The 2025 EWTN Catholic Radio Conference has drawn hundreds of attendees to Washington, D.C., this week to discuss and learn more about Catholic radio as an evangelization tool.

During the conference, attendees have had the opportunity "to network with each other, learn things from each other, and discuss things that have worked, and things that haven't worked, in Catholic radio," EWTN Radio General Manager Jack Williams told CNA.

Among the attendees, Williams said about 65 are associated with affiliate stations who carry the network's radio programming in different parts of the country. He noted that many of them didn't necessarily start off their careers in radio but are people who "heeded Mother Angelica's call."

On a live EWTN broadcast in 1995, hosted by network foundress Mother Angelica, "she put out the call that if anybody had, or could procure, an AM or FM radio station she would give them the programming for free. And that's essentially what we've been doing since 1996," Williams said. "By the end of that year, she had six people; now we have over 440 affiliates around the country."