FOT is moving to 10 a.m. – here’s a guide for our new listeners

Deacon Mike Manno and Pam Briddell 

From Deacon Mike:

Well, after juggling times and schedules Iowa Catholic Radio had finally settled on a permanent new time for Faith On Trial: 10 a.m. (Central) Tuesday mornings with a replay that evening at 10 p.m. We’ve also been expanded to an hour and with that new time we expect there will be new listeners who know nothing about our program, so a little bit about us. 

We’ve come a long way since we started as a four minute filler on the drive-time morning show, and, as a lawyer it was fun to pick out stories that flew under the radar and tell our listeners about them. Our first full programs began in the Spring of 2013 as two taped interviews spliced together into a half-hour program that was run on the weekends. In October of that year we were placed on the Tuesday schedule LIVE and co-host Gina Noll joined me. We recently lost Gina but were fortunate enough to be joined by Pam Briddell just a few short months ago.

In all this time we have focused on one thing: how law and society affect people of faith. While we’ve had fun with many of our topics, we have continently striven to make that the focus of our program; thus our many guests have discussed topics that have made some listeners uncomfortable, even angry; but we have stuck to that format.

And the reason is simple. Not only in the United States, but around the world, there are issues and events that have an enormous effect on how we can express our faith, educate our children, and worship our God. We have seen school authorities banning children from saying grace before meals, business people being forced to take part in same-sex wedding ceremonies, nurses forced to assist in abortions under threat of license revocation, attorneys being bullied into political correctness, and churches and religious schools being denied permits to build or expand facilities simply because they are religious.  Of course this list is almost infinite and would include some of the atrocities that our fellow man commits, including the case of the English baby Charlie Gard, our first topic on our new time slot next Tuesday along with a discussion of the Family Research Council’s report on Hostility to Religion.

And, of course, there is a second reason: no one else is telling you these stories, at least not as constantly as we do. Our guests include attorneys from the Alliance Defending Freedom, The Thomas More Society, Pacific Justice Institute, The Becket Fund for Religious Freedom, Life Legal Defense Foundation, The Family Research Council, and many more, including authors and journalists who write about and cover these events.

What we do we do honestly. This is not “fake news” it is just news that many of you have never heard before. We do try to live up to proper journalistic standards – I know that is hard to imagine now, but – full disclosure – my undergraduate degree is in journalism, earned at a time when news was a sacred commodity, reporting was an honorable profession, and informing the public was the goal.

So if you have not listened before, tune us in. We are on Iowa Catholic Radio, 1150 AM; 88.5 & 94.5 FM and we stream live on IowaCatholicRadio.com every Tuesday at 10 & 10. We can also be heard on our downloadable app which you can get free from the app store. Podcasts from prior programs can be found by following this link.

Oh, one other answer to several questions I’ve received: we have a new and improved webcam and it will be put to use as we move into our new downtown studios next fall where we will be able to take your calls on air … watch for the Grand Opening!

In the mean time you can contact me at DeaconMike@IowaCatholicRadio.com or Pam at pbriddell@kwky.com and through our new text line: 515-223-1150.

God Bless.