The First Broadcast

The stories aired on KLCE for the first time August 3, 1997, and subsequent additional stories aired each Sunday thereafter. We produced 3 new stories each week for a year. As our son David was serving as a missionary in the Brazil Rio de Janeiro North Mission at that time, I felt I was serving a simultaneous mission in the production of these stories each week. I typically spent about 8 hours each Saturday producing 3 of them. Glenn’s part - voicing 3 stories - usually took less than an hour. He was a gifted first or second-take speaker most of the time. However, I'm sure he also spent a lot of time researching and writing the stories when he was not with me.

Music was a huge challenge for me, trying to find just the right selection to embellish the mood of each story, and inaudibly edit it to the proper length. The songs that followed the stories were usually decided by Glenn as he was quite familiar with playing them in his seminary classes each day. He actually wrote some of his stories with specific songs in mind.

By the end of July 1998 - 156 stories later - I felt both out-of-breath and excited at reaching our goal! However, Glenn was not done. The following year, we continued to produce additional new stories to replace some less impressive ones.

Success and Expansion

In 1998, John Hair of KOSY in Salt Lake City heard the stories as he was driving through southeast Idaho one Sunday. He called me, and asked if KOSY could use the stories too during their Sounds of the Sabbath program, which he produced. I was excited! However, Glenn had opened nearly all of the stories with the phrase Sounds of Sunday. So I made special new edits of those stories replacing Sounds of Sunday with Sounds of the Sabbath for KOSY to air.

In 1999, at the recommendation of the new KOSY program director Paul Wilson, Duane Lund the owner of KXRQ in Vernal, Utah asked to air the stories too during his Sounds of Sunday program. We accommodated, and we also provided them for owner Doug Barton to air during his "Sounds of Sunday" program at KMTI in Manti, Utah.

During 1999, we began using the talents of our ward member Michael Leavitt and local piano teacher and high school choir director Deanne Casperson in producing instrumental tracks. They are marvelous keyboardists who have the tremendous talent to compose scores to fit the stories. All I had to do was mix in the music – no editing required.

With over 230 stories produced, on August 1, 2004 we increased the air schedule to 4 stories per Sunday. And on August 6, 2006 with over 260 stories produced, we increased the air schedule again to 5 stories per Sunday. Today in 2018 we have over 470 stories produced, and have revised several older stories with newer recordings of songs providing better audio and production quality.

I was encouraged by the number of stations that were airing the stories, but the only way for other stations to also air the stories was for them to be featured during a program such as Sounds of Sunday or Sounds of the Sabbath. This presented a new challenge. It required a unique music library and a program director to organize it.

It also required the delivery of the program to the stations. I considered satellite delivery like other network programs. but with our limited resources, we couldn't afford it. However, in the early 2000s, recordable CDs were being introduced, which was very affordable. So our first programs were recorded on CDRs and mailed to the stations. By 2006, MP3 delivery via the internet was even easier, quicker, and more affordable, which is how we distribute the program today.