Ave Maria!

Yesterday, on the Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Year of Our Lord 2010, our first radio station in the United States, Holy Virgin Mary Radio, WHVM 91.9 FM,  Owego, NY went On Air!  Deo Gratias!

It is only a small transmitter compared with what we have a license for, which ultimately will reach 47,000 people, but it will enable us to get on air without any further delays. The next phase will upgrade to full power (donations needed). Currently, we are only rebroadcasting the signal from EWTN, but soon we will complete our recording studio (donations needed) at Mt. St. Francis and we will be producing our own radio programs.

You can listen live here (coming soon).

This station compliments the many other stations that the FIs operate throughout the world, including Benin Africa (French), Brazil (Portuguese), Philippines (English and Tagalog) and Italy (Italian) as well as our other extensive internet, TV and printing apostolates. As St. Maximilian encouraged: use every licit mean available to spread devotion to Our Lady.

Photos of erecting the tower on Monday:

Satellite Dishes at the Transmitting Site – The large one on the right picks up the signal from EWTN’s satellite and the small one picks up the signal for our internet connection.

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The crane arrives

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The tower on the ground

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Tower lifted vertical

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Fra Augustine giving the commands

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Checking for vertical

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Adjusting the guy wires

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Hooking up the antenna

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Lifting the antenna vertical

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Fra Augustine preparing to  climb – His brothers think he’s crazy.

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Fra Augustine climbing into the storm

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Strapping himself in

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Yup, he’s crazy!

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Getting close

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Just another nudge.

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Bolting it down

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Installed!

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Pluggin her in!

Deo Gratias!

The post Fi-News – First FI Radio Station in USA Goes On Air first appeared on AirMaria.com.

( 4 min) >>> Play

Ave Maria!

During the last few minutes of our weekly “Gate of Heaven Radio” program in Perth, Australia, Father Joseph interviews Anthony Aarts about his involvement with the Legion of Mary.

Audio (MP3)

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The post Video – Roving Reporter #117: Anthony Aarts first appeared on AirMaria.com.

Fi News #73 – Duns Scoto, trailer of the dramatic film of the life of Bl. John Duns Scotus ( 14min) >>> Play

Ave Maria!

As part of our grand finale for our Scotus Month we have a repost of the trailer for the  feature length film we recently completed on the life of Bl. John Duns Scotus. It is in Italian but there should be a DVD available in the US with English subtitles early 2011.

The FIs in Italy have finished their first trailer for the feature length film Duns Scoto on the life of Blessed John Duns Scotus that we mentioned in an earlier post. It is more of a behind-the-scenes view of the making of the movie. All the actual footage of the movie is raw with the time stamp running. But it powerfully shows the magnitude of the project and how beautiful and dramatic the finished edition will be. Yes, it is in Italian. We hope to get an English subtitled version out soon. Enjoy!

Ave Maria!

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The post Video – Fi News #73: First Trailer of Duns Scotus Film first appeared on AirMaria.com.

It is no coincidence that momentous things in our order always seem to occur on the Feasts of Our Blessed Mother, it is after all, Her Order and we are Her possession and property.

Today, on the Feast of Our Lady of  Loreto, Our Lady’s Radio Station, Radio CorMariae, WPMW, 88.5 FM New Bedford, MASS was granted a minor modification to our Construction Permit which allows us to install a highly directional antenna mounted on a cell phone tower overlooking the city center. It is a relatively small transmitter, with an effective radiated power of only 140W, but the location means that we should get a good strength signal covering most of New Bedford.

We will find out very shortly just how good our coverage is as Friar John will be arranging the installation of the antenna and the transmitter early next week and we will probably be testing our signal mid-week and be on the air and broadcasting (unofficially) on Thursday 16th December.

We rejoice with Our Blessed Mother on Her Feast day for the projected launch of the second radio station owned and operated by the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate in the United States and our heartfelt thanks goes out to all our benefactors without whom we can do nothing. Many thanks to the numerous volunteers who have worked tirelessly to fund raise for this project as well as work on the engineering and construction sides of the station.

Also many thanks to Steve Gajdosik of the Catholic Radio Association, Matt Wesolowski (engineering),  Stu Nolan (legal counsel), and Dennis Kelly (also legal counsel).

Dennis also gave us this little snippet so appropriate to today’s Feast and the launch of Radio CorMariae:

“In reviewing today’s traditional Roman Martyrology, I found the following reference to the Basilica of the Holy House at Loreto, Italy, one of the more memorable Catholic shrines I’ve visited:

“At Loreto in Piceno, the Translation of the Holy House of Mary the Mother of God, wherein the Word was made flesh.  Pope Benedict XV declared the same Blessed Virgin Mary, under the title of Loreto, to be the chief Patroness before God of all airmen“.”

Airmen – Hey, that’s us. AirMaria men. Airwaves men.

A very Blessed and Merry Christmas to you all.

Ave Maria!

The post Radio CorMariae, WPMW, 88.5 FM New Bedford – Cleared for Takeoff! first appeared on AirMaria.com.

Yesterday, 16 December 2010, was the unofficial birthday of Radio CorMariae. At around 5:30pm we jerry-rigged the newly installed antenna line, connected it up to the transmitter, and fired up the radio station for the first time. It was an incredibly joyful event as this was the culmination of over 2 years of hard work by a huge team of volunteers to get this radio station up and running – and we, the privileged few, got to enjoy the fruit of all that hard work – if only for a brief period of time.

Don’t get excited and tune in your radio to 88.5 FM yet! This was only our first test transmission and there is still a lot of technical and engineering work to be completed before we can go on the air full-time. Our official launch date is set for 25 March 2011.

A picture tells a thousand words:

All hands on deck to assemble the antenna.

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Dave, the “Tower Monkey” prepares to climb the tower.

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The antenna is hoisted up the tower.

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The “Jerry-Rigged” antenna line is connected to the transmitter.

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Frank Baptista fires up the transmitter for the first time!

We can’t thank all our benefactors enough – we can do nothing without your help and support. You are too many to be listed – you are all in our daily prayers.

Merry Christmas and long live Radio CorMariae!

Ave Maria!

The post The Birthday of WPMW, Radio CorMariae, 88.5 FM, New Bedord MASS first appeared on AirMaria.com.

by friar John Mary

We are pleased to show the looks of the new studio built for Radio CorMariae. After months of day after day work, corresponding to upwards of a thousand man hours, the studio is just about ready for use.

We are continuing to wire the final components in the two rooms: one main studio for the board operator along with interview personnel and another room for the production work on the audio files.

Most of the equipment is new, although the console, one of the most important pieces of equipment, is nearly a couple generations old.We are able to use this older console for now as we are learning to crawl in our radio station adventure. For now we are happy to use this one, not to mention the price is right ($0), but later, when we get into some heavy production work, we will need to buy a more state-of-the-art piece of equipment. Without even looking at digital ones, the still-in-use analog consoles start in the range of $5,000 to $13,000.

via Studio Nearly Complete.

The post Fi News – Studio Nearly Complete first appeared on AirMaria.com.

Friar Peter Julian (American) stands in the threshold of the conference room in which the training course is being held. At the moment the small room is not too bad, but as soon as everyone else shows up on Tuesday the 22nd it’ll become a tight squeeze in my opinion. CLICK MORE BELOW TO ENTER

Fr. Agnellus Maria Murphy (English) – Spiritual Assistant for England and Claudio Lo Sterzo (Italian) “A Day with Mary” Founder/Delegate for England.

Most of the initial group participating in the course. The Italians will be late, but on time if you think in Italian. PS. The “cute” set up of the desk was not done by any of us men.

Winston Warrington fulfilling jobs A to Z.

Friar Roderic Mary Burke (American) freezes now and then like his PC, while Fra. Didacus (American) moves too fast like a … to be photographed. Fra. Roderic has set-up a control room adjacent to the conference room in order to capture and edit on the spot; to produce DVD’s of the course.

F.I. Tertiary, Brother Michael Mary Clark (American) – Delegate for Maine, New York – One the first tertiaries in America.

Fr. Angelo Mary Geiger (American) Spiritual Assistant for Griswold, Connecticut. U.S.A

left to right – F.I. Tertiary Brother David Marie Rose (American) and Fr. John Carlo Maria (Philippino) Spiritual Assistant for the Philippines.

Fr. Raphael Maria (American) Spiritual Assistant Representative from New Bedford, Massachusetts. U.S.A.

Fr. John Joseph Mary (American) Spiritual Assistant Representative for Maine “Endicott”, New York. U.S.A.  – Just a note that Mt. St. Francis Hermitage is located in Endicott N.Y. Maine N.Y. is only where the mail is delivered.

Trevor Downs (English) Vice Delegate for England.

Fr. Sharbel Mary Hayward (Australian) Spiritual Assistant for Western Australia.

F.I. Tertiary Brother Augustine Mary stirring up the gang against Claudio with questions. Delegate for New Bedford, Massachusetts.

Inside the control room technical issues begin to arise.

Anne and Patricia (English) Team Members.

The post A Day With Mary – 1st Week Training Course Photos first appeared on AirMaria.com.

By Kenneth J. Souza

Anchor Staff

NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — After more than two years of planning, preparing and fund-raising, the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate based at Our Lady’s Chapel in downtown New Bedford are ready to launch the first-ever 24-hour Catholic radio station in the Fall River Diocese.

On Friday WPMW — also known as Radio CorMariae — will make its official debut at the 88.5 frequency on the FM dial.

Operated by the Franciscan Friars in collaboration with the congregation’s lay apostolate, the Mission of the Immaculate Mediatrix, the new Radio CorMariae has secured the necessary licensing from the Federal Communications Commission for what is known as a “micro-FM” radio station and will broadcast within a limited range from Westport to Fairhaven within the greater New Bedford area.

According to Father Louis Maximilian M. Smith, F.I., father guardian of Our Lady’s Chapel and WPMW station manager, Bishop George W. Coleman will celebrate an evening prayer service beginning at 6:30 p.m. Friday in Our Lady’s Chapel, 600 Pleasant Street, which will include Benediction. Immediately following, Bishop Coleman will bless the newly-constructed WPMW studio upstairs from the chapel and is expected to make a brief statement about the station launch.

The prayer service and radio station launch celebration is open to the public and will be broadcast live on FM 88.5 and also streamed on the station’s website at www.radiocormariae.com.

While the station’s schedule will initially include a mix of syndicated Catholic programming from EWTN Radio, Ave Maria Radio and Relevant Radio — all of which provide around-the-clock satellite feeds that Radio CorMariae can tap into — the hope is to eventually produce and broadcast local programming from within the diocese.

“Our initial goal has been to simply get the radio station on the air,” Father Smith said. “That’s where we’ve placed all of our initial effort and I think wisely so. With time, and depending upon God’s will, we hope to introduce in cooperation with other Friars at our institute more original programming that is produced for broadcast. Our ambitions are not too great at first. We are looking at the moment to offer simple programming that would include things like prayers and the like. Over time, as we are able to better concentrate on which direction we should go, then we will offer more original programming. This is our long-term plan at this point.”

With a transmission antenna based in Dartmouth, the broadcast signal for WPMW will extend from Westport to Fairhaven and cover the majority of the greater New Bedford region, centralized within the diocese.

“We’re happy with our frequency range,” said Friar John Mary, F.I. “We are not allowed to broadcast outside a certain range under our current permit. It drops off after you head north on Route 140. But the signal does carry into Freetown and some outlying areas.”

Friar John said there is a possibility they might be able to expand their coverage area in the future.

“If another frequency opens up or someone wants to sell their station, we’d be happy to negotiate with them,” he said. “We couldn’t just expand as-is, there would have to be a vacancy on another frequency in the area.”

With only six Franciscan Friars assigned to Our Lady’s Chapel and only two — Father Smith and Friar John — who are dedicated to ministering to the radio station, the order relies on a devoted group of laity to assist them in operating Radio CorMariae.

“We’re working with a dedicated group of laity who are very committed to helping us carry out various duties for the station including sound engineering and recording some small segments for broadcast,” Father Smith said. “We anticipate this cooperation between the Friars and the laity will continue and help us to move forward.”

In particular, Friar John credited sound engineer Frank Baptista, who previously worked at the UMass Dartmouth radio station, and Jim House for providing help with recording broadcast segments.

John Sweeney, a retired builder from Marion and a Third Order member of the Franciscans of the Immaculate, was also instrumental in helping to build the new studio for WPMW while Dennis Onofrey, a local stone mason, pitched in with construction and helping to soundproof the second-floor facility.

“Without their help, we would still be struggling,” Friar John said. “They have been fantastic to work with.”

Having been involved with various forms of communication media over the years, the Franciscan Friars are well-prepared to operate and maintain a 24/7 Catholic radio station.

“We follow the spirituality and charism of St. Maximilian Kolbe,” Father Smith said. “His inspiration was to use any and every legitimate means possible to evangelize. In particular, his goal was to bring souls closer to Our Lady, because he knew that this was the surest and shortest way to Jesus, who is our salvation. This is our underlying philosophy and it will be the underlying philosophy of this radio station. We want to bring people closer to Our Lady and help them live the fullness of the Catholic faith.”

The use of radio to spread the good news is also in keeping with Pope Benedict XVI’s recent call to use new media as an evangelization tool.

“The testimony of others who have jumped into Catholic radio over the last decade is that this particular means of communication has been very effective at bringing people back to the faith and in helping them to deepen their faith,” Father Smith said. “Just from that standpoint alone, it’s a powerful motivation for all of us who are called by the Holy Father to engage ourselves in this operation to the best of our abilities.”

WPMW is not alone in this calling as WQOM 1060 AM — also known as the Station of the Cross — was recently launched in the Archdiocese of Boston to provide similar original Catholic radio programming.

“With the proliferation of Catholic radio over the last decade, I think we are certainly seeing the fruit of a divine call at this particular time and a wonderful response on the part of priests, religious and laity,” Father Smith added. “We leave everything in the hands of God, but we hope by His grace to cooperate in bearing as much fruit as possible.”

WPMW is owned by the Academy of the Immaculate, Inc., a non-profit organization under the auspices of the Friary and will be operated exclusively by the Friars. It is also affiliated with AirMaria.com and has garnered the support of the Catholic Radio Association.

The post New Bedford-based Catholic radio station to launch March 25 | The Anchor first appeared on AirMaria.com.

This picture is of the grotto of the Annunciation inside the Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth.

Part one of pilgrimage to the Holy Land
Hail Mary, Full of Grace!

Ave Maria!

The post From a Pilgrim: A Day with Mary to the Holy Land first appeared on AirMaria.com.

The picture displayed is of the Grotto of the Nativity of Our Lord.  The music on this little video is again from Eric Genuis.  Full screen viewing is recommended. Stayed tuned for Part Three which will begin at the Via Dolorosa.

Ave Maria!

The post From a Pilgrim: A Day With Mary to the Holy Land (part 2 of 3) first appeared on AirMaria.com.