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89.9 TheLight (call sign 3TSC) is a Christian
community A community is a social unit (a group of living things) with commonality such as place, norms, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given geographical area (e.g. a country, village, ...
radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radi ...
in
Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...
, Australia attracting more than a million listeners per month. It broadcasts on the FM band with the frequency of 89.9, on DAB+ digital radio and streams online via website and mobile app. Studios are located at 333 Mitcham Road, in
Mitcham Mitcham is an area within the London Borough of Merton in South London, England. It is centred southwest of Charing Cross. Originally a village in the county of Surrey, today it is mainly a residential suburb, and includes Mitcham Common. It h ...
with FM transmitter on
Mount Dandenong Mount Dandenong is a small township/suburb of Greater Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, east from Melbourne's central business district, located within the Shire of Yarra Ranges local government area. Mount Dandenong recorded a population of 1,2 ...


History

The station's beginnings can be traced to 1977, when Melbourne Christian Radio was founded. It conducted test broadcasts in 1980, 1981, and 1982 as 3MCR before purchasing air time on commercial station 3DB. 89.9 TheLight is run by Positive Media Inc, which was formerly called Triple Seven Communications and 89.9 LightFM and Light Melbourne Inc. They conducted a three-month temporary broadcast in late 2001 and was informed in December of that year that they were successful for one of the four community licences available from the Australian Broadcasting Authority, now the Australian Communications and Media Authority. 89.9 TheLight began full-time permanent broadcasting on Sunday 1 December 2002. In January 2017 it was announced that 89.9 TheLight reaches over a million people a month.


Initiatives


LightNews

89.9 TheLight has its own dedicated news service that provides hourly updates throughout the day, and every half an hour during the breakfast (6am-9am) program. Previously, 89.9 TheLight had broadcast the
Macquarie National News Nine News is a radio news service providing the half-hourly radio news bulletins to radio stations across Australia. History On 16 September 2009, Macquarie Radio Network shut down its news website, livenews.com.au after two years of existence, ...
program every hour.


Nine News simulcast

An exclusive simulcast of ''
Nine News Melbourne ''Nine News Melbourne'' is the weeknight, flagship news bulletin of the Nine Network in Australia. It is screened in Melbourne and Tasmania, and across Victoria. Like all ''Nine News'' bulletins, the Melbourne bulletin runs for one hour, from 6 ...
'' at 18:00 with
Peter Hitchener Peter Donald Beauchamp Hitchener OAM (born 21 February 1946) is an Australian television presenter. He has been the chief news presenter for GTV-9 of their flagship bulletin '' Nine News Melbourne'' since 1998, and prior to that was the weekend ...
, Tony Jones and
Livinia Nixon Livinia Helen Nixon (19 March 1975) is an Australian television presenter and actress. Nixon is the chief weather presenter for ''Nine News Melbourne''.cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by str ...
or the
NRL Grand Final The NRL Grand Final determines the champions of the National Rugby League club competition. It is a major sport event in Australia. Since 1999, it has been contested at Stadium Australia in Sydney. The first year it was held at Stadium Austral ...
. The newsreader for that night chats with 89.9 TheLight every afternoon, previewing the bulletin at 18:00 hours.


Careline

The 89.9 TheLight Careline is a supportive service for people who would like
prayer Prayer is an invocation or act that seeks to activate a rapport with an object of worship through deliberate communication. In the narrow sense, the term refers to an act of supplication or intercession directed towards a deity or a deified ...
, an explanation of
Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...
, or simply an understanding ear. Callers may also request to be referred to a local church. The Lord Mayor's Charitable Fund assisted with the operating costs of the Careline in 2003, 2004 and 2005. Careline is an independent nationwide service. "'Careline Connections' is a not for profit Company...provided as a Community service to listeners of Christian media across Australia."


DAB+ Digital radio

89.9 TheLight is simulcast on Digital Radio in Melbourne. TheLight MIX (formerly LightDigital) is an online and DAB+ digital station broadcasting 100% Christian music, and was launched on 1 December 2011 TheLight Christmas (formerly LightChristmas) broadcasts every year from early December through to early January online and on DAB+ digital radio. In 2014, for the first time, TheLight Christmas appeared as a 'pop up' digital radio station.


Presenters


89.9 TheLight on-air team

The presenters of 89.9 TheLight include
Lucy Holmes Lucy Holmes is a British-born Australian performer, TV presenter, radio host, screenplay writer and director. She has studied a degree in Music Theatre and has since worked as a professional singer, actress and presenter, recording artist and ...
, Kel McWilliam, Cam Want, Jo Chapman, Joy, Euan, Gianna, Luke And Susie Holt, Azzan Schuster, Clayton Bjelan, MJ Want and Allan Martin, as well as the Nine News Melbourne team


Shows

89.9 TheLight has many full-time and some part-time announcers employed at the radio station. 89.9 TheLight promotes Lucy & Kel primarily, with spots on air throughout the day. In 2021, Lucy and Kel were featured on a billboard advertising campaign around Melbourne suburbs.


Music


Christian

89.9 TheLight plays a wide array of music of both Christian and censored
secular Secularity, also the secular or secularness (from Latin ''saeculum'', "worldly" or "of a generation"), is the state of being unrelated or neutral in regards to religion. Anything that does not have an explicit reference to religion, either negativ ...
music, with references to controversial topics deleted via Light Remixes of secular music.
Christian music Christian music is music that has been written to express either personal or a communal belief regarding Christian life and faith. Common themes of Christian music include praise, worship, penitence, and lament, and its forms vary widely aroun ...
on the station is generally a mixture of pop,
modern rock Modern rock is an umbrella term used to describe rock music that is found on college rock radio stations. Some radio stations use this term to distinguish themselves from classic rock, which is based in 1960s–1980s rock music. Radio format Mod ...
, and
gospel Gospel originally meant the Christian message (" the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words a ...
. 89.9 TheLight plays up to 40%
Christian music Christian music is music that has been written to express either personal or a communal belief regarding Christian life and faith. Common themes of Christian music include praise, worship, penitence, and lament, and its forms vary widely aroun ...
not including Christian songs from mainstream artists such as U2.


Mainstream

89.9 TheLight generally play a mix of
adult contemporary Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quie ...
music. This makes up the other 60% of music they play. This quite often results in the station playing songs from the Billboard 100 Adult Contemporary. They also include music from the
Top 40 In the music industry, the Top 40 is the current, 40 most-popular songs in a particular genre. It is the best-selling or most frequently broadcast popular music. Record charts have traditionally consisted of a total of 40 songs. "Top 40" or "cont ...
Australia and United States singles charts. However, they still play a variety of pop and Soft rock songs from the 1990s and early 2000s.


References


External links

*
TheLight MIXTheLight ChristmasChristianity WorksFocus on the Family AustraliaCareline Connections Website
{{coord missing, Victoria (Australia) Christian radio stations in Australia Community radio stations in Australia Radio stations in Melbourne 89.9 TheLight Christmas