September 28, 2026
Zimbabwe broadcast license could help reach 200,000 more people to hear the Gospel
The Tide’s partners clear the first hurdle toward operating independent Christian radio stations in Bulawayo, Harare and Masvingo
CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. — The Tide® (www.thetide.org) global media ministry has taken a significant step toward expanding its Gospel broadcasts in Zimbabwe. There, local partners have applied for three radio broadcasting licenses that would, if granted, put the ministry’s programming within reach of approximately 200,000 additional listeners. The Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe (BAZ) recently opened applications for Temporary Free-to-air Religious Community Radio Broadcasting Service licenses; The Tide’s partners have applied for stations serving Bulawayo, Harare and Masvingo.
Zimbabwe remains a country where the Gospel has not reached everyone. Just over a quarter of the population identifies as evangelical Christian, and unreached and least-reached people groups make up another 12.8% of Zimbabweans, according to Christian Aid Mission. The country has also spent much of the last two decades in economic freefall — by 2008-9, annual inflation had climbed to 89.7 sextillion percent, one of the worst hyperinflation episodes ever recorded, and the currency crisis has resurfaced in the years since.
Currently, The Tide reaches Zimbabwean listeners only by purchasing airtime on Khulumani FM in Bulawayo, which means they must work within another broadcaster’s schedule and format. A license of its own would change that arithmetic. The Tide’s partners applied for licenses valid for five years, which would let the ministry set its own programming lineup across the day rather than filling assigned time slots — Scripture teaching in the morning, discipleship content at midday, evening programs reaching listeners after work, all in the Ndebele and Shona languages spoken across the license areas.
“Right now we’re a guest on somebody else’s station,” Shenk said. “A license means The Tide gets to decide what airs and when — morning devotions, teaching in the afternoon, whatever the day calls for. That’s a completely different ministry than buying a half hour here-and-there.”
BAZ’s decision on the applications is still pending, and The Tide has cleared what the ministry describes as the first gate in a multi-step licensing process. Bulawayo, Harare and Masvingo were chosen because they sit at the center of language and population groups The Tide already serves through its Khulumani FM programming. The benefit is that a license in each city would let local partners tailor content to communities that currently hear the Gospel only when The Tide can afford the airtime.
“Zimbabwe’s economy has put families through more than a decade of uncertainty, and it would be easy to read that as a closed door,” Shenk said. “We read it differently. People are asking harder questions right now, and radio is how a lot of them are finding answers. Two hundred thousand more people hearing the Gospel because of a piece of paper from a licensing board — that’s worth waiting for.”
Should the licenses be granted, The Tide’s partners would begin broadcasting independently rather than negotiating airtime, a shift the ministry has been working toward for several years as it has built relationships with Zimbabwean church leaders and radio technicians capable of running the stations day-to-day.
“We’ve been planting people and relationships in Zimbabwe for years so that when a door like this opened, we’d be ready to walk through it,” Shenk said. “Now we wait on the paperwork.”
To learn more about The Tide’s ministry in Zimbabwe, visit https://www.thetide.org/where-we-work/zimbabwe/ or read https://www.thetide.org/its-a-matter-of-perspective/.
From its humble origins in 1946 as a local Gospel radio broadcast in Chambersburg, PA, The Tide® ministry has grown into a global network of Christian media broadcasting partnerships committed to worldwide evangelism and discipleship. In 2008, The Tide® ministry ended all English-language programming in order to focus on developing and distributing indigenous heart-language content in areas around the world that are less touched by the Gospel. Today, The Tide® ministry works with partners in multiple countries across three continents to broadcast Gospel-centered messages via radio, satellite TV and other media. In order to make disciples and plant churches, The Tide® ministry also provides resources for literature distribution, correspondence courses, discipleship and leadership training activities, and the distribution of radios and media players.
For more information about The Tide® ministry broadcast projects, history, radio programs around the world, special year-long campaigns, the weekly Global Update radio features or other news, visit its website at www.thetide.org or its Facebook page.
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To schedule interviews with Don Shenk, director of The Tide® global media ministry, contact Hamilton Strategies, Media@HamiltonStrategies.com, Beth Bogucki, 610.584.1096, ext. 105, or Daniel Moyer, ext. 104.
To inquire about airing any of The Tide® ministry radio broadcasts, contact Michael Hamilton, 610.584.1096, ext. 101.
