The next adventure

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Friday, January 31st. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Nick Eicher.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown.

Before we continue, just a quick reminder…starting February 11th we’re hosting a handful of virtual focus groups by Zoom. Slots are filling up fast, but it’s not too late to participate.

We’d love to talk with you about our program and the other products WORLD produces. Each session will last 45-minutes to an hour. And whether you’re a long-time, every day listener…or a new listener who only checks in with us occasionally, we’d love for you to participate…To sign-up, visit: wng.org/focusgroups. That’s wng.org/focus groups.

EICHER: Finally today, saying goodbye…

Johnny Franklin has been a crucial part of our team since 2012...you haven’t heard much of him on the air…but nearly everything that makes it on air is in part due to his steady hand and gifted ear.

Here’s WORLD’s Paul Butler.

PAUL BUTLER: Most nights our technical producer Johnny Franklin starts putting the daily program together shortly after dinner:

SOUND: [JOHNNY WORKING AT THE COMPUTER]

With very little fanfare, last night marked the end of an era. After nearly 13 years of staying up late, Johnny Franklin can now go to bed at a decent hour. He’s officially “retired.”

JOHNNY FRANKLIN: There's a lot of things that my wife and I want to do, but I really do see it as just a transition. I'm no longer going to be working full time at a particular job. I'll continue to work part time anywhere I have my computer and internet...

So what’s the first thing Johnny’s going to do in his retirement? Well, turns out it’s working all next week for us part-time so Carl can take some time off. So perhaps “retirement” isn’t quite the right word.

JOHNNY: This whole idea of retiring to me is… it's almost kind of like a foreign a foreign idea. The Bible speaks of retirement once, and that was the priest of the temple at a certain age had to retire from being priests of the temple. Other than that, nowhere does God say stop being productive at a certain age and go to Florida and sit on the beach for the rest of your life.

In college, Johnny started as an engineering student, but then a friend suggested he might be better suited for something else. So he switched his major to communications and never looked back.

SOUND: [CASSETTE TAPE FROM AFRICA]

His first audio job out of college was with Campus Crusade for Christ, he and his wife Sherry went to Zaire—now known as the Congo—and Johnny recorded and edited training materials.

JOHNNY: I think, is where the real love of language really kicked in, as I had had the scripts and I could follow along … I could follow where they were.

It was during this time that Johnny began to develop the skills that would be so helpful in working with our scrappy reporters scattered around the world.

JOHNNY: I had a small lavalier mic taped to about a three foot stick, and used it as a wand, and whoever was speaking, I would put the mic over them so I could record them clearly.

Johnny left Campus Crusade after a few years and started at Focus on the Family. He says it wasn’t very glamorous.

JOHNNY: Our department did everything except the broadcast, which meant we did promos. You know, “Next time on Focus on the Family…” and my main job was finding 10 to 15 second excerpts of programs that could be plugged into the promo…

But then Johnny joined Larry Burkett and what would eventually become known as Crown Financial Ministries:

JOHNNY: When I came on, it changed to How to Manage your Money: a daily, three’ish minute program, and then eventually went with live couple years later, went with the live Money Matters call-in program.

SOUND: [CALL IN PROGRAM AUDIO]

Johnny worked at Crown for 25 years. During that time he began occasionally helping us produce our program when it first began as a weekly program.

SOUND: [THANKS TO JOHNNY]

Then one day Nick Eicher approached Johnny with the opportunity to join WORLD full time when we launched the daily program:

JOHNNY: I was reluctant. … And Nick said, Johnny, look at this as an adventure. Now, I'm kind of a Bilbo Baggins person, you know, just just leave me in my hole in the, you know, built into the earth, my little hobbit house. But something just struck me that, you know, I need to stick my neck out. I thought, why not trust the Lord? Step out and, you know, let's get a try and see what happens.

Johnny found his niche:

JOHNNY: One of the things in my personality is I love taking things that are rough but have real potential, and fixing the problems and ending up with something that really is a benefit.

When Johnny is doing that part of his job well, you don’t really notice it. He says it’s kinda like the sound guy at church, when you’re doing it well, no one thinks about your role.

But there’s another part of his job, that many listeners have noticed, and we get frequently get feedback like this:

LISTENER: And kudos to the guys for the great music they chose…

JOHNNY: The other thing I really enjoy is finding the right music. And, you know, finding music that fits the mood of the story, something that adds to the story, something that possibly clues the listener in about what they're about to hear…

Johnny says bumper music is like the frame around a piece of amazing artwork.

JOHNNY: Yeah, a frame is supposed to draw your attention to the painting, not to the frame. And if I have done my job right, it causes people to listen to the story and say, “Wow, what a story.” … And my goal is to really make the hard work that the reporters have done jump out and communicate well.

During a recent podcast meeting with our staff we announced Johnny’s retirement to everyone. Host Mary Reichard said out loud, the thing many of us were thinking:

MARY: And just so everybody is aware, Johnny has all kinds of material by which he could blackmail each and every one of us.

PAUL: How do you think he's retiring so comfortably?

JOHNNY: I’m getting monthly income from four or five people…

But seriously, Kent Covington perhaps said it best…

KENT: He's the last person in the world who you will ever, you would ever hear, say anything negative about anyone. Just as Christ-like and kind hearted and genuine, and, you know, grounded a person as you'll ever meet and and a very good producer, very steady, very, you know, just faithful. It's a great word for him.

Johnny Franklin’s faithfulness, his love for the savior, his true affection for our team, and his high view of our audience makes his work special.

JOHNNY: Something that I've seen in my life is God has really placed me in places that I almost had nothing to do with, in really, really meaningful opportunities where I could use what I do to really benefit God's people … And just grateful to God for bringing these opportunities to me and allowing me to work with some great people and doing things that I trust have made a big difference in the lives of a lot of God's people.

For all of us at WORLD Johnny, we’re grateful too…

I’m Paul Butler.

EICHER: Wow, I don’t measure up as a Gandalf … but I could not be happier to have had Johnny along for this terrific adventure. And it will continue to be so … because I expect a new post-retirement adventure for Johnny in a teaching-training role as we develop our next generation here at WORLD. Johnny has so much to give, so much wisdom and skill and I want our young staff to be able to tap into that. So, Johnny, I hope you are indeed quite ready for another adventure … you are not the same hobbit who left the shire. God bless you, brother. We haven’t seen the last of each other.

WORLD Radio transcripts are created on a rush deadline. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of WORLD Radio programming is the audio record.