By Jeremy Reynalds
Senior Correspondent for ASSIST News Service
WARSAW
(ANS) -- Things
have come a long way since the 1980s when Polish media partner Henryk
Krol had to secretly record Christian music in clandestine studios to
avoid reprisals from the then-communist government.
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Polish
President Bronislaw Komorowski (left) with CCM Media President
Krzysztof Budzisz on June 17 after he received the Cross of Merits for
development of free media in Poland.
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As
part of the celebrations marking the 20-year anniversary of the Poland
National Radio and Television Board, Polish President Bronislaw
Komorowski presented Budzisz with the Cross of Merits. He was the only
recipient to represent local media.
HCJB
said others receiving awards included leaders of the country's National
Radio Network and the presidents of two leading commercial networks.
"How
happy we are about this honor," said Krol, president and chief
executive officer of DEO recordings which has operated CCM since 1986,
using music and media to spread the gospel.
"The
thing the government likes about CCM is that we're helping fulfill the
social and local needs of communities," explained Krol. "We deliver what
we promise - playing an active role in
local communities; influencing people with an honest and honorable
attitude, and adding a pluralistic voice to the media."
Henryk
Krol Budzisz, whom Krol credits for bringing lively programming of
general interest to CCM's five-station radio network, said he was
"greatly privileged" to accept the award. "But I want to attribute my
thanks to God whom we want to serve, and my colleagues who make the
radio happen."
Krol added that
part of CCM's strategy is to connect "secular" radio programs with
Internet follow-up, accomplished via the SzukajacBoga.pl (Jesus.net)
movement. "Thousands of people are individually connected to our army of
volunteer 'e-coaches' and small-group leaders," HCJB reported Krol
said.
CCM and Radio Fest (an
FM station airing in a local Polish dialect) are complemented by
preaching and teaching programs on the Internet station, www.OdkryjRadio.pl.
Future plans for expansion include digital, national-scale broadcasting with a full array of programs.
"We're
also hoping to be able to purchase our own building in Gliwice, next to
the historic radio tower where World War II was triggered," Krol said.
An attack on a radio station in Gliwice on Aug. 31, 1939, staged by the
German secret police served as a pretext for Nazi Germany to invade
Poland, marking the start of the war.
Ironically,
HCJB said, CCM's first network station went on the air in Oswiecim,
named Auschwitz by the Germans during their occupation of Poland during
World War II. This is where more than 1.1 million Jews died in a network
of Nazi extermination and concentration camps from 1940 to 1945.
The
initial CCM station, started through a partnership with HCJB Global in
1997, went on the air eight years after democracy was established in
Poland.
Today CCM's five FM stations broadcast in an area with 4 million people, reach
ing an estimated audience of 640,000.
Since 2008, the www.jesus.net website
has attracted more than 1.8 million first-time visitors with nearly
290,000 people clicking on a button indicating their desire to follow
Christ and some 30,000 requesting follow-up. CCM has 150 active
e-coaches who correspond with those who have questions about
Christianity.
"While this
award was a surprise to us, our goal is to introduce people to Christ,
focusing on the most difficult group of listeners-people who are
indifferent to religion or even antagonistic," Krol concluded. "Our real
enemy is Satan who wants to enslave people in his kingdom. We
constantly pray for wisdom and great ideas to further our means to see
people saved."
See all ASSIST News articles at www.assistnews.net
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