RTK goes for Sister Act touch

It was a tradition for Church radio to transmit live Mass at St John's Co-Cathedral, in Valletta on Maundy Thursday but the man tasked to re-brand the station would have none of it.

Mass was not transmitted in full and shared air time with a discussion programme that reflected on the significance of the day.

Franco Azzopardi, 47, was appointed chairman of RTK more than a year ago with the primary job of changing the station's listenership from an ageing audience to a younger one. He is also chairman of the Church Media Centre.

He wants to emulate the effect of Sister Mary Clarence, the character played by Whoopi Goldberg in the box office hit Sister Act. In the film, Ms Goldberg plays the part of a showgirl-turned-nun to hide from gangsters and Mr Azzopardi uses her character as an analogy to describe RTK's challenge within the remit handed down by the Church.

"Goldberg used her talent and transformed the dull nuns' choir into a singing troupe that enticed people to go to Church, even if simply out of curiosity. Similarly, RTK has to adopt innovative ways to attract listeners to the Church but our job is not converting people. Conversion is a priest's job," Mr Azzopardi says, insisting it would be useless for RTK to be another Church pulpit.

A Church pastoral media document last year, The Digital Face Of the Lord, had argued for a change in demographics to the radio's listenership. In 2007, the station had 81 per cent of its audience aged 50 and over. The document wanted to change this and aimed to have at least 55 per cent of its audience under-50.

It is no mean feat and Mr Azzopardi admits it will require more sweat than any of his cycling tours to bring about change. An avid cyclist, he was chairman of the Sports Council for five years and knows how difficult it can be to get government agencies to work differently.

"In many respects, the Church is no different and, possibly, a bit more traditional," he admits, adding that the "vintage" management team at RTK brought knowledge and experience but it also made change hard to come by.

"The Church authorities did not interfere with our direction because they understood that to achieve the goal outlined in the pastoral document things had to change," Mr Azzopardi says.

Opening up is important, he adds, if the Church wants to fulfil its mission to contribute positively to society by offering a Christian perspective.

"We do not have any inhibition to discuss sensitive issues such as the sex abuse scandals that have rocked the Church. In this way, the Church can also put its view across," Mr Azzopardi argues.

The gradual change has left casualties and he acknowledges that some listeners, who prefer more religious content, have migrated to the purely religious station Radju Marija.

"We have to stay focused on drawing a younger audience through creative means. Radju Maria is not a competitor but it complements RTK's mission," Mr Azzopardi says.

The Church Curia is the main shareholder at RTK and, although the intention is to have some sort of financial viability, Mr Azzopardi says the station cannot be run on purely commercial lines if it is to live up to its social commitment.

"Commercial success is achieved by having more music but it would also mean reneging on the mission to inform and educate even if these have to be achieved in an entertaining way," he explains, pointing out that the station had to find a balance between being a vocational institution and a business concern.

He defends the Media Centre's controversial decision to stop printing the weekly newspaper Il-Ġens, which was reborn as an online news site and insists the newspaper did not make financial sense.

"The online version gives us a much higher circulation among readers of a different profile," he says while underlining the fact that more pensioners today were internet literate. It also provides for better synergy and sharing of resources with the radio station.

The road is still a long one and Mr Azzopardi insists he has not yet found "the right glue to gel the organisation".

"It has been a hard year where we spent time understanding the shareholder's demands, creating a vision statement and setting the targets. I am enjoying it, though culture change is always a challenge in any organisation," he admits.

The challenge is also for RTK's listeners as their station gradually morphs into a different genre that retains its Christian identity but is not imprisoned by it.