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29-655: WLOL-FM is a Catholic radio station licensed to Star City, West Virginia , and serving the Morgantown –Star City– Westover area. WLOL-FM is owned and operated by Light of Life Community, Inc. This article about a radio station in West Virginia is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Catholic radio Brokered programming is a significant portion of most U.S. Christian radio stations' revenue, with stations regularly selling blocks of airtime to evangelists seeking an audience. Another revenue stream

58-580: A 12-book series of novels titled simply Adventures in Odyssey , as well as episode guides, Bibles, devotionals, mysteries, and a comic book. The first Adventures in Odyssey video was released in 1991. This series was created following the success of Focus on the Family's involvement in Tyndale House 's video project, McGee and Me! . Originally, the Odyssey video series was created by a separate staff than that of

87-465: A home-video series, several computer games, books, and devotionals. The series is set in the fictional town of Odyssey. Stories center around the people who live there, particularly ice-cream and discovery emporium owner John Avery Whittaker, who was originally voiced by Hal Smith . In 1982, Focus on the Family began creating several short dramas for inclusion in the ministry's daily half-hour radio show; these radio dramas were commissioned by Focus on

116-527: A mixture of Christian music and Christian talk and teaching. Christian music radio outlets mirror commercial radio in many ways, and music in a variety of different genres is available. Many stations play primarily gospel music , including Black Gospel and Southern Gospel , or contemporary worship music , while others play all formats of contemporary Christian music , including Christian pop, Christian rock , Christian rap , Christian country music , and Christian alternative rock . Many artists within

145-495: A mutual decision was made by Herlinger and the crew to replace Herlinger with another voice actor. Consequently, Adventures in Odyssey took a long hiatus, with no new episodes planned while the staff searched for a new actor to voice Mr. Whittaker. In September 2009, Andre Stojka was selected as the third actor to voice Mr. Whittaker; only months later, on February 2, 2010, Paul Herlinger died from his illness. In March 2010, regular episodes resumed airing as Album 51, Take it from

174-674: A sect whose place in Christianity is heavily debated , maintains some limited radio evangelical operations through BYU Radio , which owns a single FM station. The Seventh-day Adventists are most closely associated with Three Angels Broadcasting Network . Most Christian radio stations as well as programmers based in the United States are members of the National Religious Broadcasters , a Christian organization. There are reportedly 1,600 Christian broadcasting organizations in

203-498: Is an Evangelical Christian radio drama and comedy series created and produced by Focus on the Family . Aimed at families with children age 12 and younger, the series first aired in 1987 as a 13-episode pilot called Family Portraits and has recorded 1000 episodes to date. In 2005, the show's daily audience averaged around 1.2 million within North America. The Odyssey radio series also includes several spin-off items, including

232-693: Is an international broadcasting and media company; radio stations are based in Albania, Australia, Canada, Denmark, New Zealand, the Philippines, and the United Kingdom. Trans World Radio is an evangelical media distributor broadcasting Christian programs in 190 countries in more than 300 languages, TWR-UK can be heard in the United Kingdom on Sky, Freeview and online. Adventures in Odyssey Adventures in Odyssey ( AIO ), or simply Odyssey ,

261-442: Is solicitation of donations, either to the evangelists who buy the air time or to the stations or their owners themselves. In order to further encourage donations, certain evangelists may emphasize the prosperity gospel , in which they preach that tithing and donations to the ministry will result in financial blessings from God. Others may have special days of the year dedicated to fundraising, similar to many NPR stations. Although

290-520: The Bible Broadcasting Network are other notable examples in the world. Christian radio expanded in the early twenty-first century. It became available in the United Kingdom with changes to broadcasting regulations. Premier Christian Radio is based in the London area where it is available on medium wave and DAB; elsewhere, it is available digitally or by Internet. United Christian Broadcasters

319-485: The Christian music industry criticize Christian radio for only playing "safe" music, and not taking enough chances on new artists, or in some cases older artists, that may not be as appealing to the largely conservative Gospel Music Association . Many non-religious radio stations devote some of their weekend programming to Christian music; for example, Black Gospel programming is common on Sundays on many stations featuring

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348-737: The Urban Contemporary format. Other Christian stations will present a no-music format that features talk radio -style programming (sometimes including live radio call-in shows) and/or long-form "preaching and teaching" programs. Notable examples include Focus on the Family with host Jim Daly , Amazing Facts , Living Way with pastor Jack Hayford , and Pastor Rick's Daily Hope ; an example of an inspirational program are Moments of Melody and The Voice of Prophecy . Radio drama programs, long dead in most other radio formats, continue to be transmitted on Christian radio; notable examples include long-running Adventures in Odyssey , Patch

377-461: The Family as well as other world relief and ministry organizations. The Adventures In Odyssey Club is available internationally and had over 7,000 members in 2016. Main features of the club include access to over 900 Episodes from the Radio Series, as well as all 17 videos, every Official Podcast, and exclusive monthly episodes available only to club members. By the end of its second year in 1988,

406-514: The Family founder and then-president James Dobson as an alternative to Saturday-morning cartoons. This effort culminated in a thirteen-week test series titled Family Portraits which aired in early 1987. It was created by Steve Harris and Phil Lollar, who set it in a small Midwest town they called Odyssey. The test episodes engendered a favorable audience response, and led to a continuing radio program in November 1987, called Odyssey USA . The title

435-662: The Pirate , and Unshackled! and relative newcomers such as Down Gilead Lane and A Work in Progress . Christian radio, particularly in North America, is dominated by Protestant ministries, particularly those associated with evangelical Christianity . The predominant Roman Catholic radio services are the Eternal Word Network , founded by Mother Angelica as a spin-off of her television service EWTN , and Radio Maria USA . The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints ,

464-552: The Top , premiered. As of 2022, Chris Anthony and Katie Leigh are the only original cast members remaining in the series. The show has been adapted into Spanish audio and Hindi live-action videos, with plans to create Mandarin audio as well. On January 2, 2014, a subscription service for Adventures in Odyssey fans and their families launched, the Adventures In Odyssey Club . The subscription fee supports Focus on

493-594: The U.S. They range from single stations to expansive networks. It is common for religious broadcasters to purchase many small broadcast translators to create networks that stretch across large regions. Moody Radio was the first example, and still one of the largest, though most of its stations broadcast stand-alone programming as well as network feeds. Z88.3 in Orlando, Florida, the WAY-FM Network , K-LOVE , Air 1 , The Joy FM , Reach Radio , 3ABN Radio , Radio 74 , and

522-408: The U.S., religious radio stations are exempt from certain rules requiring radio stations to have some local operations, which allows them to have massive networks of transmitters covering far larger areas than a radio station would otherwise be allowed and may not face the same restrictions on the number of signals a broadcaster can own within one geographic area. Most Christian radio stations transmit

551-516: The audio albums, books and videos. There have been fan-sponsored contests to showcase these collections. The largest collection consisting of over 2,100 unique items currently resides in Indianapolis, Indiana in the OdysseyFan Museum. Radio Theatre is a program run by Focus on the Family that makes both original and adapted radio dramas. Much of the staff involved with Adventures in Odyssey

580-478: The character "Bernard Walton" from 1990 to 2008. When Hal Smith died in 1994, Adventures in Odyssey was left without its main character and Focus on the Family considered canceling the radio show. After a search that lasted over two years, a replacement voice was finally found in Paul Herlinger , who sounded very similar to Hal Smith. Herlinger voiced Whittaker from 1996 through 2008. Because of health issues,

609-500: The first few years, each thirty-minute episode typically took over one hundred hours to produce. Several well-known voice actors were brought in to provide the lead roles. Hal Smith voiced the lead character John Avery Whittaker in one of his favorite roles. The rest of the original "key" characters were voiced by Katie Leigh , Will Ryan , and Walker Edmiston , who, along with Hal Smith, had all previously worked together extensively at Disney . Television star Dave Madden played

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638-412: The power of their own imagination. There are currently 33 installments in the series, along with 11 audiobooks. Eugene Sings! and Eugene Sings! Christmas are Adventures in Odyssey musical albums , released by Tyndale House. Both feature songs written and sung by Will Ryan , voicing Eugene Meltsner from the series. Since 1987, Adventures in Odyssey has released hundreds of products related to

667-523: The radio drama, Adventures in Odyssey has begun many spin-offs and special series, including an official Odyssey podcast, fan-favorite podcast Whit's Up? , 17 animated videos, Eugene Sings! and Eugene Sings! Christmas , and three edutainment computer games ,. Adventures in Odyssey now has over 7 different spin-off book series, Passages , Kidsboro , The Imagination Station , Candid Conversations with Connie , The Blackgaard Chronicles , Jones and Parker Case Files, Young Whit ,

696-706: The radio series, and each episode had a budget of about $ 400,000; by 1998, over two million Odyssey videos had been sold. Currently, 17 episodes are in the video series and several attempts have been made to place this series on television. The episodes were screened in Britain on Channel 4 in the mid-1990s and its upcoming program on Smile of a Child . It was also broadcast on the Australian Christian Channel in Australia. Christian video game developer Digital Praise has released three computer games based on

725-770: The series, Adventures in Odyssey: The Treasure of the Incas , Adventures in Odyssey: The Sword of the Spirit , and Adventures in Odyssey: The Great Escape . Will Ryan, Katie Leigh, and Paul Herlinger voiced the main characters of the games. The Imagination Station Book Series is based on the machine of the same name in the Adventures in Odyssey audio dramas. It takes characters back to see events in history using

754-816: The show was on 634 radio stations in North America. As of 1995, it was the second-most popular Christian radio show in the United States . By 2002, the show was on over 6,000 stations worldwide. Almost all the radio episodes have also been widely released on both cassette and CD collections, and by 1992, almost a million cassettes had been sold. Odyssey episodes have also been released annually (since 1990) as promotional items through Chick-fil-A . Several times, Chick-fil-A has had special CD sets as their " kids' meal " product. Adventures in Odyssey has aired more than 900 episodes and has released 77 main albums, as well as many other special collections, including monthly Adventures in Odyssey club only episodes. Aside from

783-595: The show, including those listed above as well as apparel, toys, games, calendars, pens, and other collectibles. Some are sold through retail outlets others are promotional items that are given away to certain people or at special events. There is even a display case in the Welcome Center of Focus on the Family in Colorado Springs, Colorado that showcases some of the rarest memorabilia. Many fans of Adventures in Odyssey have become collectors of these products along with

812-458: The solicitation of donations and the sale of airtime may resemble a commercial enterprise, such actions do not necessarily constitute a call to action , and thus this does not forbid them from airing on noncommercial licensed stations in the U.S. A minority of stations, typically music stations, use the traditional model for music radio and allow traditional commercial advertising. Numerous religious broadcasters own many of their own stations. In

841-500: Was later changed in 1988 to Adventures in Odyssey to "increase international appeal". The goal of the Odyssey staff was to create a "values-based" radio show with production values comparable with or surpassing those of most mainstream audio dramas. While the show aimed to promote Christian values, according to Odyssey's co-creator Phil Lollar , the goal is not to be "a preaching program", but to be an "entertaining program". Large amounts of work were put into each individual story; for

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