Since 1993, MARS HILL AUDIO has been helping its listeners understand their culture through creative audio programming. Our primary resource has been the MARS HILL AUDIO Journal, a ninety-minute “audio magazine” of substantive interviews on a variety of important topics. This series is produced on a bimonthly basis and sold by subscription. Over the course of 10 years, the circulation of the MARS HILL AUDIO Journal has risen as high as 10,000 subscribers and is currently just over 8,000 subscribers.

At the beginning, the Journal (then call the MARS HILL Tapes) was produced in a garage-turned-studio attached to the Myers home in Powhatan, Virginia (an hour and a half west of Richmond). This is where all of the administrative, production, and distribution functions were carried on as well. In 1994 MARS HILL AUDIO opened an administrative office in downtown Charlottesville, with the plan to move the entire operation to the Charlottesville area within a couple of years. This happened in 1998, when a new studio was completed on property owned by the Myers family in Greene County, about 18 miles north of Charlottesville. In the summer of 2002 an addition housing administrative offices and a meeting room was added to the existing studio and office building, allowing the entire MARS HILL AUDIO operation to be under the same roof for the first time since 1993.

In the fall of 1998 we began experimenting with other audio formats, with the two-fold purpose of providing more expansive coverage for our existing listeners, and reaching out to new audiences who may not be best served by the MARS HILL AUDIO Journal. We now have at least two titles in five additional formats.

The lifestyle of most Americans is one that presses them to the limit of the twenty-four hours in each day. After commuting, working long hours, caring for children, handling household duties, shouldering civic and/or church involvements, and sleeping, there is little time and mental energy left for serious education and reflection on substantive matters.

Yet we are living in a time of unprecedented change, when serious education and reflection are direly needed. The steady erosion of our society’s traditions, manners, and mores; the emergence of powerful new technologies and media that, in many cases, fragment communities, families, and even the human personality; the deconstruction of history, literature, and social studies; the reduction of political discourse to a cynical one-upmanship; the marginalization of liberal arts education in favor of curricula that prepare students to be mere economic integers; the triumph of the therapeutic paradigm over religion – these are just some of the cultural permutations that demand the careful consideration of thinking persons.

The mission of MARS HILL AUDIO is to help resolve this dilemma by providing incisive commentary on our culture’s present state and formative past – in the convenient media of cassette tapes and CDs. Whether our programs are heard in automobiles on long trips or commutes, or over headphones while exercising or completing menial chores, our listeners regularly report that the format is extremely helpful, allowing them to learn during what would otherwise be wasted time.

MARS HILL AUDIO has capitalized on the growing market interest in spoken-word audio products. This specialized market is an outgrowth of radio broadcasting, which is still the dominant medium in the United States and the world. (Despite the advances of television and the internet, people still spend more hours of their day with radio than any other media source.)

Spoken-word audio products allow audio publishers to “narrowcast,” selling a particular program directly to the listener. It is now common for publishers to release an audio version of a book concurrently with the print edition. There are even some titles that are released exclusively on audio. Spoken-word audio, whether it is carried on cassette, compact disc, or digital download, is a very economical way to distribute content directly to highly interested and loyal listeners.

Our audience is primarily Christian (including both Protestants and Catholics), owing to the fact that we base the mandate for the task of cultural understanding and interaction in historic Christian doctrine. However, since the Christian tradition is not nearly an exhaustive resource for cultural inquiry, the selection of guests to interview on our programs is not at all limited to Christian individuals.

MARS HILL AUDIO operates with a modest staff. Ken Myers is the president of the organization, and the producer and host of the MARS HILL AUDIO Journal. He was formerly the editor of This World: A Journal of Religion and Public Life, a quarterly journal whose editor-in-chief was Richard John Neuhaus.

Mr. Myers is joined in his editorial and production duties by a full-time assistant, Albert Lee, and the administrative needs of the organization are handled by one other full-time and three part-time employees. Larry Adams, who has served on the board of MARS HILL AUDIO since 2002, oversees all of the financial, administrative, and distribution aspects of the operation. He is assisted by Gretchen Stelling and Kate Myers, who manage the day-to-day entry and fulfillment of subscription and catalog orders, as well as customer service and general office management. Karen Frank directs our marketing efforts in addition serving as primary contact for new constituent groups.

MARS HILL AUDIO produces a truly distinctive resource – one that is appropriate to the times, as well as the needs of its audience. As the times and the needs of our constituents change, the physical vehicle (e.g., cassette, CD, radio waves, internet) we use will likely change, but we trust that the peculiar richness of the spoken word will always be attractive to those who are seeking to understand the world around them. In the coming years and decades, we want to be prepared to produce creative audio resources for those seekers. As we expand and sharpen our craft, we are confident that the number and variety of constituents we serve will increase. We hope that a practical consequence of this growth will be the opportunity to shape the public conversation in the Church and society.