By Roman Flores
BRAWLEY – From the intro’s rousing orchestral strings and Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen’s epic vocals to rockin’ guitar riffs, the Valley’s first Catholic radio show took shape in 2019.
“Sacred Heart Narratives” airs on St. John Paul II Catholic Radio’s FM stations and website. The stations are affiliated with the EWTN and Relevant Radio networks.
The talk show is one of the projects of “JP2 Radio,” a nonprofit organization that began in the Valley in 2015.
“We’re not only trying to fill a space, we’re trying to expand our space,” said Raul Caro, station manager of JP2 Radio. “Our mission is to evangelize and catechize over the airwaves with radio that will make an impact on people’s lives and bring them closer to Christ. That’s really our goal, [to] get out there and let them know who Christ is so they can become followers [of Christ] and imitate Him.”
Caro said the station has been building a studio at St. Margaret Mary Catholic Church in Brawley. In the future, JP2 is working on holding pledge drives to support the station, creating short-form videos to be uploaded to social media platforms, and creating a smartphone app which would include a Catholic music streaming channel.
“Not only are we providing traditional, Catholic, orthodox programming but our goal is also to look for ways to reach Catholics in their 20s and 30s,” he said.
It was that outreach, Caro said, that led to giving Jose Martinez’s “Sacred Heart Narratives” show an on-air home on JP2 Radio. Martinez teaches fifth grade at Heber School in Heber.
Since June, Martinez has aired 23 shows and some online extras. This “evangelization media” show features Martinez chatting with one or more guests, focusing on one topic. Topics have included God’s grace, Catholic relics, dressing appropriately for Mass, Catholic music, the corporal works of mercy, Advent and the holy rosary.
“The response [to the show] has been fantastic. People like to hear a programming that has a local touch to it,” Caro said.
Martinez, of Imperial, said “Sacred Heart Narratives” was originally the title of his worship music endeavor that began gaining traction locally through Facebook and platforms like iTunes about four years ago.
However, Martinez said he refocused that work to create a podcast at the prompting of the Holy Spirit and his wife, Lina. He named the show after Sacred Heart Mission, located in his town where he’s from, Heber.
Martinez said the podcast idea morphed into what eventually became the “Sacred Heart Narratives” show on JP2 Radio.
Sacred Heart Narratives airs in the Imperial Valley at Fridays at 7 p.m. and again Saturdays at 9 a.m. on JP2 Radio, 93.3 FM and 95.7 FM. The show also airs online on jp2radio.com.
A catalog of previously aired episodes and web exclusives can be found online at sacredheartnarratives.com/radio. Tickets for JP2 Radio’s upcoming Winter Conference with Father Wade Menezes can be purchased online at jp2radio.com/event/annual-jp2-radio-conference.
The Southern Cross
