Refresh FM - contains absolutely no whales

I have been swimming in the whale-infested waters of Christian radio for about a week now.

The thing about Christian radio is that, like a lot of Christian sub-culture, it's bland, insipid and aimed at a very narrow audience (i.e. grown-ups). Manchester's Refresh FM is a pretty mainstream affair in some ways, and their mission statement is a pretty typical 'bringing Jesus into the world' type affair.

But what they excel at is letting idiots like me run with ideas and, sometimes, fall over. On air. It's a fantastic training ground, and much of Christian subculture doesn't encourage that kind of experimentation or trust.

They've let me co-present 20 two-hour radio programmes this year. I've done five and I have 15 to go. The show I do is called Theatre Of Noise, and it's on every weeknight at the moment at 9pm (information here). Me and my plucky co-host play alternative music, mostly by Christians, and run features that often involve something getting destroyed (1), burst (2), pummelled (3), collapsed (4) or boiled in oil (5).

The strange thing is, Refresh FM is the one remaining area of my life where I 'hang out with evangelicals'. But I don't feel compromised. The church it's based in seems quite traditional, but they're cool with me and I'm cool with them.

It's a microcosm (I promise never to use that word on air) of an image I have of liberal heathens and holy evangelicals working together because of mutual love and respect for each other.

Right then... off to write some more programme scripts!

Wikipedia-style footnotes
(1) we destroy things in a feature called Chainsaw Challenge (Tuesdays and Thursdays).
(2) we burst things in a feature called Balloons And Darts (Fridays).
(3) we pummell things in features called The Adventure Game (Mondays) and Sackcloth And Bashes (Wednesdays).
(4) we collapse things (mainly quiches) in a feature called Flansubstantiation (Mondays).
(5) we boil things in oil in a feature called Friar Tuck Shop (Fridays).