christian Radio
Broadcast area Australia
Branding Vision Christian Radio
Slogan Connecting Faith to Life
Frequency Various
First air date 1 February 1999
Format Christian
Class Open Narrowcast
Owner Vision Christian Media (United Christian Broadcasters Australia Ltd.)
Website www.vision.org.au

Vision Christian Radio (formerly Vision Radio Network and Vision FM) is a Christian media ministry of Vision Christian Media (United Christian Broadcasters Australia Ltd.). Vision's motto is "Connecting Faith to Life" and the radio network is a means to that end. It aims to make Christian media easily accessible for every Australian. As of 2017, Vision operates on 700+ licences, the majority being low powered FM services reaching into suburban areas of large cities plus many small country towns. It also broadcasts on almost 30 higher powered services including Western Sydney, Western Melbourne and Adelaide on 1611 AM.

Christian media can either refer to Christians who work in secular media, or media that is Christian, or refer to various aspects of mass media which is primarily targeting the Christian demographic. The conservative Christian right and fundamentalist Christians have been especially active with media ventures.

Contents

History

Vision began broadcasting from small studios in Springwood, Brisbane on 1 February 1999. In 2001 Vision moved into larger premises in nearby Underwood to better provide a 24-hour 7-day broadcast to relay stations across the nation, plus listeners on the Internet and via satellite.

Springwood, Queensland Suburb of Logan City, Queensland, Australia

Springwood is a suburb of Logan City, Queensland, Australia. The size of Springwood is approximately 6 km². It has 17 parks covering nearly 9% of the total area. The population of Springwood in 1996 was 9,738 people. By 2001 the population was 9,084 showing a population decline of 7% in the area during that time. A high proportion of people in Springwood are in the baby boomers generation compared to population proportions in the surrounding local government area.

Brisbane capital city of Queensland, Australia

Brisbane is the capital of and the most populated city in the Australian state of Queensland, and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbane's metropolitan area has a population of 2.5 million, and the South East Queensland region, centred on Brisbane, encompasses a population of more than 3.5 million. The Brisbane central business district stands on the historic European settlement and is situated inside a peninsula of the Brisbane River, about 15 kilometres from its mouth at Moreton Bay. The metropolitan area extends in all directions along the floodplain of the Brisbane River Valley between Moreton Bay and the Great Dividing Range, sprawling across several of Australia's most populous local government areas (LGAs)—most centrally the City of Brisbane, which is by far the most populous LGA in the nation. The demonym of Brisbane is "Brisbanite".

Radio stations that cannot communicate directly due to distance, terrain or other difficulties sometimes use an intermediate radio relay station to relay the signals. Examples include airborne radio relay, microwave radio relay, and communications satellite. The American Radio Relay League was founded for this purpose but did not change its name when this became a less important part of its work.

UCB Australia (as it was then known) was able to acquire around 500 high and low powered open narrowcast licences and quickly set up a national network of relay stations to meet the needs of listeners all over the country. Vision Christian Radio reaches listeners in places ranging from Australia's larger cities to regional centres and tiny isolated towns in The Bush. Many small to medium-sized country towns in Australia have benefited from the cost-effective approach of using low powered FM transmitters. Although typically only one to ten watts, they usually give quite adequate residential coverage in small towns, depending on the antenna height above local terrain. The setup cost is achievable for most communities. The ongoing cost is minimal due to low maintenance equipment with low power consumption – some stations in remote areas even use solar power.

Expansion

In the twelve months following March 2001 a rapid expansion began, seeing the number of on-air relay stations triple from around 30 to 90. Also in April 2001, Vision introduced Australia's first nationwide news service from a Christian perspective. Originally called UCB News, it was later rebranded to fall under the unified "Vision" brand. Vision's News is heard across all of the 700+ Vision Christian Radio stations as well as being accessed by a growing number of community stations who don't have the resources to produce their own news content.

During 2003 Vision had opportunity to secure its first high powered open narrowcast licences.

The network quickly reached 150 relay stations by the end of 2003. In the following year its first foray into AM radio sites in Shepparton, Bunbury and Kalgoorlie began. Just prior to Christmas 2004 a further 17 High Powered licences were secured to be on air the following year.

Bunbury, Western Australia City in Western Australia

Bunbury is a coastal city in Western Australia, approximately 175 kilometres (109 mi) south of the state capital, Perth. It is the state's third-largest city, with a population just behind that of Mandurah.

Vision's 200th relay station was powered up on Australia Day 2005 at the Central Australian town of Yulara – right next to Uluru (Ayers Rock). Yarrawonga in Victoria became station number 300 in late 2007 and a significant development occurred in late 2008 with the acquisition of a medium powered AM service in Melbourne (1611AM). Throughout 2009 and 2010 Vision continued to expand its reach with, on average, a new station every week. Station number 400 went to air late in 2009 at Lockhart in NSW. In August 2011, Vision's 500th station was installed in the Queensland community of Murphy's Creek. The 600th installation was a high-powered AM station at Dubbo NSW in August 2014 and the 700th was in the remote indigenous community of Lake Nash in the Northern Territory in September 2017.

Australia Day Australian national holiday

Australia Day is the official national day of Australia. Celebrated annually on 26 January, it marks the anniversary of the 1788 arrival of the First Fleet of British ships at Port Jackson, New South Wales, and the raising of the Flag of Great Britain at Sydney Cove by Governor Arthur Phillip. In present-day Australia, celebrations reflect the diverse society and landscape of the nation and are marked by community and family events, reflections on Australian history, official community awards and citizenship ceremonies welcoming new members of the Australian community.

Yulara, Northern Territory Town in the Northern Territory, Australia

Yulara is a town in the Southern Region of the Northern Territory, Australia. It lies as an unincorporated enclave within MacDonnell Region. At the 2016 census, Yulara had a permanent population of 1,099, in an area of 103.33 square kilometres (39.90 sq mi). It is 18 kilometres (11 mi) by road from world heritage site Uluru and 55 kilometres (34 mi) from Kata Tjuta. It is located in the Northern Territory electorate of Namatjira and the federal electorate of Lingiari.

Uluru large sandstone rock formation in Australia

Uluru, also known as Ayers Rock and officially gazetted as Uluru / Ayers Rock, is a large sandstone rock formation in the southern part of the Northern Territory in central Australia. It lies 335 km (208 mi) south west of the nearest large town, Alice Springs.

Vision's catchcry is "Connecting Faith to Life" and it does this through talk and music based programming aimed at "unpacking" what it means to follow Jesus Christ in an understandable way.

Vision has several sister ministry arms (all operated by Vision Christian Media), including Australia's most popular daily devotionals "The Word for Today" (for adults) and "Vision180" (for youth) as well as a prayer ministry "Vision Christian Prayer", and the teaching resources ministry of "Vision Christian Store".

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