This religious radio station in SC is one of a kind in the US. Why it’s lasted nearly 40 years

Greg Kintz can only listen to news radio in small doses before the polarization gets to him.

“You get to a point where, you know, I’m just not sure I can take any more of this conversation about the divisiveness of society,” Kintz said. “So turn on Radio Baha’i for 5 or 10 minutes.”

Kintz, former general manager of Radio Baha’i and a member of the Baha’i Faith, sees the station as a “refuge” and place for “uplifting and positive music for people to really focus on the spiritual aspect of life.”

He hopes that people turn on Radio Baha’i - 90.9 FM on the dial - on their way back from work, “so that when that person gets home, they’re more in a mood to be loving and supportive in the family, rather than walking in being needy, because they’re so frustrated by what happened at work, or by the news they listened to.”

Radio Baha’i, WLGI has been broadcasting since 1984 and Hemingway is its unlikely home. The only radio station in the United States run by this small religion, its operators consider it a place of peace in a divisive world.

Adherents to the Baha’i Faith believe that God sends prophets every couple of thousand years, such as Jesus Christ, Moses, Muhammad, Zoroaster and Krishna, with the most recent being the Bab and Baha’u’llah, the two Baha’i prophets.

The goal of the religion, which originated in 19th century Iran, is breaking down barriers between races and religions “to remove every trace of restriction and distinction among people,” according to Louis Venters, historian and author of “A History of the Baha’i Faith in South Carolina.”

According to the 2020 U.S. Religion Census, 17,000 South Carolinians practice the Baha’i Faith, compared to 8,093 Hindus and 6,364 Jews in the state. Marion County, part of Radio Baha’i’s listening area, had the largest percentage of Baha’i population in the nation with 6% in 2020, according to the 2020 U.S. Religious Census.

According to Venters, the relative popularity of the Baha’i Faith in South Carolina means residents have a larger understanding of the Baha’i Faith than the rest of the country.

“If it comes up that I’m a Baha’i, they know somebody who’s a Baha’i, or their grandmother was a Baha’i, or they used to go to Baha’i children’s classes when they were a kid,” Venters said.

Radio Baha’i broadcasts uplifting music, punctuated by motivational quotes from Baha’i scriptures and other prominent figures (like Maya Angelou, Barack Obama and Princess Diana) and announcements of community events (like blood and food drives) in the Horry, Georgetown, Williamsburg, Marion and Florence counties.

Ernest Hilton, the station’s operations manager, said, “I look for songs that bring upliftment, and are very positive and motivating for people, for people to listen to throughout the day.”

When he’s not on the air each morning from 6 to 9 a.m., he spends most of his time scouring Spotify playlists for songs with positive lyrics.

The almost 40-year-old station is programmed with African American listeners in mind, both Baha’i and not. Hilton said this is because South Carolina’s Baha’is were historically predominantly Black. Hilton chooses music from a variety of genres, like R&B, country, reggae, contemporary jazz and pop, though he generally leans toward contemporary gospel. Hilton said anyone can relate to this genre without feeling separated from their religious beliefs.

Hilton has specific criteria for lyrics when he searches for music for the station.

“If it speaks negatively about women or men, no degrading them in any way, we don’t play it. If it talks about drugs and violence, we don’t play it,” Hilton said.

Global reach from the Hemingway station

Founded in Hemingway, SC in 1972, the Louis G. Gregory Baha’i Institute served as an educational hub for South Carolina Baha’is, whose population was exploding. Radio Baha’i came from the institute 12 years later, as a way to communicate with Baha’is in the area.

“We need a radio station because it’s really hard, there’s just not enough manpower to get back to all of these people who have embraced this message, but they live down all of these dirt roads,” Venters explained.

Located an hour outside of Myrtle Beach, Hemingway had 504 residents according to the 2020 Census. In this town, where birdsong from the pines is rarely interrupted by passing cars and turkeys stand in a nearby field, Radio Baha’i broadcasts from a converted brick house, with shutters and a wheelchair ramp.

The station’s walls are decorated with black and white photos of Baha’i religious leaders and a tapestry of cassette tapes brought back from a DJ’s time in Tanzania.

Run by volunteers and three paid employees, Radio Baha’i is owned and funded by the Regional Baha’i Council of the Southeastern States, a branch of the Baha’is of the United States. Radio Baha’i broadcasts 24/7, with six DJ’s punctuating songs from 6 a.m. to midnight.

At least 9,000 listeners tune into 90.9 FM on the airwaves each week, with around 750 more listening on the online stream, according to Kintz. This stream attracts listeners from all over the United States and as far away as Germany, Brazil, India and Russia. Kintz said that some visitors to Myrtle Beach find the station on their radio and listen to the stream when they return home.

How the Baha’i Faith came to South Carolina

Just a few decades after the religion started, in 1909, the first South Carolinian Baha’i, joined the faith. Louis G. Gregory, a Charleston native, traveled around the South spreading the Baha’i Faith, and unusual for the time, Gregory, a Black man, married a white woman.

Unlike most other religious groups, Baha’i communities were racially integrated even before the Civil Rights Movement, Venters said.

“The main teaching of the Baha’i Faith is the unity of the human race and so the implication for that in the United States is that the Jim Crow system would have to be abolished,” Venters said. “Just the practice of Baha’is worshiping together, Black and White, was threatening because it was so intimate.”

With the repealing of segregation laws, the Baha’i Faith exploded in the 1970s and 1980s, especially among Black South Carolinians. Venters said the religion appealed to them because the Baha’i messages of unity spoke to people inspired by the recent Civil Rights Movement.

In the 1970s, Venters said that Hemingway neighbors were dubious of this relatively new religious group. That changed after Hurricane Hugo in 1989, when community members who wouldn’t have set foot on Baha’i property arrived to get food and supplies.

Now, Venters said, “I think the Institute and Radio Baha’i are now just kind of just, yeah, you know, just one more part of the local community in Hemingway.”

“Everywhere I go…people have respect for the station”

DJ and producer TJAY Jones remembers a listener who turned on Radio Baha’i when they were upset and angry. “The fact that our station could change a person’s feelings and views that they had on that day and put them in a more positive mood, it just stuck with me.”

In the last five years, around half a dozen individuals have become Baha’i after listening to the station, said Kintz, but he doesn’t consider the station to be evangelization.

“It’s to help remind people, not to tell them about the Baha’i Faith, but to remind them that they are fundamentally spiritual beings. That we are living a material existence, but we are, in essence, spiritual,” Kintz said.

Jones enjoys doing live broadcasts at community events, such as the Conway Gullah Geechee Festival and an Earth Day event in Pawleys Island. Radio Baha’i broadcasts at around three community events per month, Jones said.

Jones echoes Venters observations about area residents’ familiarity with Radio Baha’i.

“Everywhere I go, you know, people know about the station,” Jones said. “They listen to the station. They have respect for the station and these individuals aren’t Baha’is and they respect the faith.”

”Too many things”

Like many small organizations, employees say Radio Baha’i is held back by a lack of staff. Kintz, who is now retired, but volunteers regularly, said it’s hard for potential volunteers to drive to Hemingway, on top of paying for gas.

“In the 90s, we had lots of volunteers, like 20 or so,” Kintz said. “And now there’s just a handful of us that are volunteering, and it’s just not enough human resources right now to do everything that we would like to do.”

The station had hoped to release an app two or three years ago, to make it easier for listeners to access the stream, but Kintz said “too many things” came up. Now Kintz is drafting legal agreements and will send them off to the app-making company, along with the previously created designs, to be released by the end of June.

A musical future

With time at a premium, Radio Baha’i staff said they were excited to welcome a new full-time employee to handle the technical aspects of the station. The new hire is expected to join in the next few months.

Kintz, Hilton and Jones hope to continue the growth by producing more video streaming content on social media and putting up billboards in Myrtle Beach and Georgetown. Hilton said listenership has grown steadily over the last few years, thanks to staff members and volunteers getting out in the community by promoting and going to events. Jones, who produces a podcast outside of Radio Baha’i, looks forward to developing one for the station.

Staff members agreed that their goal for the future was to continue being a positive refuge for listeners.

“We, you know, appreciate the numbers, we look at the numbers, but we’re more so concerned about how we affect people,” Jones said. “If you’re having a bad day or you feel discouraged, you feel down, you can always turn on Radio Baha’i. You’re gonna get music that uplifts you, music that encourages you and content that does the same thing.”