Free 1634: Turn Your Radio On by Eric Flint Page B

in his face, he sat back down, reached out with his left hand, found the cup of espresso sitting before him and brought it up to his lips. After gulping it down, he finally replied, "Let me see if I have this straight, Mrs. Kurger. You and Mr. Kurger want to buy a full one hour block of time to advertise Kurger's Emporium on The Voice of America every Saturday night for . . . "
    The concept was boggling. Even to Marc's well-crafted sales imagination.
    " . . . how long?"
    "I'm sorry, Mr. Kronzburg," Maria replied. She sat in the chair next to Marc and began again. "Let's start from the beginning."

Chapter Eight
    " . . . So until next time, this is Brother Fischer of the Grantville Pentecostal Church inviting you to listen to our closing hymn sung by Sister Jennifer Copenhaver and the children's choir of our church. You have a blessed day!"
    "Come and listen in to a radio station
    Where the mighty host of heaven sing
    Turn your radio on (Turn your radio on)”
    December 1633, Grantville, State of Thuringia, United States of Europe
    John Grover arrived at the station early, but everyone else was in the office waiting on him. "Good morning, everyone! Gosh, and I thought I'd get here in time to have a cup of coffee before our meeting."
    After shaking hands and exchanging pleasantries, he looked toward his receptionist, "Helga, could you please get me and anyone else who would like a refill some coffee? And ask Franz to join us in the conference room when he's free, please."
    John took his seat at the head of the table. Roy and Jennifer Copenhaver sat to his left and were joined there by Maria Kurger. Brother Fischer took the chair opposite his, while the other representatives of the station management, Deanna Dee and Marc Kronzburg took their seats to his right.
    John smiled. "Roy, good to see you and Jennifer. How are things going in Franconia? Hope we didn't have to drag you away from government business."
    "No. It turned out that I had to be in Grantville this afternoon for a conference with the Federal Reserve." Shaking his head, Roy added, "We're real shorthanded over there in Fulda. Most of the powers that be still suspect that we're Swedish lapdogs and are leery of anything we propose. Right now this new State of Thuringia is in name only. It's going to take time."
    John now turned his attention to Fischer. "I got up early this morning to listen into your devotional, Brother Fischer. I can see why your church is so excited about this proposal. I especially liked the song Jennifer closed with. I remember listening to Ray Stevens sing that, years ago. It was always one of my favorites."
    "Thank you, Mr. Grover." Fischer smiled and gestured to Jennifer. "Sister Copenhaver suggested the use of that song before our second devotional. Something that I said my first time on the radio made her think of it. We've had a lot of people come up to us and compliment her version of it."
    "Well, that sure goes a long way to explaining all the fan mail we've had to handle for you since you started sitting in for Reverend Chalker."
    Jennifer glanced at her husband as Roy broke in. "I guess that brings us to our offer. John. Marc, have you told John what we want to do?"
    Marc Kronzburg snapped to attention and began his pitch, "Yes sir, Mr. Copenhaver. I think it's very good . . . for a starting position."
    John added, "It definitely is that. That's another reason I wanted to schedule this meeting after Reverend Fischer's appearance this morning. I wanted to be sure that he wasn't soliciting our listeners for commercial gain. I was pleased to hear . . . "
    Just then Franz Peck walked into the room. "Franz. You know Reverend Fischer and Jennifer Copenhaver. Have you ever noticed anyone from their group asking for donations or money over the air?"
    At this unexpected question, all the church people immediately swung their bodies around to see what Franz was going to say.
    "No, Herr Grover. Reverend Fischer has never actually mentioned