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>> 215 11 Appalachian Radio Prayers The Prosthesis of the Holy Ghost and the Drive to Tactility Anderson Blanton Academic accounts on the phenomenon of charismatic Christian radio in Appalachia often have approached radio as a passive technological medium for the transmission of a discrete, self-contained religious content (Baker 2005; Clements 1974; Dean 1998; Dorgan 1993; Rosenberg 1970; Titon 1988).1 These scholarly accounts are governed by an imagined transparency of the technologies or instrumentality of the radio broadcast itself, understanding the effect and meaning of the religious message they carry as a mere epiphenomenon of its content and as not inflected in any essential way by the apparatuses through which it is transmitted. This chapter has a different point of departure and explores the unanticipated centrality of tactile experience within what is usually understood as an exclusively auditory phenomenon, namely, listening to prayer over the radio. In the following, I suggest that the 216 > 217 ern Virginia, the signal of this station is capable of reaching the listening faithful throughout portions of southern West Virginia, eastern Kentucky, western North Carolina, and eastern Tennessee. As if to mimic the improvised spontaneity of the charismatic worship services that take place within the live studio of this station, this structure was originally constructed as a domestic residence but has been converted with minimal alteration into a radio station. The space of the “live” studio clearly suggests its earlier domestic organization with its brick fireplace, now usurped by a wooden podium that functions as both a support for the single studio microphone and an altar for the participants of the worship service. A large window in this room reveals a dilapidated storage shed and an outmoded satellite dish resting wirily in the backyard, its rusted face still gazing expectantly toward the heavens. Abutting from the wall opposite the window, a bare incandescent bulb mounted in a porcelain housing looks strangely out of place. The sudden muted glow of this bulb signals to the live studio congregation that the sounds within this converted space are now being broadcast to the listening audience out in what is referred to as “radioland,” a nondescript space where the totality of the dispersed listening audience is imagined as a single community . Two reclaimed church pews, well worn and stained from years of use, and fifteen mismatched chairs provide seating for the members of the live studio congregation. Though sometimes young children are present in the studio, the congregation is primarily made up of white working-class individuals (truck drivers, miners, service-industry employees, mechanics, etc.) generally ranging in age from forty-five to seventy. Women have a slight majority in terms of attendance and participation within the live studio. Underneath the naked bulb sits a piano that often gives instrumental accompaniment to the lively singing of hymns. During the week, live charismatic worship services are interspersed with local news, obituaries, church announcements, and syndicated evangelical programming such as the Back to the Bible Broadcast. In addition, local businesses such as funeral homes, banks, restaurants, and farming-supply stores advertise on this station. On the weekend, however, the programming features a higher concentration of charismatic worship services and preaching . On Saturday and Sunday, the radio station is bustling with energy as preachers, instrument-toting musicians, and faithful congregants pass in and out of the studio in slots of airtime ranging from thirty minutes to an hour. One of the most popular weekend broadcasts is the Jackson Memorial Hour, airing during the prime Sunday listening time from eleven a.m. until noon. The main organizers of this worship service, Brother Alide Allen and Sister Dorothy Allen, have been preaching on the radio for over forty-three years. 218 > 219 Moreover, such material and ideational entanglements summon a physicality shared by both the spirit and the radio voice, a commonality that is necessary for successful faith healing. Several times during the course of the Jackson Memorial Hour, the members of the studio congregation, referred to as “prayer warriors,” are called to circle around the microphone and pray for the sick listeners out in “radioland .” The altar mentioned during such healing prayers refers to the microphone and microphone stand as well as the wooden table they rest on. Congregants of the radio church occasionally kneel down in front of the microphone during moments of conversion and supplication. As the prayer warriors approach and place their hands on the wooden platform, the sensitive microphone crisply perceives brisk pops, cracks, creaks, and thuds as...

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