By Herald Malaysia
Feb 23 2021
CatholicSG Radio started streaming on June 1, 2019 to provide listeners with a good mix of prayers, faith-based conversations and music.
CatholicSG Radio started streaming on June 1, 2019 to provide listeners with a good mix of prayers, faith-based conversations and music. They were officially launched a day later, in conjunction with World Communications Day which is traditionally celebrated on the 7th Sunday of Easter.
Illustrating the reason for the project, Andre Ahchak, Director of Social Communications in the Archdiocese, stated after the launch: “It is a way to reach out and bring the proclamation of the Gospel through new technologies. We wanted to broaden the horizon and also connect with those who can or love to listen. We see that the trend of podcasts is becoming increasingly popular. So we asked ourselves: can we share the Gospel of Jesus with listeners? This gave us the impulse to start the radio project”.
The content includes talk shows, interviews, reflections, music. “Listeners can use podcasts at the most appropriate time and place. We would like our content to be easily recognisable for all people, Catholics, and non-Catholics. One of our programmes will feature informal chats with respondents who talk about their faith”, said Ahchak.
Another podcast is designed for those who want to better understand the Church or the challenges that Catholics face today.
CatholicSG Radio collaborates with several archdiocesan organisations to create relevant and pertinent faith-based content to form the faith of our listeners. Collaborators include the Archdiocesan Commission for Apostolate for Mandarin Speaking (ACAMS), the Office for the New Evangelisation (ONE) and others.
They are also able to offer prayers, especially the rosary, in various Chinese dialects as well as in Tamil with the help of Friar Julian Mariaratnam, OFM.
Great space is dedicated to music that will “inspire and bring people to God, both enhancing local talents such as Corrinne May, Chris de Silva, Kenneth Ngo, Joseph Chng, John de Silva, and many others, thinking about great authors and singers who have shared or lived an experience of faith”.
Listeners can experience CatholicSG Radio 24/7 via a web browser or through their app! The app is available for free download in the Apple App Store, Google Play Store and the Huawei App Gallery.
Embedded within the app are podcasts and videos which allows you to choose when and how you want to experience what they have to offer.
Some of their talk programmes are also available as podcasts on Spotify, such as Kopi Talk and At the Table.
If you like the content and you feel inspired to contribute your own content (talks/reflection/music), please write in to link@catholic. org.sg.
Source: CatholicSG Radio/Signis
KekitaanFM, an Online radio in Keningau Diocese, was launched on Oct 3, 2020 and has been successfully operating for more than four months. Even in that short period, the online radio has brought significant changes and tremendous blessings to the Diocese of Keningau. Since it is cloud based, it has the capacity and power to reach millions of people, not only within the Diocese of Keningau but also in other areas and countries as well. In other words, it has enhanced the way the Church is reaching out to people in terms of pastoring.
In fact, KekitaanFM was featured on Astro Awani in December to highlight how it was helping the people to celebrate Christmas during this pandemic.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many pastoral programmes have been suspended including the PUKAT-11 (Perhimpunan Umat Awam Keuskupan Keningau-11). Bishop Cornelius Piong and his clergy had initiated this and Kekitaan FM provided the documentation and, study days in a special segment on PUKAT-11 (Jan 6 and 7).
KekitaanFM has also invited many guests from diverse backgrounds, eg pastors, lay people, and religious to talk on various pertinent issues on youth, the COVID-19 pandemic, mental depression, catechetical matters, the Word of God and many more.
The station, sponsored by the diocese’s Commission for Social Communications, was launched with the aim of becoming a means of evangelisation and pastoral care to the faithful who remained confined at home due to the pandemic.
Kekitaan is the Malay word for “togetherness” or “belonging.” With its main focus on spirituality and evangelisation, the station runs a host of programmes, including popular segments like the daily Word of God, nonstop spiritual songs, church announcements (mostly from the Diocese of Keningau) and news stories picked from reliable outlets.
It also runs a Facebook page that hosts live programmes every day where hundreds of listeners and visitors from the diocese and elsewhere interact with the hosts.
In Muslim-majority Malaysia, Christians account for just 13 per cent of the population, according to a census last year. Two-thirds of Malaysian Christians live in just two of the country’s 13 states, Sabah and Sarawak on the island of Borneo, where they make up a third of the population. The Diocese of Keningau has about 128,900 Catholics, while Catholics altogether make up about 1.2 million in the three archdioceses and six dioceses of Malaysia. – Herald Malaysia
