[Apologetics] Bible Answer Man Off the Air on WAVA

[Art Kelly]

When the Bible Answer Man program was not on WAVA today (Focus on the Family was in its place), I called the station and was told it is no longer being carried locally.
 
As you may know, the Christian Research Institute (CRI) pays to run the program on radio stations around the county.  The person at WAVA said that CRI was not willing to continue to run the program here, because there were insufficient financial contributions from this area to support it.
 
A number of years ago, the program was broadcast live on WAVA from 6 to 7 PM Eastern.  Then, it started being run on a tape-delayed basis from 7 to 8 PM.  Now, it is off the air entirely.
 
I check the CRI website and found a list of only 108 stations now carrying the program nationally, not counting the XM satellite radio  The only one station in Virginia is in Richmond.  There were none in Washington, D.C.  There was one station in Maryland, but I was not familiar with the name of the city where the station is located.
 
For several months I've been on the Bible Answer Man e-mail list, having signed up through the WAVA website, and received an e-mail recently from Hank attacking the Catholic Church on a historical matter in which I believe he is mistaken.  I was preparing a reply, and may still complete it, but wonder if I should bother.  If I do, I'll send you a Bcc of the message I send to Hank.
 
I don't know if it is the recession or what, but it looks like CRI may be in financial trouble. In a way, I'm a little sad.  While Hank could not resist criticizing Catholicism from time to time, I've also heard him DEFEND the Church from some far-out attacks by extra-chromosome fundamentalists.
 
And he moderated--even-handedly!--the famous radio debate between James White and James Akin, which was a significant victory for Akin.  
 
(Of course, in another debate between White and Tim Staples, Hank was NOT even-handed and it was ended up being, essentially, Hank and White against Staples, who did not do too well.  My guess is that Hank got a lot of criticism from Protestants for being too fair in the first debate.  He made up for it in the debate with Staples.)
 
Hank was not all bad all the time.  On some matters not affecting the Church, I sometimes agreed with him, at least partially.

Art


      
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