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Karl Schembri
Radju Marija’s takeover of Radio Calypso is expected to cost “around Lm150,000” according to Fr Charles Fenech, the Provincial of the Dominican Order who is also director of programmes of the new national religious radio station.
Contacted by MaltaToday, Fr Fenech confirmed for the first time that the “substantial” amount involved in Radju Marija’s takeover of the Gozitan radio station was in the region of Lm150,000.
The figure was first mentioned by The Malta Independent on Sunday but was never confirmed by Fr Fenech himself, who had so far limited himself to saying that the amount involved was “substantial.”
“It’s a reasonable sum when you compare it to the cost of other stations,” he told MaltaToday when asked whether he thought the price could be paid.
Fr Fenech said the agreement had not yet been finalised with Radio Calypso’s owner, Fr Benedict Spiteri. Sources say Fr Spiteri had initially asked other potential buyers for as much as Lm250,000 for the station.
“We’re working towards reaching an agreement through which we could pay the sum over a length of time without interest,” Fr Fenech said.
The Dominican provincial, who is currently busy raising funds at the Kerygma Volleyball marathon in Naxxar for homes for children and disabled people, said the station will be “only financed through its listeners’ donations” and that it had nothing to do with Kerygma and the Dominican order. He said it will be “exclusively run by volunteers.”
“We’re governed by the statute of the world family of Radio Maria, which states clearly that the station has to be run by people who work free of charge,” Fr Fenech insisted.
It seems Fr Fenech is banking on his personal influence and contacts within the voluntary sector to finance the station. The Kerygma annual marathon earns him yearly midsummer headlines for the staggering amounts the volunteers manage to raise for charity, but some believe that the Church should not collect such exorbitant funds for a radio station.
Radju Marija took over the national FM frequency of Radio Calypso last June after a heated debate within the Church about the opening of its second nationwide religious station, in direct competition with RTK.
The new station is viewed as a conservative, devotional medium that will lack critical discussion programmes and social analysis of the Church’s teachings.
In Fr Fenech’s words, the station “is based on prayer, liturgy and Christian formation.”
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