The Diocese of Youngstown and Boston-based CatholicTV have entered into an augmented partnership to expand Catholic programs into all six counties of the diocese.
Through its new agreement with the CatholicTV Network of the Archdiocese of Boston—a national Catholic television network—Catholic programing will be provided to the two major regional cable companies for broadcast in all six diocesan counties.
“We are thrilled that CatholicTV could help us work with Spectrum and Armstrong to provide the televised Mass, Rosary and other Catholic programming” to viewers throughout the diocese, said Meagan Farrell, diocesan communications manager. In addition, the diocesan communications department will provide programs to CatholicTV.
Effective immediately, CatholicTV now appears throughout the diocese’s six-county area on Spectrum at Channel 380. CatholicTV is also available on Armstrong Cable at Channel 45—where viewers have been accustomed to finding the Diocese of Youngstown’s Ecumenical Television Channel (ETC)—and on Massillon Cable at Channel 117. Daily Mass times are Monday through Saturday at 9:30 a.m. and weekends on Saturday at 7 p.m., Sunday at 10 a.m. and La Santa Misa en Español on Sunday at 8 a.m.
Jay Fadden, chief operating officer and general manager of CatholicTV, also expressed enthusiasm for the agreement—noting a long relationship between CatholicTV and the diocese, which will benefit all involved.
“Bishop Robert Reed, our auxiliary bishop who chairs the board of CatholicTV, is very excited about this partnership and appreciates Bishop David Bonnar, the Bishop of Youngstown, for his affirmation and support,” Fadden noted.
The agreement, which followed months of negotiations among diocesan officials, representatives of Spectrum and Warner cable companies and CatholicTV, was pursued in the wake of the cessation of the ETC in September 2022, explained Father Jim Korda, retired president of the Catholic Television Network of Youngstown (CTNY).
Father Korda, who continues to work with diocesan communications ministry in his retirement, explained that when CTNY began in 1980, it worked with various cable companies in the region—providing local Catholic and other ecumenical and interfaith programs to five of the six counties in the diocese.
In addition, CTNY provided programs from other well-established Catholic television networks—notably CatholicTV. “CatholicTV proved a great resource for us,” Father Korda said.
“As time went on, the cable industry started to change, with larger companies buying up the little mom-and-pop cable companies,” Father Korda said. Eventually CTNY was able to reach only two counties.
With the phasing out of ETC and CTNY, the diocese shifted its focus, continuing to show a weekly televised Mass on WFMJ TV Channel 21 and through diocesan social media and www.doy.org.
The newly reconfigured diocesan communications department also started to offer other programs through livestreaming and through its Catholic Echo website, which launched in February 2023.
The diocesan communications department, led by then-director Justin Huyck, in turn, began working with CatholicTV and other regional cable systems to re-establish a CatholicTV presence and make it available to a wider audience.
Father John-Michael Lavelle, diocesan vicar for missionary discipleship, noted the “extensive coordination with both Charter/Spectrum and Armstrong Cable during the past two years,” and expressed gratitude “for our longstanding partnerships and the hard work of Armstrong, Charter and CatholicTV colleagues.
“This collaboration will allow us to move forward with both our innovative Catholic Echo multimedia efforts and our traditional television and radio ministries,” Father Lavelle said.
Initially, Fadden explained, CatholicTV programs will be transmitted to the former CTNY studios in Canfield for transmission to Spectrum and Armstrong—with plans to eventually transmit their programs directly to the regional cable companies.
CatholicTV, Fadden said, offers Catholic television programs 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to dioceses in various parts of the U.S. and in other countries. He said both the quality and the volume of programs delivered are highly rated.
CatholicTV also receives programs from other dioceses around the country, which it can in turn send to all of the various dioceses that are in partnership with them, including the Diocese of Youngstown, Fadden remarked.
CatholicTV Network, Fadden said, is recognized nationally as a leader in broadcast television for the purpose of evangelization and outreach.
CatholicTV can be seen in more than 13 million households, including those in Massachusetts and most of New England, Michigan, Hawaii, Louisiana, Ohio, Tennessee, Texas, North Dakota, Alabama, the Virgin Islands and Vermont. It is also available via Roku, Google TV and on most smart TVs.
“We supply just about everything, including rosaries, live events, papal events from the Vatican, the recent Mass for Life, talk shows, educational programs, children’s shows, Masses from different locations and various devotional programs, such as the Divine Mercy Chaplet,” Fadden said.
He specifically noted a live talk show, This is the Day, hosted by Bishop Reed, Fadden and others, which runs three times a week and has featured such notable guests as actor Mark Wahlberg and Dallas Jenkins, the creator of the popular series The Chosen, about Jesus gathering His disciples and their public ministry.
Bishop Bonnar, in commenting on the expanded partnership, remarked: “I am delighted that, because of this agreement with CatholicTV, good, quality Catholic television will not only continue to be available in our diocese, but will in fact expand to reach all our counties.”
He thanked Bishop Reed and the staff at CatholicTV as well as the diocesan communications staff “for their hard work. I know that viewers will be strengthened by the great programs offered by CatholicTV, which is a great witness to the Joy of the Gospel.”
