BELMONT — Belmont Abbey College has hit the radio waves with its own Low Power FM Catholic radio station, 101.5 WBAC-LP. Courtesy of a donor, the college has restarted its place in local radio after a more than 20-year hiatus.
The new station will initially broadcast the EWTN Radio Network intermingled with college-produced programming. As a Low Power FM channel, the new station reaches all of Belmont, Mount Holly and parts of eastern Gastonia and western Charlotte.
The 140-year-old Benedictine college had a station beginning in the early 1970s under the call letters WABY.
“Bringing back the radio station to the abbey affords us so many new opportunities for our students and for the college to support the Church’s New Evangelization. We’re excited to be back on the air. And we’re excited to bring Catholic radio and great programming from EWTN to one of the fastest-growing Catholic markets in the country,” said Dr. Bill Thierfelder, president of Belmont Abbey College.
The new station will support academic endeavors under the guidance of Dr. Trey Cunningham, who leads the college’s new Sport Broadcasting Enrichment program, by giving students real-world experience. A new student radio club and the student-run newspaper, The Crusader, will also contribute to local programming. In addition, the college plans to broadcast college athletic events, arts events and theatre.
The new station represents the first Catholic radio station in the Charlotte area. The college will announce new programming through social media and on the college’s website, www.belmontabbeycollege.edu. The station is also broadcasting online via the college’s website.
— Rolando Rivas, special to the Catholic News Herald. Rolando Rivas is the director of marketing and communications for Belmont Abbey College and the acting station manager of 101.5 WBAC-LP.
New film begins run during Catholic Church’s Year of Mercy
NEW HAVEN, Conn. – “The Face of Mercy,” a new Knights of Columbus documentary that uses personal accounts to highlight the impact of God’s mercy on people’s lives, will air on Charlotte and Asheville area ABC affiliates this month.
Air times are: in Charlotte, on WSOC at 3 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 22; and in Asheville, on WLOS at 2:05 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 29.
“Throughout the 20th century, the Catholic understanding of Divine Mercy became increasingly important. Both St. John Paul II, and Pope Francis, who declared this Year of Mercy, made it a central theme of their papacies,” said Knights of Columbus CEO Carl Anderson. “This extraordinary film highlights the sort of transformations that are possible in individual lives that embrace the way of mercy, forgiveness and reconciliation.”
Narrated by actor Jim Caviezel, “The Face of Mercy” draws connections between the history of
Divine Mercy and this year’s Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy, which will end Nov. 20. It also shows mercy’s role in the transformation of the lives of ordinary people.
The documentary explores how St. John Paul II inherited and shared the message of Divine Mercy revealed to a Polish nun, Sister Faustina Kowalska, in the first half of the 20th century. While still an archbishop in Poland, John Paul worked to gain the Church’s approval of the message revealed to Sister Faustina. Her message was embraced, and the pope who had worked so hard to spread her message declared her a saint in 2000.
These two Polish saints – Faustina and John Paul II – together propelled the image of Divine Mercy – and insight into the concept – onto the world stage. That work continues as Pope Francis continues to promote Divine Mercy during the Jubilee Year of Mercy now underway in the Catholic Church.
Filmed in 4K high definition, the project weaves theology and history with modern testimonials to reveal what constitutes the face of mercy in people’s lives, and how it is the antidote to evil even in the most difficult times.
The people featured include Immaculée Ilibagiza, who found freedom in forgiveness after seeing her family killed during the genocide in Rwanda; a former NFL linebacker who walked away from his sports career to share Christ’s mercy with the homeless; a baseball player who traded major league ambitions for a priestly vocation; a priest with a drug-dealing past; and a young widow who chose to forgive her husband’s killer. All witness to mercy in incredible ways in their own lives.
“These moving testimonies remind us that Divine Mercy is not just a devotion or theological concept – it is alive, it is present, and it is a force that can transform the world,” Anderson said.
More information about the film, including broadcast times and the DVD release, is available at www.faceofmercyfilm.com.