KLTT Digital: Connecting Community Through Christ

Rachel Mains (Host) : 0:00

Welcome, I’m Rachel Maines, and for this Public Affairs, I have some star players here at Crawford Media Group. I have Travis Pander and Elisa Baranek in studio. Welcome, guys. Hello.

Travis Pander (Guest) : 0:12

Thanks, how are you?

Rachel Mains (Host) : 0:13

Good, good to have you guys here. You know, we have a great team here at Crawford Media Group, and you guys do a lot, and you help us to be connected to the community and help to get our communications out. I’m going to start with you, Travis. Just kind of let the listeners know what you do here at Crawford Media Group.

Travis Pander (Guest) : 0:30

Yeah, so I’m the director of digital media, and what that means basically is if it’s online, I’ve had my fingers on it at some point. We like to connect with our audience. We think Christ loves better as a community. So whatever that means on the website, in our app, in our TV apps and things like that, that’s my responsibility.

Rachel Mains (Host) : 0:49

Yeah, you have a lot that you handle and you do a great job at it.

Travis Pander (Guest) : 0:52

Oh, thank you.

Rachel Mains (Host) : 0:54

And Alisa, describe what you do here at Crawford Media Group.

Alissa Baranik (Guest) : 0:57

Yes, for sure. So I do social media management. So I run our Facebook and X account. So any Bible verse of the day post you see or us advertising one of our programmers, that’s me. Additionally, I do event coordinating. So we do events all over the Denver area, promoting our station and also sponsoring those events. We really want to help other Christian ministries be promoted. So that’s where we come in. They promote us. We promote them. And then we get to see your lovely listeners’ faces all the time and get to say hi to them.

Rachel Mains (Host) : 1:30

Yeah, you know, it’s really great here. I mean, first, the community we have as employees here, but also that we’re offering here at KLTT an opportunity for the listeners to really connect and be a community. And I know you’re going to be out and about at different events. Do you have any events coming up soon within the next three months or so? Yeah, we do.

Alissa Baranik (Guest) : 1:48

Actually, in two weeks, we’re doing Conversations with Champions. That will be in Highlands Ranch. For more information, you can go onto our events page at KLTT. But it’s a luncheon where you can come and meet a former Denver Broncos player, Joel Dressen. Our table will be there, so we hope to see you there. And I believe they’re doing Chipotle for lunch. So if you like Chipotle, definitely come by.

Rachel Mains (Host) : 2:12

Yeah, so fun. Yeah, I’m sure it’s just fun getting to know our listeners out and about and being at these events. What are some comments that you get as you meet some of our listeners?

Alissa Baranik (Guest) : 2:22

Yeah. The main comment I get is just what their favorite shows are. We get we have a lot of fans for Call to Freedom, Turning Point and Touch. So a lot of just, oh, I love them and I listen to them on your station that and just like, oh, I am in Loveland and I can get you and you guys are located in Denver. That’s crazy. Or we’ve done an event in Colorado Springs and people are like, oh, my goodness, we can hear you from Colorado Springs. That’s crazy. So just knowing that they can hear us clearly and getting to hear just what their favorite programmers are is always a joy.

Rachel Mains (Host) : 2:53

Yeah, definitely a joy. And what’s your favorite thing that you do here? I mean, there’s a lot of things that we do that are just so fun and so rewarding. What’s the favorite thing that you get to do here at KLTT?

Alissa Baranik (Guest) : 3:05

So my favorite thing is on our Facebook and X account, we do blogging. blog post on our website. And a lot of them have to do with the persecuted church. So I’ll take a snippet of the article and post that onto our accounts and then just request like, Hey, please pray for Nigeria. They’re currently going through some issues. And then you can click on the comments below and read the remaining of the article, but just reminding people to pray for the key persecuted church. And also when those praises happen, for instance, I think recently a pastor was bailed out in India and, because he was a Christian. They put him in prison, but he got out. Praise God. So getting to share those times of prayer and also praise with our listeners is just such an encouragement to me. Yeah, I like it too on our website, which is 670KLTT.com.

Rachel Mains (Host) : 3:53

I love that I can go there and just kind of get updated and all the world news regarding Christianity. It’s a nice place to go just where everything is all in one place, and I feel like I can get informed. Yeah. So, Travis, with what you do, you’ve got so much on your plate, just handling all our websites and such. I’ll ask you the same question. What’s the favorite thing you get to do here at KLTT?

Travis Pander (Guest) : 4:15

You know, I think I’m with Elisa in that it’s the news and stuff. I love being able to sort of aggregate all of those stories and just kind of know what’s going on globally with Christians. And to be able to share that with our audience that we love so much, I think, is a huge honor. And I love just being up to date. that they can view those or listen to sermons and things like that wherever they are, whether that’s on their phone, their TV. Yeah, I think that’s probably my favorite part.

Rachel Mains (Host) : 4:46

Yeah, and I know that you have a lot of goals for 2025. What are some of the things that we should expect as listeners to KLTT that we can be better connected and more informed with the station? Sure.

Travis Pander (Guest) : 4:59

Certainly, I think the one that we’re super excited about is podcasts. So KLTT recently has launched a podcast for almost all of our shows and programmers that we have here on the station. So, you know, if you missed a sermon live or maybe you want to go back and listen to a message that you heard a part of, you can go back and do that through, you know, just right on 670KLTT.com or through the app. You can also listen to those podcasts on the TV app as well. It’s a great way to catch up. It’s a great way to stay informed. And one of the other things that we did when we launched those is we launched category podcasts. So let’s say a listener is struggling with depression. We have a category for that where we aggregate all of those messages about depression and just put them in front of them so you can listen to it all day, actively, passively, whatever floats your boat.

Rachel Mains (Host) : 5:46

Yeah, and one thing I really like about the app, too, is you can be more involved in the community and send in prayer requests as well. So that’s something that’s really neat that you can go on there and pray for others, post your prayer requests, too.

Travis Pander (Guest) : 5:58

Yeah, we love that. So our receptionist, Charlene, loves it as well. Anytime we get those prayer requests, they go right to her. And as a group, it’s an honor to be able to pray for the needs of the church.

Rachel Mains (Host) : 6:08

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Travis, as you are here and you’re doing all the handling of the communications in terms of the website and stuff, what is the biggest challenge you see just in the Christian community and as it relates to what you’re doing?

Travis Pander (Guest) : 6:24

You know, I think before we started doing all of the content that’s on the Web site and the app, I didn’t realize that Christian persecution was as big of a deal as it is. So, again, going back to prayer and just agreeing in prayer with the father that, you know, it’s it’s a it’s a need that everyone has worldwide in varying degrees. And I think that’s I said it already once. It’s an honor.

Rachel Mains (Host) : 6:47

Yeah, absolutely. And once again, I’m Rachel Maines. I’m talking to two star employees here at Crawford Media Group. We have Travis Pander and Elisa Baranek in studio. You guys, what do you see for this year? What are you most excited about in relation to what you do for KLTT and how we’re going to grow things? I’m going to start with Elisa.

Alissa Baranik (Guest) : 7:08

Yeah, absolutely. So one of our newest things is we are updating the KLTT newsletter. So we’ve been sending out the newsletter for over a year now, but we’re going to just kind of we’re giving a little bit of a facelift. We’re going to be adding Denver category guide or Denver event guide. So what that will be is every month on the newsletter, if you subscribe to it, you will get an event guide of just different events going around in Denver that are faith based. They’re from different churches all over the area. So if you live in Loveland or if you live in Aurora, there is something going on. because the main thing is we want you to fellowship with other Christians. We want you to get involved in a church. And there’s some really great activities. This month we have a movie night at one church, and then there’s a pickleball at a rec room at another church that goes on once a week. So if you love pickleball, come on out. Some other things that will be at the newsletter is Recipe of the Month. So if you want a baking recipe or a breakfast recipe, we’ve got you covered. Book of the Month, we’re highlighting different authors that we’ve interviewed and showcasing their books and where you can get them. And we also do sometimes some special giveaways that you cannot find anywhere else. It is only on the newsletter. So I highly recommend you subscribe. You might win a free book. Nice.

Rachel Mains (Host) : 8:23

Yes, I love that we do our giveaways even on air. And we have these, you know, great, like recently we had a calendar that just went real quickly, right? Oh, yeah. Like less than a week. Yeah, so we’re offering a lot here just to be connected. I love the recipe idea, too.

Alissa Baranik (Guest) : 8:40

Who came up with that? Actually, Liz, one of our coworkers here, came up with that. So sometimes we’ll get a programmer or sometimes I’ll write the recipe and we’ll just send it out. So I think our most recent one was a breakfast smoothie. So if you just want something really quick and healthy on the way out to work, we got you covered. Nice. That’s cool.

Rachel Mains (Host) : 8:59

And, Travis, how do you and Elisa kind of work together and coordinate all these amazing things and ways to connect with KLTT?

Travis Pander (Guest) : 9:07

Well, it’s convenient because we office right next door to one another, so usually just by yelling. Yeah. No, it’s great. We make a really good team. And, you know, just today we had some updates to the website that had to go through. And being that close in person, you know, this – In the year of our Lord 2025, we rely on digital so much to communicate, but there is a piece of that that misses when we try to solve problems over Zoom or email or what have you. So it is great that we’re so relational here at Crawford and can just work closely together to get things done. It’s a lot faster, it’s more efficient, and it’s more heartening.

Rachel Mains (Host) : 9:43

Right. Absolutely. You know, and when it comes to media content, what you guys do for social media and on the website, there’s so much that can be done. How do you guys kind of focus in and tune in on what is the most important thing to get done? I’ll start with Travis.

Travis Pander (Guest) : 9:59

Yeah, I think we’re a team here, and it’s not just Elisa and I. Our manager, Mike Treem, who our listeners know pretty well, we all just kind of game plan it. We think about what’s going to play well, what our listeners need to hear, what they want to hear or see on the website. I think Elisa does a bang-up job on that newsletter. If you don’t subscribe to that, please do. Yeah, we just do it relationally.

Rachel Mains (Host) : 10:24

Yeah. And Alisa, how can people, once again, let’s let people know how they can subscribe to the newsletter.

Alissa Baranik (Guest) : 10:30

Yeah. So if you go to the KLTT website and go to, there is a button for loyal listeners. You click on that. It will take you to the sign up for subscribing to our newsletter. You’ll just fill out your name and your email and you’re good to go. Also, if you come to one of our events that we’re at, we have just a little piece of paper. You can sign it out and I’ll put you in for you if you just don’t want to use the internet. Nice.

Travis Pander (Guest) : 10:53

And we don’t give spam or anything like that. So that’s not for marketing uses. There is a data retention checkbox to hit the legal thing, but we don’t send a bunch of stuff, just the newsletter.

Rachel Mains (Host) : 11:02

Yeah, I know. Folks can get worried about that as they’ve had bad experiences.

Travis Pander (Guest) : 11:05

For sure.

Rachel Mains (Host) : 11:06

But the heart here at KLTT is really to connect with you guys and to offer value with the newsletter, also with the social media posts. Do we have links to those in the newsletter and on our website? To the social media?

Alissa Baranik (Guest) : 11:18

Yes, we do. And to our website and then a direct email. So if you have any questions or comments or just want to tell me what you liked about the newsletter, you can directly email me from that newsletter.

Rachel Mains (Host) : 11:28

Perfect. And for the KLTT listeners, just want to say, hey, if you would like something, you want us to better connect with you and you have an idea, you can reach out. We love hearing from you guys. Right, guys?

Travis Pander (Guest) : 11:39

Absolutely. Yeah. We love getting those emails.

Rachel Mains (Host) : 11:41

And all they have to do is go to the contact tab on the website, right, Travis? That’s right. Perfect. Well, it’s going to be a good 2025. I’m looking forward to it and all the things that you guys are doing. And I know, too, in my position as ops manager, just connecting with you guys more, having you guys more on the station, and also just meeting with you more as we can just coordinate what’s best for our listeners. How can we be more community focused? One of our ideas is, you know, we’re going to have a mascot come on up here, which is Meadow.

Travis Pander (Guest) : 12:10

I know.

Rachel Mains (Host) : 12:10

My little puppy.

Travis Pander (Guest) : 12:11

She’s a cutie.

Rachel Mains (Host) : 12:12

She’s going to grow to be a big five pounds in her adulthood.

Travis Pander (Guest) : 12:15

I don’t know if my foot weighs that much.

Rachel Mains (Host) : 12:18

That’s funny. Well, she loves being here. Her job description is cuteness, and I think she’s doing a pretty good job.

Travis Pander (Guest) : 12:24

Yeah, four stars for sure.

Rachel Mains (Host) : 12:26

Well, thank you, Travis Pander and Elisa Baranek for coming on, and I’ll have you guys back, okay?

Travis Pander (Guest) : 12:32

Yeah, thanks so much.

Rachel Mains (Host) : 12:33

Absolutely. Thank you for having us.