AM radio is the main ministry of the Caribbean Radio Lighthouse on Antigua. Our AM radio signal has been broadcasting for 50 years and reaches 20 different island countries with a potential audience of 2 million listeners! In our previous letter, I left you on a cliff-hanger and told you about an explosion in our AM radio transmitter! At that time, I was able to fabricate some replacement parts and make repairs to get the AM station partially on the air for our nearby audience. However, the 30-plus-year-old transmitter still has many technical issues, and that fire led to catastrophic damage to some transmitter parts that are unique and obsolete. In our last letter, we began to raise $80,000 USD to replace the AM radio transmitter, which lived well past its life expectancy, by God’s grace! About the same time, one of our audio consoles (aka mixing boards) that we use to record audio content also malfunctioned and damaged attached equipment. And so, in the same letter, we began to raise $20,000 USD to replace the console!
Since then, we’ve had another fire in the AM radio transmitter, and transmitter components have failed countless other times! The past few months have been a roller coaster of repairs and setbacks. My wife took a 5-day trip to the States just to bring back some available replacement parts. After each transmitter resuscitation we’ve been able to get the transmit power back between 60%-80%.
But, praise God, in just over one month since my last letter, ALL $100,000 USD funds were raised for both the transmitter and console projects! The 900-pound transmitter has been ordered and built and should arrive in Antigua mid-March. The new audio console has arrived, and we have been busy rewiring the studios to set up the new console in our on-air studio and move the older on-air console to our recording studio. Technology changes so fast, and there is much work to do in preparation for both of these projects. Andrew and Summer Chafa from Tech2Proclaim Ministries have come to be with us for 3 months to help with these projects. Please pray with us about the preparations, logistics, and installations!
At the beginning of 2025, we raised funds to purchase hand-held, solar-powered radios fixed-tuned to CRL’s AM radio frequency to give to our listeners. Through generous donations, we were able to purchase 1,150 of these radios from Galcom International! The final order arrived in December, and we were excited to distribute these radios, not only in Antigua, but also to the nearby islands of St. Kitts & Nevis, St. Maarten, Anguilla, and Dominica! A man who recently became blind found our radio station, heard about the hand-held radios, and was brought to our studio to collect one. My wife, carefully, showed him the different buttons, and he was so excited to be able to hear the Word of God being read and to easily listen to our radio station!
Our listeners have been very patient with the inconsistent radio signal. Some send us a text message, cheering, when we come back on the air. One listener said, “I cannot do without Caribbean Radio Lighthouse. I get everything that I need through the week from CRL.” Another said, “A lot of people depend on CRL; I depend on CRL.” And another sent a message that said, “We really cannot afford to lose connections with the Radio Station. It is the only station I and others listen to in my country and the only one I know that really preaches and teaches the Word of God.”
Thank you for being a part of this ministry and the lives that it touches! Thank you to those who give! And thank you to those pray!
For the Lighthouse Staff,
Nathan P. Owens