Beginnings
Generations with Kevin Swanson aired for the first time on October 4, 2003 on KZNT, an AM station in Colorado Springs, Colorado, as a weekend program. We quickly added a second station, another AM station in Denver – 50,000 watt KLT. Our first program featured a speech by Mike Smith, President of Home School Legal Defense Association.
On January 1, 2005, Generations began airing on a daily basis on KGFT (FM 100.5) in Colorado Springs and KLT (AM 670) in Denver. In February of 2006 we secured a morning drive time schedule of 8:30 am for the program on KLT (AM 670), and during the following month added a weekend program on the Faith and Freedom Network, based in Iowa. Requests for tapes or downloads for the program during the first year totalled about 300. By the third year of the broadcast, tape requests and digital downloads increased to about 55,000.
Thanks to the enthusiastic reception of the program on the worldwide web, it wasn’t long before the on-line listener base exceeded the terrestrial AM/FM listenership. So in January of 2010, the board of Generations decided to discontinue buying time on AM and FM stations. By June of 2011, our total downloads broke the 1,000,000 mark, with over 100 countries tuning in, at least on a monthly basis.
Vision
The vision of the program is to present life from the perspective of a biblical worldview and within the framework of a relational model of living. Worldview and relationships. There are no professionals on this program. There are no psychiatrists, professional counsellors, bureaucrats, and seminary professors. But you will find fathers, mothers, grandparents, pastors, and friends. We are introducing modern life to a different social context. We also assume the existence of God and the foolishness of human thought without the benefit of transcendent truth.
The Christian philosopher of the 1960s, Francis Schaeffer, is a major impetus behind our work. His work of 50 years is summarized in this simple statement – modern man is lost and lonely. We are working to provide a solution for both problems – transcendent truth in the context of relationship.
The Milieu
We believe God has raised up this ministry “for such a time as this.” We are truly witnessing the breakdown of western civilization and the Christian faith in the west. Social systems are crumbling (with 42% of children born without fathers in this country, up from 6% in 1960). Economic systems will follow suit. Never has there been a better time to present a biblical worldview and social view to the world.
Three Generations
From the beginning, Kevin Swanson teamed up with his father and his son to produce the program. Year after year, his father, Ralph Swanson provided much of the research and content development for each of the programs. Then after the recording sessions, Daniel Swanson edited the programs for both the internet and the terrestrial stations. Daniel has edited the radio programs since he was 13 years old. To this day, Generations continues to be a family-based ministry with a little help from volunteers and interns.
Conferences
Homeschooling represented an important element in the ministry focus, as we attempt to return truth and relationships to a lost and lonely, post-modern world. But the vision broadened and sharpened as the ministry grappled with better ways to re-integrate the family in the 21st century and restore lost relationships. In March of 2010, the Generations team sponsored the first Family Economics Conference in Castle Rock, Colorado. Over 800 people attended. The age-old family economy advocated by the Bible (Exodus 20:10, Proverbs 31:11) and practiced by healthy socio-economic systems for 5900 years became a major theme for the radio program and the Generations-sponsored conferences. In March of 2011, the second conference in Raleigh, North Carolina filled up to capacity at 1300. The third Family Economics Conference was held at Wheaton College, Chicago, Illinois in March of 2012. With these conferences, we are working to establish a biblical socio-economic system, wherein faith, family, and freedom might survive and thrive.