What’s Going On-International English
December 2024
Merry Christmas from Your New Life Station
By Rob Scobey
The recent North American holiday of Thanksgiving heralded the full arrival of the Christmas Season. And you’ll be hearing more and more about Christmas on Your New Life Station between now and Christmas Day—which is December 25th according to the Gregorian calendar. The Gregorian calendar–established in 1582–is the one now followed by most of the world. It adds an extra day (February 29) every four years to compensate for the speed that Earth revolves around the sun. Countries that still follow the older Julian calendar will celebrate Christmas on January 7.
As we get closer to December 25, you’ll notice more Christmas music and Christmas-themed reporting. After Christmas—you’ll hear more segments about the new year.
Merry Christmas!
The Pacific Rim and Southwest Asia
The Pacific Rim, the Indian subcontinent and southwest Asia provide the reasons Your New Life Station broadcasts the International English Hour. The Pacific Rim is the part of the Eastern Hemisphere that encompasses English-prevalent countries Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, and New Zealand. Additionally—English is widely spoken in Indonesia. And English is the official language of government and commerce in the southwest Asian countries of India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. In Japan and in countries of the Middle East, many speak English as a second language.
Your New Life Station’s broadcast schedule makes use of Universal Coordinated Time (UTC), a 24-hour system also known as Greenwich Mean Time. Eastern Standard Time (EST) is five hours behind UTC; Central Standard Time (CST) is six hours behind. When some parts of the world switch to daylight saving time for the warm weather months, Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) is four hours behind UTC, and Central Daylight Time (CDT) is five hours behind. Outside the U.S.—most locations are on standard time all year rather than daylight time. Karachi is five hours ahead of UTC. Mumbai and New Delhi are five-and-a-half hours ahead. Manila, Beijing, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Kuala Lumpur are eight hours ahead. And Tokyo is nine hours ahead of UTC.
You can use our listener website www.knls.org to hear the English Hour if you have internet access. Another online source is https://worldchristian.airtime.pro. And you can access the broadcast through the KNLS app on your mobile device or through Google or Safari. If you listen via shortwave radio, you can access knls.org to get our broadcast frequencies or you can write to us and request a schedule.
The English Hour is the Asian continent’s source for the music of our time and the message of all time. We work to provide a geographical balance in the topics we feature as we take you from “Alaska to Asia to Africa to America.” Our Eye on the World stories often show the interdependence of the Eastern and Western Hemispheres.
Since our target audience is mostly non-Christians, our content is different from a typical Christian format station in America. While we provide our share of positive, uplifting content, some of our programming also provides an honest look at the dark side of life on Earth. Indeed, some program segments and music selections may raise questions that a thoughtful truth seeker will ask. And other segments, such as the Bible or Christian lifestyle lessons, serve to answer those questions.
Music to Love
Music is a universal language. Probably 80 per cent of the world’s pop tunes are sung in English, and are enjoyed by people everywhere, many who are themselves not proficient in English. The English Hour features your favorite songs from today’s best music. International pop charts show that your favorite music is also the favorite of people who are culturally diverse—whether in Nairobi, Sydney, Singapore, or Jakarta.
The songs are pop, rock, r & b, and occasional hip-hop and country music that cross over to the pop charts. The English Hour generally features music by artists from the U.S., the U.K., Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand. But music artists from all over the world, including European deejays and South Korean boy and girl bands, have found their names on or near the top of international pop charts.
Starting in mid-December—you’ll hear new pop music Nya and David Guetta, Alphaville, and Ava—as well as Christmas holiday favorites. On Christmas Eve and Christmas Day—all the music selections will fit the Christmas season.
News to Know
The English hour features reporting about topics of current interest. Marcy Bryan reports about entertainment, business, and news about religion and social issues. Kelly Ann Monahan has the latest developments in medicine, science, and computer technology. Paul Ladd provides special reports about diverse topics, religious and secular. Larry Souder interviews interesting people, sometimes in front of a live audience, on Souder & Friends. Doug Poling provides commentary on the news from a Christian perspective on Today’s News & the Good News. And Adam Holtz, Jonathan McKee, and Paul Asay of Focus on the Family provide Plugged-in reviews of the latest movies, online games, and TV shows.
Upcoming Segments for December:
It was the party city of the Roman empire. And it was incinerated by the eruption of Italy’s Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D. Marcy Bryan reports on new insights about the destruction of Pompeii.
Just in time for the Christmas season in 1984—British pop stars recorded “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” to benefit poverty-stricken portions of Africa. The following spring—in 1985—USA for Africa recorded the charity song “We Are the World.” The producer was Quincy Jones, who died recently. Marcy has more about his career and accomplishments.
And Marcy reports about efforts by various governments to force Google to break up into smaller companies.
The covid pandemic prompted some people to consume more alcohol. But when covid faded—alcohol consumption persisted. Kelly Ann Monahan reports.
Kelly Ann reports on an increase of premature births in the U.S.
And Paul Ladd takes us to Nashville’s Frist Center to tell us about the fascinating exhibits on display for the holiday season.
How does Santa Claus manage to answer the mail he gets? Larry Souder takes us to Santa Claus, Indiana, USA to find out.
And Larry brings us the New Year’s Walk of Life.
A Message to Live
This is what we’re about and why we’re on the air and on the internet. Our mission is to present the lessons of the Bible, including and emphasizing the Good News in an interesting, non-threatening way.
Ongoing Series:
- All God’s Giants with Larry Souder
- Andy Baker’s Prayer Lesson
- Believer’s Hall of Faith with Bill Young
- Bible Archaeology, Proofs from the Earth with Bill Humble
- Creation Moments with Paul Taylor
- Direction with Rubel Shelly
- Encounters with Jesus with Larry Souder
- Family Minute with Brit & Kate Ryan
- First Person with Paul Ladd
- God’s Money with Steve Maganelles & Don White
- God’s Passion for Humanity with Bill Young
- Groundwire with Sean Dunn
- Hope in Conflict with Larry Souder
- Jim Daly commentary
- Joy of Peacemaking with Larry Souder
- Life Stories with Joe Norris
- Paradoxes with Bill Steensland
- Profiles of the New Testament with Bob Borquez
- Profiles of the Old Testament with Royce Kessler
- Refiner’s Fire with Paul Ladd
- Souder & Friends featuring Stories of Amazing Grace with Larry Souder
- The Big Picture with Steve Diggs
- The God Who Makes Himself Known with Bill Young
- The Good Book with Greg Taylor
- The Journey with Greg Taylor
- Today’s News & the Good News with Doug Poling
- True Stories of the Bible with Bill Steensland
- Unforgettable Conversations with Larry Souder
