Tune your radio dial to FM 90.3, and you'll connect with a community. That's where you'll find WJTL, a contemporary Christian station that's been bringing "Christ, community and music" to listeners since the 1980s.

"We want to be a touchstone for the community," said Fred McNaughton, president and CEO. "We want to offer wholesome, family-oriented music and events that can impact people's lives."

WJTL is located at the Junction Center, 1875 Junction Road, Manheim, a spacious, state-of-the-art facility with room for community events and concerts, but the station had humble beginnings.

"We started in 1984, in a chicken house across from Lancaster Bible College," McNaughton recalled, noting that challenges in the early days included running wiring along beams covered in petrified chicken poop and dodging low-hanging rafters while working. The station was owned then by Joy Broadcasting, a company that operated stations across the country. "They named their stations for their locations, so 'JTL' was 'Joy to Lancaster,'" McNaughton said.

When Joy Broadcasting wanted to sell the station in 1990, Tim Landis, who founded the nonprofit Creative Ministries, mounted a campaign to save the station. Creative Ministries purchased WJTL in 1991 and continues to operate it today. After a stint in a building behind Friendly's on Oregon Pike in Lancaster, WJTL moved to its current location in 2011. No matter where it called home, however, WJTL has remained singularly focused on its mission. "We are totally funded by our listeners. When people are touched by what we impart and what we do here, they support us, so it's really a true partnership," McNaughton stated. "Our listeners are the ones programming the station."

While the core of WJTL is contemporary Christian music, the station also offers a variety of specialty programming. The Kids Cookie Break, hosted by Lisa Landis, runs on Saturday mornings. On Saturdays from 9 p.m. to midnight, The Archives spotlights what McNaughton calls "early Jesus music from the '60s, '70s and '80s."

On Fridays and Saturdays, WJTL features "Some Sort of Rock Show," which McNaughton deems "the louder side of WJTL," and Kristi Leigh offers a Sunday morning praise and worship program. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, the station invites nonprofit organizations to the studio to share their mission with listeners.

In addition to running WJTL, McNaughton is a morning DJ on the station. "I get up at 3 a.m. to come to work, and I still get up every day excited to be on the radio," he said. His passion for Christian music began as a youth when he started buying 99-cent records at the Christian Light bookstore in Elizabethtown. "This music and these musicians were speaking a language I identified with, and it was a style of music that showed me the kind of life I wanted to live," he said.

That's what he hopes WJTL continues to do every day for its listeners. "Radio is there for people. It's such a personal medium, and it's about relationships and connection with people," he commented. "So many listeners tell us they feel that a song was played just for them. They have a personal connection to what's on the air."

For more information on WJTL, visit https://wjtl.com.