Why CBA exists
CBA recently celebrated our 50th anniversary. Why do we do what we do?
Radio is incredibly cost-effective
Compared to television, which can cost upwards of $1200 per minute, depending on the programme, radio is remarkably cheap to produce.
Once all of CBA’s expenses and overheads are factored in, it only costs about $27 per minute to produce our Easter broadcasts on Newstalk ZB & Radio Sport.
Free air time!
By providing programme content instead of buying advertorial space on air, none of these stations charge us for the air time.
The reach of a dollar
Because our programmes are heard by such large audiences, for every dollar you give, we’ll reach around 25 people!
Partial NZ On Air funding
Some of our programmes qualify for government funding.
Our Christmas and Easter broadcasts are 60% funded by NZ On Air. Our Sunday night interview programme, Real Life with John Cowan, also receives considerable funding from NZ On Air.
This means that in many cases, your donor dollar goes at least twice as far.
CBA reaches large audiences
At CBA we don’t have our own radio station, we just borrow them. We provide programmes mainly to Newstalk ZB and Radio LIVE which means we reach large numbers of people who wouldn’t normally set foot inside a church.
Sunday nights on Newstalk ZB
Every Sunday night from 6pm to 8pm our two programmes Total Recall with Frank & Jax and Real Life with John Cowan reach a combined audience of nearly 20,000 listeners.
20,000
listeners every Sunday
Christmas Broadcasts on Newstalk ZB & RadioLIVE
Every Christmas since 1996, Newstalk ZB has given us at least 12 hours on Christmas Day and often Christmas Eve airtime as well.
From 2015-2018, we produced Christmas programming on RadioLIVE as well, adding significant numbers to our overall reach.
250,000
listeners every Christmas
Easter Broadcasts on Newstalk ZB & RadioLIVE
Every Easter since 1997, Newstalk ZB has given us 12 hours on Good Friday.
From 2015-2018, we produced Easter weekend programmes on RadioLIVE as well.
300,000
listeners every Easter
"It is our conviction that if a person has never heard the Gospel as good news, then they've never heard the Gospel.
Reaching secular audiences on radio
According to radio industry surveys, over 86% of those listening to Newstalk ZB say that ‘religion or spirituality is not a primary interest’ in their life.
This means that our programmes are reaching people that no sermon normally would.
Not only is this audience uncommitted to the Christian faith, but a large proportion of them are simply uninterested in what sounds like the same tired old conversations.
With such a massively non-churched audience, it's crucial that we find fresh and creative ways to talk about God, faith and spirituality.
86%
Not so much evangelism as 'moving boulders'
With an overwhelmingly secular audience, it’s safe to say that the vast majority of our radio listeners aren’t ready to respond to everyday evangelism efforts, so we don’t tend to have the privilege of “reaping the harvest”. In fact, in many cases, we don’t get to be the ones to water, or even the ones to sow the seed.
Most often, we find that our role is to locate the boulders on the field; those stumbling blocks that are in the way of people coming to faith. We work to move those boulders off the field, so that someone else can come along and plough the ground, and someone else can come along and sow the seed. It may not appear to yield a harvest now, but it’s a crucial part of seeing people come to faith.
Will you help us move those boulders?
It’s not important who does the planting, or who does the watering. What’s important is that God makes the seed grow.
The Apostle Paul, 1 Corinthians 3:7 (NLT)