Florida Catholic | Diocese drops paper, sheds radio station in Lecanto

Diocese drops paper, sheds radio station in Lecanto

A new, slick magazine will replace the newspaper and Spirit FM continues, but without its north diocesan outlet.

JANET SHELTON | FLORIDA CATHOLIC ST. PETERSBURG BUREAU EDITOR

Published: 09.12.08

ST. PETERSBURG | The St. Petersburg Diocese has announced it is selling WLMS-Lecanto and will cease publishing the Florida Catholic St. Petersburg edition.

The closing of the radio station means all of Citrus and a portion of Hernando County will no longer receive Spirit FM 90.5 broadcasts, which are simulcast through WLMS, except through the station Web site.

The Florida Catholic will be replaced by a diocese-focused magazine that will publish at least quarterly. A St. Petersburg edition will be available on the Florida Catholic Web site.

The diocese has been working for some time on finding a replacement for the Florida Catholic, which diocesan leaders felt was not reaching enough local Catholics. About a year ago, a Pastoral Council communications task force charged with reviewing communication options decided a magazine that would reach all registered Catholics would be a stronger, more cost-effective evangelization and teaching tool.

“They felt communication would be more directed and specific to our diocese if we had our own pastoral vehicle,” said diocesan Secretary of Christian Service Information, Frank Murphy. “They, basically, came up with this: We need to have printed material going to each home as part of an evangelization effort, with information related closely to the actions of our diocese. … It is in keeping with the bishop’s responsibility to teach.”

The Florida Catholic, jointly published by the bishops of five Florida dioceses and the Archdiocese of Miami, has delivered international, national, state and local Catholic news to the Tampa Bay area for decades.

Parishes help support the paper through an assessment. Particularly in difficult economic times, many pastors questioned whether supporting a newspaper was the best use of their ministry dollars. The new magazine, which will be created and published by Florida Catholic state office staff in Orlando, will not require a parish assessment. The diocese has not decided how it will be distributed.

“Although we are disappointed to see the end of the St. Petersburg edition, we are grateful to Bishop Robert Lynch and his predecessors in the Diocese of St. Petersburg for the long connection to the Florida Catholic newspaper,” said Christopher Gunty, associate publisher of the Florida Catholic Inc., which publishes the diocesan newspaper for most of the dioceses in Florida. “We also look forward to working with the diocese on its new venture, a magazine aimed at informing and evangelizing Catholics in a different way than a biweekly newspaper.”

Gunty noted that the cooperative arrangement between the Florida Catholic and the St. Petersburg Diocese will still provide an area for local and national news on the Web. He also said that west Florida Catholics who wish to continue to receive a biweekly newspaper may opt to buy a subscription to one of the other five continuing editions of the Florida Catholic – Orlando, Miami, Palm Beach, Pensacola-Tallahassee or Venice.

“In this age of greater electronic access to news, we in the Catholic press are providing more outlets for that on the Web, but it’s still important for Catholics to have a printed newspaper or magazine available to read at home,” Gunty said. “That’s one of the reasons we are excited about helping to bring St. Petersburg’s new magazine to the faithful in the diocese.”

The diocese has owned WLMS-Lecanto for 17 years. At one time, it was hoped the station would help Spirit FM 90.5 become a Catholic-Christian evangelization force in the fast-growing, northern counties of the diocese and beyond. Listenership was negligible in the Citrus area, however, and satellite radio and other digital entertainment options have brought financial instability overall to the radio broadcasting industry.

“Radio stations’ values across the nation are declining,” said Spirit FM station manager John Morris.

When Central Florida Educational Foundation Inc. sent the diocese $2-million offer for WLMS, the diocese had to listen, Murphy said. The foundation owns the Christian radio station Z88.3 out of Altamonte Springs, and its proposal was about three times the current value of WLMS.

At the same time, the diocese was uncertain of the impact WLMS would have in the years ahead.

“WLMS was a northern radio station outlet … that gave Spirit FM a little more reach,” Murphy said. “It never really was effective in reaching a large number of people.”

Morris said the Central Florida Educational Foundation is interested in extending the reach of its signal. WLMS reaches Citrus, southern Levy and little of Sumter, Marion and Hernando counties.

The acquisition will not affect those who listen to Spirit FM 90.5 on WBVM, based in Tampa. WLMS listeners will be able to hear Spirit FM programming online at www.spiritfm905.com.

The transfer of the radio station license to new owners has to be approved by the Federal Communication Commission. If that happens, proceeds from the sale will help fund the new magazine and position Spirit FM and the diocese for future communication possibilities, such as the station’s recent upgrade to high-definition.

“We have to prepare ourselves technologically,” Morris said. “(The diocese) saw this as an opportunity to help the (new magazine) and to help the HD broadcast and Internet (broadcast) for Spirit, and for whatever comes in the future.”

As much as he can see benefits, Morris said he’s not looking forward to stopping the WLMS signal.

“I was involved with that station from the beginning, as far as getting music up there,” he said. “Granted, we don’t have a lot of listeners up there … but there is going to be a void.”

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