Steve Chalke of the Oasis Trust spoke about Radio Cracker's 83 stations.

Steve Chalke

Restricted Service Experimental Licence' is the rather unattractive name that civil servants give to that form of broadcasting which gave birth to Radio Cracker. Radio Cracker is not one station but 83, and the organisers, the evangelical organisation Oasis Trust, headed by Steve Chalke, are not expecting to last out the recession - they only broadcast for one month in the year. Steve Chalke explained how Radio Cracker came about: "I was involved in a radio station called Invicta, I learnt a lot about radio and about broadcasting law and about temporary radio licences. I used to get licences for Spring Harvest on MW, but Medium Wave tends to be very hissy and breaks up at night - especially on the coast where Spring Harvest is. So when I heard you could get an FM frequency for a month I thought now's the time for us to go for it.

"Last month (December) saw the second and last time that Radio Cracker went on air in a nationally co-ordinated way. Broadcasting a variety of programmes from chart to classic pop, local interest to CCM, Cracker has brought community organisations, commerce and young people together to raise funds for third world and British aid charities. In 1991 Radio Cracker raised £541,325 for Oasis work but are there not simpler ways to raise money? "In 1991 some stations only raised £800/£1,000 while some stations raised £20,000 -incredible sums", Steve Chalke told Cross Rhythms, "but the thing is not about raising money though that's a great thing that we're doing. But Radio Cracker is about teenagers investing their time, learning about third world issues, so that long after Cracker Radio stations are dead and buried there will be a whole generation of young people who will 1) learn that you can stand up and make a difference and take on a challenge and succeed, that you can put your faith in action, you don't have to sit on a pew and that's the end of it; 2) that the church can be relevant to its community and set the lead; and 3) that we can make a difference to world issues.

Three very important lessons. 1992 was the last year for Radio Cracker. Steve does not believe that the church should do things infinitum simply because they worked once. "The church does not know when to let go sometimes," Steve said. Another reason is that the frequencies given by the Radio Authority to Cracker stations are currently reserved for the new national independent pop radio station due to start broadcasting later this year, leaving only the second rate AM frequencies available for Cracker. Radio Cracker has achieved a huge amount of good. Let's hope in years to come we will see it as the turning point heralding a huge groundswell of Christian involvement in radio.