Editor’s note: People of Faith is an occasional question-and-answer series focusing on personalities and leaders in the local, multifaceted faith community.
A few years ago, a local resident sat in her living room contemplating suicide but begging God for help and hope. She already had been treated for a measure of her severe depression.
She noticed her cat toying with a nail on the floor. She wondered if the item was meant to be spiritually symbolic, but picked it up and began walking it to her kitchen trash.
As she did so, she noticed her older radio, never used, with a broken antennae. For whatever reason, she reached toward the radio and flipped it on.
[sc:text-divider text-divider-title=”Story continues below gallery” ]Click here to purchase photos from this gallery
It inexplicably came on tuned to a station she never knew existed — 90.3 FM, also known in Columbus as Bridge FM, the contemporary and pop/rock Christian music station, eventually offering her a bit of practical inspiration. The woman has shared the story with station manager and donor development director Keith Maddox, who rose to his management post in August.
He uses the story to help relay the impact of the non-profit, commercial-free, listener-supported Bridge FM and sister station WYGS 91.1 FM, known as Your (Southern) Gospel Station. The woman told Maddox that Bridge FM helped save her life. (Bridge FM also includes 101.1 FM in Seymour).
“We want to be inspiring, we want to be encouraging and we want to be that positive force in the world,” Maddox said.
The stations do so through modern music that focuses on everything from Scriptural principles to basic Christian encouragement; announcements and on-air interviews highlighting everything from outreaches to the struggling to outlets for freedom from addictions; and even praying for and with callers.
And Maddox, a 23-year radio veteran and also a chaplain for the Bartholomew County Sheriff’s Department, is in the middle of it all.
Keith Reising, chairman of the board of Good Shepherd Radio that owns the stations, called Maddox “a great and sincere person.” And Reising looks to his manager these days to get both stations even more connected to the areas they serve.
“We’ve been part of a very tight-knit Christian community,” Reising said. “And now I’d like to see us be even more visible to the general public.”
Maddox sat at the stations’ offices at 825 Washington St. recently to discuss his role and his aims.
QUESTION: In a county with a multi-faceted Christian landscape with perhaps 150 churches in Bartholomew County, what are the stations’ roles?
“We have here (in Columbus) the Ecumenical Assembly of Bartholomew County Churches or Love Chapel. That’s kind of part of what we want to do in all our cities and towns that we serve. We want to be a place for unity, a place where everybody can at least agree on the (faith’s) basics, and go from there.
And also, what we hope to do that with things such as our Inspiring Ministries podcasts, posted on the Bridge FM Facebook page and thebridgefm.org, is to spend time talking to area ministries that we hope will inspire people in their own Christian journey.
But we definitely want to be ingrained into this community.
QUESTION: You left radio for several years to do other things. Why did you return?
“Honestly, The only real reason I came back is that this is a ministry. I had been praying and hoping and looking for a ministry to work in. Then this came up. And everything kind of came together.
QUESTION: How do you see your listeners and maybe their broad tastes and varied lives?
“I don’t pretend they’re never going to listen to any other music. As a Christian, I believe we’re in the world but not of it, as Scripture says. We have to remember that Jesus didn’t hang out much with overtly religious people.
QUESTION: Were you exposed to Christian music when you were younger?
“As a teenager (in Bluffton), I would listen to two stations out of Fort Wayne. One was WBCL, now affiliated with Taylor University. It was a lot of what was considered inspirational music with artists such as Steve Green and Larnelle Harris.
QUESTION: What’s some of the future hold for the stations?
“It means showing up even more at events, helping promote those events, working to change lives. And we want to be making more connections between people. If we hear that one person is doing something and know that another person wants to that, we can suggest, ‘Hey, why don’t you two talk?’ Or if someone needs help, we can direct them to help.
[sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”About Keith Maddox” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]
Age: 40
Hometown: Bluffton
Role: Station manager and donor development director since the fall at the local Christian radio stations of Bridge FM (90.3) and WYGS (91.1) Your Gospel Station.
Family: Wife Cassie and daughter Allison.
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