A Seventh-day Adventist radio station in California, United States, is now on the air after a 10-year dispute with local government over the issue of land use rights for a religious institution.
A Seventh-day Adventist radio station in California, United States, is now on the air after a 10-year dispute with local government over the issue of land use rights for a religious institution.
KASK began broadcasting non-commercial talk radio Thursday, July 19, from its studio on the site of the 200-member Adventist Church in Vacaville, a city of nearly 100,000 in population and located about 25 miles northeast of the San Francisco Bay Area.
“We will probably never know why it had to take so long, but we trust God is working out His plans, and will make this station a blessing to the church and community,” said Alan J. Reinach, Public Affairs and Religious Liberty director for the Adventist Church’s Pacific Union region in the Western U.S.
Several church leaders and members said they felt compelled over the last decade to pursue the launch of the radio ministry after local member Dr. Glenn Toppenberg found and helped secure an unclaimed frequency that engineers had overlooked in the highly competitive market. Toppenberg died of a stroke in 2004.
[Toppenberg’s] belief was so strong he spent personal retirement reserves to pursue what he believed to be God’s will,” said Glenn Aufderhar, chair of the board for KASK. “Then when doors closed he often asked friends if he was being presumptuous, but then God would open a new door that removed all doubt,” Aufderhar said.
The church’s case was mentioned in the U.S. Congressional Record in 2000, which stated the county was determining “what constitutes a legitimate ministry of a church” by denying “accessory use” of the property.
After several negative rulings by state and federal courts, Reinach said the final approval was aided by a previous lawsuit brought by members of a Sikh temple that had similar conflicts with the county.
“Despite the long conflict, the church established a very positive working relationship with county officials and planning department staff,” Reinach said.
KASK received its final permit from Solano County last week and now broadcasts to a potential audience of 600,000, not including Interstate 80 motorists passing through the region.
The Vacaville Adventist Church will celebrate the station’s inauguration on September 8. A scheduled guest speaker includes the director of the county’s planning department.