 "Photo: Maribel Molina")
 "Photo: Maribel Molina")
Every Saturday night, a crew of teenagers broadcasts "Say It Loud," the only student-run radio show in San Antonio.
Produced by Jim Belt, the show is a Christian-based ministry that encourages teens to think differently and to weigh what it really means to be a Christian teenager.
"I think today, youth need to hear people close to their age," Belt said just hours before airtime on a recent Saturday night at the KSLR studios. "To know that you don't have to do what everyone else is doing, and if you do, there are consequences."
Although the focus of the show is gospel, the range of discussions varies from daily life to news. The two hours before the show are spent arranging topics that revolve around religion. Students meet in the station's conference room.
"We sometimes have a Bible study," crew member Sarah Corder said. "We don't always talk about religious topics necessarily, but they always seem to come back to that just because of our common belief."
Although the radio show is run by teens, the primary audience is parents.
"A lot of the adults take things that we say in our show from a teen point of view," Corder said. "It kind of helps them relate to their kids."
The radio show allows listeners to call in to state an opinion. The content is often helpful in deciphering how a parent views his or her own child.
"We've had callers say, 'Thank you, because I never knew my daughter/son was thinking that way,'" Corder said. "We think it's obvious as teenagers."
Former crew member Heather Creamer, 19, said "Say It Loud" was just what she needed. Although she graduated from high school last year, Belt invited her as a special guest for last week's show because summer vacations caused regular crew members to forgo attending.
Creamer enjoyed the show and the experiences with the calling audience.
"Even though we didn't get lots of callers, when we did, they were always really meaningful calls," Creamer said.
Asked about their most memorable caller, Creamer and Belt simultaneously said, "Courtney," a teen who is a reminder of the help the show can offer.
Courtney called in because she was worried about her father, who was deployed to Iraq, and she was having trouble understanding how people could feel joy in the midst of suffering, Creamer recalled. Courtney stayed on the line for most of the show.
"She's just one person, but we know it made a big difference for her," Creamer said, "because her attitude from the first few minutes of the phone call till the end of the show was totally different."
The whole idea of the ministry is that a student can volunteer and commit to a one-year testing of the waters, but students are not obligated to stay.
"We can't have them do something they don't want to do," Belt said. "It just doesn't fit with what we do."
In the station's conference room, the atmosphere is calm and soothing. Belt is a father figure, making jokes and helping teens relax.
On the eve of Father's Day, the topic was father figures, with guest Ed Tandy McGlasson, author of the book "The Difference a Father Makes."
"Fathers are absent in the lives of the youth today," Belt said. "Some kids don't have a father emotionally, so I'm looking for a good show tonight."
The crew members consist of public, private and home-schooled teens. Belt said it doesn't matter where they are from, as long as "they have a personal relationship with him (Jesus Christ), that they can talk about him."
With more than one year of being on the show, Corder, 16, plans to use her experience of being able to talk to audiences.
"I really love talking to young women about how they should respect themselves," Corder said. "That's one of the things that I don't see portrayed on media or any other kind of source that's out there today."
Belt believes in getting to know the real person, to "take the masks off" and to see the real person. He said communication is essential.
"The fact there's a microphone in front of your face makes no difference," Belt said. "Everybody can communicate, some much better than others, but everybody can communicate."
When faced with a call, Belt said, the teen has to be able to be "real" and to not fake an emotion.
"If your face is not real, then the whole ministry is affected," Belt said. "So they not only have to know what to say, they have to live with the talk, and that is tough."
Not everyone can become a member of "Say It Loud." The teen and his or her parents must interview with Belt.
Stacy Lopez, 16, thought the questions Belt asked in the interview were deep.
"It was a really good process, because it made me think of my relationship with Christ," Lopez said.
Corder got involved with "Say It Loud" when members came to speak in her church, encouraging students to set up an interview with Belt.
That got Corder's interest, and she and her parents met with Belt for three hours.
"We just started flowing with conversation," Corder said. "It was highs and lows. I think we laughed, we cried. … It was amazing."
With a three-year high school engineering program under her belt, Corder didn't picture herself going into broadcasting. But she found a passion investing in the radio show, which she considers a "good gift" when it comes to finding a job.
"I've got two years of high school," Corder said. "I absolutely love it, and that's one of the most important things about finding a job - finding something you like."
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