Long Story Short
We’re a charity that’s in media! In 1992 King’s Kids Promotions Outreach Ministries was formed by Rick and Cathy Kirschner and Jill Edwards with a mission to engage youth culture. The vision: To reach, build and activate people to make a positive difference in the world.
King’s Kids set out to give students a chance to develop confidence by training and encouraging them to use their talents through the field of performing arts. In the past 25 years we’ve used various recording studios and were able to help encourage and strengthen many bands including Thousand Foot Krutch, Hawk Nelson and Manifest. We took students on tours across Canada and let them play on any stage that would book them. In 2010 we recorded two live albums, ‘Do Justly’ and ‘Global Possibilities’, featuring 30 local artists here in Fort McMurray. And, we went on over 20 different mission trips, to foreign lands and throughout the Canadian Tundra with students who were empowered to make a difference.
In 2006, King’s Kids moved its focus to Fort McMurray wanting to add an alternate voice on the FM dial, and now our entire ministry is based here! KAOS 91.1 is owned and operated by King’s Kids. We believe that healthy media promotes healthy communities and we’re working to bring you just that. It’s amazing what an upbeat song with a feel good message can do to dispel a gloomy day and a bad mood. With relevant talk shows presented over lunch hour to help with personal life, community living and family development, all day music to brighten the day, and announcers that are real and relatable; we’re hoping to add to the health of Fort McMurray – relationally and mentally.
Ten years later, we have developed into a lot more than just a radio station in Wood Buffalo. We are here to promote healthy families and we’re involved in several community activities. We run free family skating events all winter long where we play music and serve hot chocolate and coffee. We’ve partnered with Dunvegan Gardens and host BBQ’s, Easter Egg Hunts, and family fun days.
We facilitate an afterschool program operating at the Composite High School promoting the performing arts. And we’re still working with local musicians to get their voices heard through the airwaves! We also support the faith community by upholding the values that have been founded in making Canada and Alberta strong.
In 2008 we invited 16 university students from Ontario to Fort McMurray to help with an outreach project we called KAOS Repossession. We partnered with the Justin Slade Youth Foundation and were able to assist street youth by running skate board camps, teaching music lessons, helping with the soup kitchen and cleaning up litter.
We have a very exciting project in partnership with the Fort McMurray Public School District that we can’t wait to share with you! Construction is underway with another way to bridge our services and community together but you’ll have to wait to hear more about it.
One of the things we know to be true is that media has a huge affect on people – especially the music you listen to. Aristotle said, ‘Music has the power of producing a certain effect on the moral character of the soul. And if it has the power to do this, it is clear that the young must be directed to music, and must be educated in it.’ King’s Kids have always been involved in helping youth make music. We work with organizations around Fort McMurray to make this a real priority in all our initiatives.
In 2019 after lots of thought and prayer, we sold 91.1 The Bridge to United Christian Broadcasters. We felt that we had taken the radio station as far as we could, and it was time to turn it over to another broadcaster to take it further.
We continue to play real good music at all our community events. We now focus on performing arts in our afterschool programs and through performing arts camps called LionheArt.
Through family missions, music and media King’s Kids is in Fort McMurray to help strengthen families and our community.
In September 2020 after a year of prayer and community consultation we launched All Nations Church in Fort McMurray.