An online radio station in Spain is making waves across its young audience.
GLS Stream Radio is an online radio that broadcasts not only urban music but Christian music as well. Founded by Noé Serrano, a Spaniard who has rapped for 20 years, GLS Stream Radio started as a hip hop radio station that eventually incorporated Christian rap music to its playlists, reports Evangelical Focus.
[We] are working to connect with young people who need to hear the gospel in their own language. —Noé Serrano, Founder of GLS Stream Radio
“At the beginning the idea was to have a platform for young Christians in the world of rap, to help them grow and give them the little I can have,” said Serrano. “It occurred to me that we could put together a Christian radio for urban music, because there was no Christian radio with rap music in Spain, as there is in the United States or in Latin America.”
The radio station streams music all throughout the day. In addition to Christian music, GLS Stream Radio produces devotional podcasts with an evangelical pastor, Seth Vañó. A graffiti painter known as Dolar One, Vañó uses his talent to engage the youth through art.
“I was doing graffiti, but then I met God, who changed my life, and I left all that,” Vañó said. “But later on, God showed me that I could use graffiti to reach the youth that was getting lost, and that I was hiding a talent that I had to use.”
The graffiti artist said he shares the radio link to young people so they can listen to “good messages of salvation and hope.”
A report, Secularism in Figures published by the Ferrer i Guàrdia Foundation in 2018, found that almost half, or 48.9%, of young Spaniards between the ages of 18 to 24 have turned their back on religion. Having a platform like GLS Stream Radio helps people like Serrano and Vañó to have a wider reach and share the Gospel.
The two noticed that the young audience prefers to listen than read so they produced a podcast for the daily devotional by pastor José María Romo which was originally published in PDF format. They called the podcast Reflections on the Wall and to attract young listeners, they added good background music.
Serrano and Vañó might be using urban music to share the Gospel to the youth, but that doesn’t diminish the essence of what’s being shared. Serrano explained that they want to reach the youth and using hip hop and rap music is one way to do that. “It is important to evolve, to change the packaging without changing the content.”
