The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has a new radio channel, and HD Radio is part of the marketing strategy.

The Mormon Channel network represents a first for the organization, which wants to use modern methods to spread its message, according to the Salt Lake City Tribune.

Bonneville will air content on 29 stations in eight major markets. In addition to Salt Lake City, it airs now in Cincinnati and Los Angeles and will soon air in Washington, Chicago, Phoenix, St. Louis and Seattle, according to the Mormon Channel Web site. The announcement did not specify whether Bonneville would air the content on the HD1 or the multicasts of those stations.

The channel originates content 24/7 from Temple Square in Salt Lake City. The church also plans to release an iPhone application that will allow mobile phone users to access the live stream. Similar applications are planned for BlackBerry and Windows Mobile-powered devices.

Director of Digital Media Chris Twitty says much of the material to be aired is new. Various departments of the church, and partners such as Bonneville, Deseret Book, Deseret News, LDS Business College and the campuses of Brigham Young University, have been tapped to provide content.

The Church says it's also talking to Sirius XM about adding a channel.