User:NikkiBarraza/sandbox

The most prominent religion on the radio in the United States is Christianity, particularly the evangelical sect. It has changed since its inception with a growing audience and different regulations. The audience for Christian radio has grown in the past twenty years and has a dispersed audience throughout the U.S.. Religious radio began as a locally owned, but because of the deregulations in the 1996 Telecommunications act it has become more consolidated with local affiliates under a national radio company. The Moody Bible Institute was the first religious organization to use satellite radio to reach a larger audience than before. The Moody Bible Institute was also one of the first religious broadcasting networks to receive a non-commercial educational FM license from the FCC allowing them to open other stations.

Religious television stations in the United States experienced growth in the 1990’s, the number of faith-based T.V. stations alone has tripled. The United States government does not regulate these networks it is instead the National Religious Broadcasters. Religious television is widely used by evangelical groups, but other religions using television broadcasting is also growing, such as Jewish groups broadcasting on the Odyssey. The audience for religious television is still mainly white, middle-class, evangelicals but, that is also changing as there is an increase in young Catholic viewers and Spanish-language religious television. There has also been a growth in the number and power of television preachers in the United States, particularly evangelical preachers, also known as televangelists. An example is Pat Robertson, who appears on the show “The 700 Club” on CBN, regularly comments on other aspects of non-religious life and has even said they separation of church and state in the United States is ‘nonsense.’