José Carlos Corsi (photo), now retired after decades of a busy professional life as a businessman in textiles and a retailer, has been a Spiritist since the age of 15. He founded with his wife two Spiritist Centres in his city, São Caetano do Sul. Since he went into retirement, he has dedicated most of his time to Spiritism, as he tells

When and how Radio Sintese came into existence? 

After I retired, I began to dedicate all my time to Spiritism, in a number of activities and also reading extensively the work of Kardec, Chico Xavier and other authors. Then I had the idea of dedicating my time to the dissemination of the Teachings. In January 2006, Radio Sintese Web went on air and it is now a resounding success. When we say on air that we “speak to Brazil and the world” we mean it, as our statistics show. 

How many people work in the radio? 

It is a very lean operation. We have state of the art equipment and the broadcasting is all controlled by computer. Four people work on the radio: one DJ, making the announcements, an audio engineer and two computer experts. We play music and interrupt every five minutes to play a Spiritist message, the radio ID or to read a brief announcement. 

How do you select the messages you read on air? 

We are very strict and careful in our selection of texts. Some 60% of the messages have been dictated by spirits to the two great Brazilian mediums, Chico Xavier and Divaldo Franco. We also read extracts from the works of Allan Kardec,who codified the Teachings, we read short stories by Humberto de Campos, the famous Brazilian writer and journalist who has written extensively after his discarnation. Our aim is to pass on to our listeners the pure and crystal clear message of Spiritism. 

What about the music? What songs do you play? 

We are also very selective, playing hits from the 1950s and 1960s. 

What are the main challenges you face? 

There are many problems and challenges. We lack the support of other people with their ideas and their intellectual output. We also need to think of ways to raise funds to keep the operation going. 

What is the feedback from your listeners? 

We believe we do radio for non-Spiritists, which make up the majority of our listeners. They come to us for the music first and then for the messages. Many email us later admitting that they know very little about Spiritism, but listen to the radio for its quality. As we are on the web, we can get an accurate read of our audience, by month, hour and place of origin. If you consider all the tools available to listen to Radio Sintese Web, we can say we have from 3,000 to 4,000 listeners per hour. Our website is http://www.radiosinteseweb.com.br/. All you need is to click and access, free of charge, wherever you are.