Teen Challenge Media Resources

PSA Downloadable Resources

Increase Awareness Through Radio and TV

A PSA, according to the FCC, is "any announcement for which no charge is made and which promotes ... the programs, activities or services of non-profit organizations (e.g., United Way, Red Cross blood donations, etc.) and other announcements regarded as serving community interests...." Legally, stations do not have to air PSAs; most do, however, as an expression of commitment from the radio station to their listening audience and their community.

PSAs provide an effective (and cost-effective!) way to let those in your region know about your ministry, and provide recovery resources for a station's listening audience. Below are the steps to launch your center into the exciting realm of radio and TV PSAs.

  1. Read and sign the License Agreement and fax it (or mail it) to Lisa Bornert, office manager at Teen Challenge USA, International. Fax/mail information is provided on the first page of the License Agreement.
  2. Review the resources to the right. These have been categorized according to Customizable Radio Features, Customizable TV Features, and Customizable Audio Christmas Cards. You'll need the login and password to access these files; Lisa will provide those once she's received the signed License Agreement from you.
  3. In order to use these customizable resources, you'll need to write introductions and/or closing tags of appropriate length, professionally record them, and insert them into the files provided. For Customizable TV features, you'll only need to provide the wording for the last frame on the videos; sample scripts are available for download to the right. For more information, please contact Lynette Scherber, Teen Challenge USA Media Chair, at lynette.scherber@mntc.org or 612-238-6216.
  4. Contact your local radio or TV station and present them with the mastered audio/video files. We've provided two examples of how your conversation might go, depending on the type of station.
  5. Radio and TV stations like to air fresh material, so plan to provide them with new PSAs every few weeks.

Lynette Scherber, Teen Challenge USA Media Chair, is usually available at regional conferences, and is happy to help jumpstart you in this process. You’re also welcome to contact her at lynette.scherber@mntc.org or 612-238-6216.

Our PSAs

We provide three types of customizable resources:

  1. Customizable Radio PSAs
  2. Customizable TV PSAs
  3. Customizable Audio Christmas Cards

Customizable PSAs aren't yet personalized with the name of your center, or information about your center. Customizable PSAs include premastered audio and video testimonies with a running music bed and a blank space just waiting for your voice to slip into the tag ending. Simply write, record, and insert a bit of information about your local ministry, and then provide the final produced audio file to your local radio/TV stations to facilitate awareness of your Teen Challenge center.

Please keep in mind that gratis air time is generally granted for public service organizations; requesting funds or advertising fundraising efforts is usually not permitted.