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Photos. BILL LEDBETTER KKVV manager
JACK FRENCH KILA manager
A serene Jesus hovers in the clouds above a transmitter tower, radio waves dispersing in all directions. Below, people are peering up at the Messiah as if waiting for His Word.
If anything, the colorful mural on the wall over a door in the KILA-FM 90.5 building encapsulates what Christian radio stations in Las Vegas (which includes KKVV-AM 1060) are attempting to do _ get the religion's message out to the masses via a mass medium.
The message is basically the same, both station managers agree, but they have "a different format and a different approach," says KKVV's Bill Ledbetter.
"But the goal's the same," he says: To save souls.
Other than that, the two stations couldn't be more different.
KILA, a non-commercial station, has been broadcasting The Word since 1972. Started by Jack French, who is general manager and heads the board of Faith Communications Corp., KILA does not accept commercials or conduct pledge drives, or "share-athons" as they're called by Christian broadcasters.
The station has succeeded, thanks to its core audience of loyal listeners in its 25 to 54 target audience. KILA caters to its youthful listeners with contemporary Christian music. French estimates the programming mix to be 70 percent music, 30 percent talk.
KILA also can be heard simultaneously over KCIR in Twin Falls, Idaho, and KANN in the Salt Lake City area. Translators leap-frog the station's signal to five states, going as far east as Texas. Currently, French has plans to go on the air in Victorville, Calif.
In addition, KILA is broadcast over satellite, and can be picked up in all 50 states and Canada.
On the other hand KKVV is the new religious station in town. It began broadcasting a year ago in May and after a rocky start is operating in the black, according to Ledbetter.
KKVV concentrates on selling program time to evangelists and Bible scholars alike. It's Christian-talk radio, no music.
Both French and Ledbetter have spent most of their lives devoted to their cause.
French, interviewed in the station's modern offices on South Sixth Street, has been in...