Christian Radio Station Labeled "New Public Enemy #1"

For years, JOY FM was a radio station in St. Louis… that most of St. Louis couldn’t even hear. Then came a question from God that changed everything: “Are you ready?”

It was clear that God was not done. There was a city full of people that needed to be reached with the gospel. 

How was he going to do it? Through the radio signal…99.1 FM. 

But getting there didn’t come without challenges... It didn’t come without heartbreak… And public backlash from every direction…

It seemed hopeless. But God parted the waters in a way NO ONE saw coming.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Okay, take a look at this. This is the city of St. Louis. And this is where Christian music was broadcast for 10 years. You see the problem, right? It didn't even reach most of the city, but that all changed when God very clearly spoke.

SPEAKER_01 0:17

He had a question. Which I know that sounds a little got my attention and directed my thoughts to a question. And it was. It was clear that God was not done. There was a city full of people that needed to be reached with the gospel. That had never happened in our city before.

SPEAKER_02 0:36

How was he gonna do it? Through the radio signal of 99.1 FM. But getting there, it did not come without challenges. So did they entertain it?

SPEAKER_07 0:48

No.

SPEAKER_02 0:49

It did not come without heartbreak.

SPEAKER_00 0:52

When we went to the Starbucks in Kirkwood, I remember and I just cried.

SPEAKER_02 0:55

And public backlash from every direction.

SPEAKER_00 0:59

There was a death threat to one of the attorneys involved.

SPEAKER_08 1:02

I mean we had local Congress people members of Congress come out against this.

SPEAKER_00 1:06

And my son came home and said, Mommy, someone at school said you're a bad person. Are you a bad person? I was like, ah.

SPEAKER_02 1:13

It seemed hopeless. It seemed like there was no way forward. But then God parted the waters in a way that no one saw coming.

SPEAKER_08 1:22

Out of the blue, we get a phone call. Hey, this is 99.1. Uh would you like to meet again?

SPEAKER_00 1:30

And none of us could have predicted what happened. Like none of us could have predicted what happened.

SPEAKER_02 1:36

Hey, my name is Bryce. I'm on the morning show here at Joy FM. I've only worked here for two years, but I have heard stories that you would not believe. They're stories that only God could write. And because I grew up listening to Joy FM, I am so excited to be on a mission to tell these stories. I'm sitting down with the eyewitnesses, the people who saw God working, and you will not believe what he did.

SPEAKER_00 2:00

So we had two signals that barely got into St. Louis, which meant that most of the people in St. Louis were unaware that Joy FM even existed. At our heyday on 97 7, uh we had about 80,000 listeners. So we were here. It's just most people couldn't hear us.

SPEAKER_02 2:20

While the reach wasn't massive, there was a contentment in what God had provided so far and who was able to be reached by Joy FM.

SPEAKER_00 2:28

There's no, we weren't working on anything, we had no more resources to invest in any bigger signal. Actually, the first steps that I think he brought us to in the idea of a big signal was came in the form of a question. I was at a leadership conference and was there taking notes on leadership. It was a Christian conference, and I don't remember who was speaking or what they were talking about. But I do remember God interrupting my thoughts from who I was hearing on stage to something he was saying to me, which I know that sounds a little um I don't hear his voice audibly, and this doesn't happen very often, but he he got my attention and directed my thoughts to a question and it was, Are you ready? And I I I'm like, I was started listening to the speaker again, going, What is he saying something about this? And it wasn't, it was just clearly, I felt like the Lord just um in a very clear way got my attention and said, Are you ready? And I started to weep, and I wrote it down in my journal I was taking notes on because I didn't know what it meant, but I felt like I was confident it was the Lord. It was a question for our ministry, and it had something to do with him getting ready to do something big that would probably mean we could reach more people.

SPEAKER_02 3:49

These three words, are you ready? They soon echoed through the halls of Joy FM. No one knew exactly what they meant, but if nothing else, they were a reminder that God was in the driver's seat and he wanted Joy FM's staff and the listeners and the board to just hold on. Speaking of the board, I want you to meet Brett Dempsey. Today he is the general manager of Joy FM, but at the time.

SPEAKER_08 4:15

I I was at the I was on the board um at the time, and I remember Sandy Brown coming to the board meeting and saying, Everybody, I feel like God is speaking to me, saying, Are you ready? And she's like, I don't know what that means, but I I I feel like God is saying, Are you ready?

SPEAKER_00 4:35

And I don't remember all the the conversation, but the board, I do remember them asking questions like, ready for what? How much is it going to cost? What's the timeline? You know, and I didn't know. And um we talked about it then, like, um, what do we do with that? And so we actually, in our board meeting, we wanted to memorialize it. And so we took a vote and said, Are we ready? And it was unanimous. And the board, and then we just prayed then and said, Lord, um, we don't know whether we're ready or not because we don't know what it is, but we want to be. If you have something for this ministry for us and you're ready, then we want the posture of our heart to be, then we're ready, Lord. Then the phone rang. And in short order, we received a phone call that there was a signal 99.1 that was owned by the Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod, and it was going to be for sale. So we reached out to them to see if we could set up a meeting. They said yes. We went and met with them, confirmed that the station would be for sale. And I mean, we were giddy because God had just spoken. Here it was. The this we're like, ah, this is yes, this is it.

SPEAKER_08 5:45

And um, yeah, they gave us a price tag, and the price tag was $30 million. And $30 million that we did not have.

SPEAKER_00 5:55

I I think our budget, uh our our whole annual budget was uh a few million dollars. Um so to be able to come up with $30 million, it was uh clear that that was not going to work.

SPEAKER_02 6:09

What was the reason it was so expensive? Because remind me again what you bought 97.7 for.

SPEAKER_00 6:14

1.2 million.

SPEAKER_02 6:16

Okay. So was it the reach? What was the reason it was so expensive?

SPEAKER_00 6:19

Radio stations are limited in number and they reach a lot of people, especially in a big market like St. Louis. So there were stations that were selling at that time for tens of millions of dollars. And the 97.7 signal barely got into St. Louis. This was one of the most powerful signals in St. Louis, 99.1. It reached about a hundred miles in any direction. So it was valuable and they don't become available very often. So if you want one of these big signals, you're gonna have to pay a premium for it. The seller knew that and they had reason to say um it's thirty million dollars.

SPEAKER_08 6:55

So when I heard, you know, are you ready? Of course, at the time, myself as well as the rest of the board and Sandy were saying, sure, we're ready, we're ready for whatever's next. Um but when I heard $30 million, I wasn't ready for that. I wasn't sure if $30 million was fair or not. I just knew our ministry did not have anywhere near that kind of money. Uh at the time we had very little cash reserves, and it seemed like everything that was coming in was going back out into ministry to either reach our city through outreach or through paying for towers and and things to keep us on the air. So I just knew that we didn't we probably didn't even have a down payment for something like that.

SPEAKER_00 7:39

We asked for, well, but you love Jesus and and we love Jesus. So knowing that it would be used for ministry, is there like a Jesus discount, you know? Sounds silly now, but um we we thought, well, if if we can't pay 30, then there has to be a way we can acquire this signal. And they said no, that there was no Jesus discount. It was $30 million. And so um Brett Dempsey, who was chair of our board at that time, he and I were in that meeting, and we left and we uh their office was in Kirkwood and we went to the Starbucks in Kirkwood. I I remember and I just cried. Um I can twofold. One, I couldn't figure out, well, why was God asking us if we were ready when clearly we weren't? We didn't have those resources, and it was right here like they do love Jesus, we do love Jesus, and why can't we then figure out some way to enable this big signal to reach a lot of people in St. Louis? It was just heartbreaking.

SPEAKER_02 8:31

So a discount is off the table, but it doesn't hurt to ask the question, right? But maybe, maybe we're asking the wrong question. Maybe the question should be, what could we afford?

SPEAKER_08 8:47

We still wanted to charge ahead and see what we could afford, and that if God is in this, that He will see us through this.

SPEAKER_00 8:54

And not only what we could afford that day, because that was limited, we had very little money in the bank. Um, but in time, if because the signal was so big, we could reach a lot more people, what would it look like if we went from 80,000 listeners to 200,000? Like what would it look like if we doubled our listener base? We did all the math, and and Brett was the banker guy, so he was a lot better at the numbers.

SPEAKER_08 9:20

Um, we went to some banks to see if would they be willing to lend us some money, and there was no bank in town. And I worked at one of them that said, There's no way we would lend you this much money.

SPEAKER_02 9:31

You see, in order for banks to lend you money, they have to be able to have a certain level of confidence that you'll be able to pay them back. But at the time, Joy FM only had 80,000 listeners. And yes, we told the bank about our projections to reach hopefully 200,000 people in five years. But banks, they don't really care about your projections, especially when you nearly have to triple in size in five years. It's just too risky. We were simply too small to buy a radio signal of this size. So here's a crazy idea.

SPEAKER_00 10:07

But basically, it was we knew we couldn't go to a bank and get a loan. Um, but if they would agree to finance it for us, so they would sell it to us and serve also as the bank, and they let us pay them off over a period of 20 years.

SPEAKER_08 10:21

And so we looked at our financial situation, we did some analysis of like how many listeners would now listen to this bigger signal, what percentage of those listeners would likely give.

SPEAKER_00 10:34

We asked for another meeting with the seller, went back to them, presented our offer, and it was crazy. Hey, you need to finance it. No interest for a while, no principal payments for a while, um, back end heavy. We need time to build listeners, and then in time, you know, we will be able to go to a bank and then get you $18 million.

SPEAKER_08 10:52

And so they would need to be our our bank is the only way that we can make that happen. And honestly, going into that, wasn't sure if they would actually even entertain that.

SPEAKER_02 11:02

So did they entertain it?

SPEAKER_08 11:05

No.

SPEAKER_00 11:07

The their their exact response was, no, we said it was 30 million, not 18, and so we reject your offer. And again, it was another Starbucks meeting and and tears because again, now even more devastatingly, it's like, man, um it it's probably just a permanent no, then this then this door, there's no way this door could open if they won't accept this offer.

SPEAKER_02 11:28

To add salt to the wound, Joy FM knew that we weren't the only ones trying to buy this radio signal.

SPEAKER_00 11:35

Major radio networks were interested. Some who had signals in St. Louis already, some who did not. We knew of other Christian stations that might be interested. I mean, there around the country, there was interest. We knew in real time there were other offers being made on this signal. And if they had rejected ours, they probably weren't going to reject all of them. It was um painful. There was nothing else we could do but wait. And it was eight or nine months of silence, knowing we weren't going to get the station, someone else was, and we were this close.

SPEAKER_08 12:10

Yeah, that it went from a range of emotions and we thought, okay, Lord, we must not have heard from you because um there wasn't even a counter, there wasn't continued in negotiations. It was a flat out, no, that's not even close to what we want.

SPEAKER_00 12:25

It was not only just the physical, wow, we may not get a radio station, but it was also trying to figure out, then why did you say, God, are you ready? Like trying to figure out that whole piece of it was also very confusing and very difficult.

SPEAKER_02 12:38

I wonder if you can relate to this moment. Let us know in the comments if you've ever had a time in your life where things didn't go the way you thought that they would, or maybe you felt discouraged, feeling like you didn't hear God correctly. This was one of those moments, but life must go on.

SPEAKER_08 12:57

So, yeah, so we continued on as usual, ministry, and and in my mind, we kind of moved on from 99.1 because it was such an abrupt closing. But out of the blue, we get a phone call that says, uh, hey, this is 99.1. Uh, would you like to meet again? And of course, at first it was shock. And then we thought, of course we want to.

SPEAKER_00 13:22

And they started off with a question: Why did you offer $18 million? And we explained that it was a strategy that the Lord kind of took us through a process that made sense, that we didn't want to make an offer that we couldn't defend and come through on, but that also, so we felt like there was logic in it, but also it was very clearly what we felt the Lord led us to. And that's why we made the offer. And they shockingly said, Well, we just did an appraisal on 99.1, and it came, it didn't come back at 30 million, it came back at 18. And we don't think that's a coincidence. You know, they were people of faith, we are people of faith. And they said, we think God might be in this, and we accept your offer as is. No negotiation. They agreed to finance it, they agreed to the terms, they agreed to the timing, the amount, and we were stunned. Nine months of silence, and then a yes that you're both excited about and scared to death about, right? $18 million is a ton of money, and I think we had to have a down payment of either a million five or two million dollars at closing. So huge task ahead. So we were excited, and then also, oh my. Are we ready? I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 14:46

So not only was there a need for $1.5 million, which they certainly didn't just have lying around, but they only had six months to raise it. And the clock is ticking, and all of this will go away if the need isn't met. And yes, the financial hurdle was massive, and we should come back to that. But it wasn't the only thing.

SPEAKER_08 15:10

So we had the challenge of one, raising the money for that down payment that we didn't have, and also um something that we didn't see coming a number of Classic 99 listeners who were very upset that their station was going to be for sale.

SPEAKER_03 15:25

It was not handled in a way that would engender, I think, good faith or good relationships with the community. For example, the contemporary Christian programming group didn't even have a down payment.

SPEAKER_08 15:36

Um in fact, it hit the local media, the newspapers. Uh, we had local Congress people members of Congress come out against this. We had um senators that came out that wanted a congressional investigation into this.

SPEAKER_00 15:50

It was not even just as simple as focusing on fundraising. It felt like we were doing interviews all the time with the Post Dispatch and naysayers and answering negative emails, and there were hundreds of them. Um there was a death threat to one of the attorneys involved. I mean, there this was talked about, it was a big news story, and we were just simply buying a radio station, but because of all of the um anguish and community leaders and political leaders involved, most of whom were not on our side, it was a big news story. And you have to remember like there were influential, powerful, moneyed people who were opposing our purchase of this station. I remember my son coming home from school one day, he was in junior high, and said, Mommy, someone at school said you're a bad person because you're buying 99.1. Is that true? Are you a bad person? I was like, ah, I mean, it was um, there was a lot of noise. And I was in our living room on a Saturday morning. I woke up early and was in the Bible reading, and it felt like um, I just it felt like wolves were like chasing me. Just like, and here I am. This I'm not moneyed, I'm not powerful. Uh we're not any of that. We just have a heart to reach more people and felt like God opened the door. There were people, there were quotes in the newspaper that I was channeling Joshua because I shared a verse in Joshua about, you know, reaching our whole city and that. I mean, it was just craziness what was going on. And I just I'm like, Lord, what's going on here? Like, and uh he just reminded me and led me to so many places in scripture where it's not the first time that God's people who are following his lead end up with an army behind and a and an ocean before them or a sea before them that needed to get parted. I mean, like, but I felt the heat. Like there were there were moments where you're just like, man, if if I feel like I'm gonna get devoured if you don't come through, Lord.

SPEAKER_02 17:46

With the promise of reaching more people in GRASP, and with tons of people speaking out against the sale, and with a $1.5 million hurdle standing in between them, they had to continue marching forward in faith.

SPEAKER_00 18:01

First thing we did was garner um people who were already passionate and giving to Joy FM. And we invited them to a banquet. We did um a walk, I believe, where we invited listeners to do their own like walking in the neighborhood and like a walk-a-thon or whatever. And I'm smiling at the walking because I was at one of those.

SPEAKER_02 18:21

Were you? Yeah, so I remember my brother, my older brother, he was so excited about the possibility of 99.1 and telling us this is so important. We need to get on board. There are so many people who don't know Jesus in our city that can be reached. And I would have maybe been like 12 or 13 at the time. And I remember I got my piggy bank out. I, you know, didn't do much, and I brought what I could.

SPEAKER_00 18:45

And yeah, I hope you know now that like you're seemingly little made a difference. And and your story multiplied by thousands of people.

SPEAKER_02 18:55

But even with the walks and the banquets, the required down payment was still right around the corner and the need was not yet met.

SPEAKER_08 19:03

And we knew I think what God was telling us is we're not gonna raise this money from a few people, uh, from a few hundred people. We're gonna raise this money from thousands of people. And so that's when we went on the airwaves to raise this the entirety of the 1.5 million.

SPEAKER_00 19:20

And it was a heavy lift. I mean, when you are a week out from closing and you do not yet have the monies to close, I feel like every step along the way, you're like, Are you ready, God? Because I mean you know, you know, it took all of us giving, some out of piggy banks, some different amounts, but it by the time of closing, it had all come in and not much over. I mean, it was it was down to the wire. But to be able to go into closing, money in hand for the down payment was huge. And uh it happened.

SPEAKER_04 19:55

Ten seconds. Now, when we get to zero, everybody needs to tune their radios up to 99.1, okay. That's exactly right. All right, here we go. Three, two, one.

SPEAKER_00 20:08

We closed and flipped the switch over to 99.1, and none of us could have predicted what happened. Like, like, none of us could have predicted what happened.

SPEAKER_08 20:19

Before being on 99.1, there were 80,000 people listening to Joy FM. Within two to three months, that was 300,000.

SPEAKER_00 20:28

That's that's the crazy part. Like, so when we were doing projections on, we think it would take us five years to reach 200,000 people. All right, that had never happened in our city before. 200,000 people had never listened to a Christian radio station before. So it was um hopeful, but a stretch. And then for God to come and take our stretch and go, no, no, I'm in this. So, in a matter of months, to have 300,000 people calling in, showing up, listening, like um, we weren't staffed for it. None of our processes worked anymore. And they were people who didn't know about Christian music yet. They were calling in, I just heard this song, and I wanna, what does it mean to start a relationship with Jesus? And do you think Jesus can help me stay clean? And I mean, it was I often used the word tsunami of response. We did a remote here at the radio station for people to come by and get their new stickers that would say 99-1. Manchester Road got closed down. So many cars were lined up down the street that literally the police came and said, You need to stop. And we're like, we're just inviting people to get a sticker.

SPEAKER_08 21:37

Not only did he increase our listenership tremendously because of so many listeners who financially gave to the station, we did not pay that loan off in 20 years. We paid it off in 10 years. We thought, in fact, hopefully we can pay it off in 20 years, but because of the dedication and the financial. Financial commitment of listeners that we paid it off in ten years.

SPEAKER_05 22:07

You did it?

SPEAKER_00 22:17

But what a journey. You think of ten years ago, um God very clearly whispered.

SPEAKER_07 22:24

No, the tears are coming.

unknown 22:27

Ah.

SPEAKER_00 22:30

But we heard him. He said, Are you ready? And we didn't, I don't remember where we were. I know exactly the moment. And I know it was his voice. Um, are you ready? And we didn't know what for. Um, but we wanted to be ready. And the truth is, honestly, we weren't, because we're never ready for right, we're just broken vessels. The next thing we knew, this $18 million opportunity to purchase 99-1 was before us, and I can't describe how big and scary it was. Uh there were tears then, too, because we sat at Starbucks in Kirkwood and realized how big it was, how small we were. $18 million, it might have been a zillion dollars. It was out of reach, right? And we realized we we weren't ready. Um, but it was the opportunity was just as big to reach this city. And so you guys here today, and over the last 10 years, have been a part of something we could have never envisioned. There was no strategy, there was no plan. It was just, God, you're ready, we'll step, we'll follow. He's the God of this city, and God, we humbly ask you to continue to do greater things.

SPEAKER_04 23:31

Uh just uh well, I don't know if you remember me from uh back in about January. Um been going through a divorce, and uh you guys actually stopped me from uh driving off a bridge.

SPEAKER_06 23:45

I didn't know um who else to call, but I kind of have a prayer request for sorts, I guess. I'm going into rehab for drugs and alcohol again, and I'm already drunk at an airport in the morning, and that's not okay. And I just need God in my life right now, and your station means a lot to me because you know when I listen to it I find hope. It just feels like life lately.

SPEAKER_05 24:10

Just I literally like made a Facebook post like five minutes before you uh read your daily verses, and I was like, I'm done with God, I just can't do this anymore. It was just exactly what I needed to do this morning.

SPEAKER_03 24:25

I just heard Gabby's story that you guys just played over the the radio, and um I was just praying for this morning when I got to work.

SPEAKER_08 24:34

Whatever circumstance that you're in, and you feel like God, you know, I'm trying to honor you, I'm trying to be faithful, I believe in you, I know you're present, but I don't feel you, and you're like, but God is working every step of the way. If I can just apply that to my life, like, Lord, I've seen it firsthand. This is a real story, and we're getting all these stories. To see God work in this way, if he can work in this way, he can work in any way. It's just a constant reminder of who God is and what he's able to do and encourages me to not lose faith and to know that God's in every s every situation, every step of the way of my life.

SPEAKER_02 25:11

So God is with you every step of the way, and we've seen that. In fact, God has done some incredible things in the 25 years that Joy FM has been on the air. But some of the coolest things that he's done, well, they're stories that haven't been told until now. And guess what? One of the coolest things is that you are a part of a story that only God can write. To view all these stories, click here and make sure you subscribe so that you don't miss a thing.