Thanks to Ray Robinson and Jeff White for sharing the latest Wavescan program for our followers
Jeff: Last week in the feature on Goa, we mentioned that the first syndicated
religious program to be aired on Emissora de Goa was the Voice of Prophecy, from
Adventist evangelist H.M.S. Richards Sr. We thought it might be interesting to look
back on Adventist broadcasting, so today we begin a three part feature on that
history, and in particular, that of Adventist World Radio, with a focus on shortwave.
However, today in part 1, Ray Robinson in Los Angeles looks back at the early
origins of Adventist broadcasting in North America, before the Second World War.
Ray: Thanks, Jeff. And yes, if you’ve got a good memory, we did cover some of this
material in October last year when we were marking the 52nd anniversary of AWR,
but more information has since come to light.
It was in March 1928 that John Fetzer, manager of AM Broadcast Band station
WEMC at the Adventist College in Berrien Springs, Michigan, made a visit to
Washington, DC. His purpose was to lodge an application with the newly created
Federal Radio Commission for a license to install a shortwave transmitter co-sited
with the medium wave one in Berrien Springs. If he had been successful, that might
have led to the first appearance of Adventist programming on shortwave, but his
application was denied. A year or two later, Fetzer bought the station he managed,
and then transferred it to Kalamazoo, Michigan as WKZO.
Then, there was Harold Marshall Sylvester Richards, better known simply as H.M.S.
Richards. He was born in Iowa in 1894, and at the young age of just 17 began his
ministry as a tent preacher. In the late 19-teens, his brother worked as a driver for
the then Senator from Ohio, Warren G. Harding, and Harding invited the brothers to
attend a demonstration of the new invention of radio. Richards came to view radio
as a way to bring the Gospel to the nations. He graduated from Washington
Missionary College (now Washington Adventist University) in 1919, and then
served as an evangelist in various places in the United States and Canada. It was
during this period in the 1920’s while he was serving in Ottawa, Ontario, that he
began experimenting with radio announcements in connection with his meetings.
During the Great Depression he made his way to California, and he gave his first 15
minute guest sermon on KNX (AM) in Los Angeles on October 19, 1929.
The following year, 1930, H.M.S. Richards began producing a weekly radio program
called the ‘Tabernacle of the Air’. He raised $200 to pay for 13 half-hour time slots
on station KGER in Long Beach, California, which at that time was on 920 kHz, and
the ministry grew from there. His headquarters, a renovated chicken coop in his
garage, reflected his humility, a trait he retained even as his broadcast’s fame grew.
In January 1937, his radio footprint expanded over several stations of a regional
network – the Don Lee Broadcasting System. At the same time, the name of the
program was changed to the ‘Voice of Prophecy’.
In 1941, The Adventist General Conference Radio Commission designated ‘Voice of
Prophecy’ as the Adventist Church’s national radio program, and on Sunday, January
4, 1942, just a few weeks after the attack on Pearl Harbor, it went coast-to-coast on
the Mutual Broadcasting System’s 89 stations. It was one of the first religious
programs to be broadcast on a nationwide network, and within 10 months it had
expanded even further onto 225 stations.
In those early days, there was no ability to pre-record on tape, so all the programs
were aired live from Mutual’s KHJ in Los Angeles. The team used to get to the KHJ
studio at about 5am each Sunday morning and do the program for the East Coast.
They’d break for something to eat, and then come back and do it all again for the
West Coast audience.
The next attempt on the part of the Adventist denomination to enter the
international scene of shortwave broadcasting was during the latter part of World
War II. During 1944, The Voice of Prophecy was carried worldwide on the
shortwave and medium wave networks of AFRS, the American Forces Radio Service,
for the benefit of American servicemen on duty overseas.
The shortwave stations in
use at the time were located on both the east and west coasts of the continental
United States. For the benefit of Australian servicemen in the Pacific, the program
was also carried as part of the Australia Calling broadcast from Shepparton, Victoria,
the predecessor to Radio Australia. From that time onwards, Adventist
programming has been heard in many parts of the world on shortwave, although
sadly as of last month, no longer in English.
In 1947, the program went truly international
as Richards first bought airtime on the high
power English language service of Radio
Luxembourg, which at that time was still on
longwave, and gave him broad coverage of
most of western Europe. He also bought
airtime on KZRH (now DZRH) in the
Philippines – a 50,000 watt station on 650 kHz
in metro Manila. And then as we commented
last week, in 1950 he added coverage into
India from Emissora de Goa’s MW and SW
transmitters.
In 1952, the program operation moved into new studios and offices that had been built
in Glendale, California, and great expansion continued throughout the 1950’s and 60’s.
At its peak, the program was heard on over 700 stations worldwide, including on
shortwave via ETLF in Ethiopia, CR8A in Goa, SLBC in Colombo, Ceylon, and several
other shortwave stations in Asia and Latin America.
But, as happens to all of us, H.M.S. Richards was aging. In 1969, when he was 75
years old, it was decided that his son, H.M.S. Richards Jr., would take over the
speaking responsibilities, which he ably undertook until his own retirement in 1992.
The founder had realized his vision from the 19-teens of using radio to bring the
Gospel to the nations. And indeed, the ministry he started, with its humble
beginnings in October 1929, just last month (in October 2024) celebrated its 95 th
birthday. H.M.S. Richards Sr. eventually died aged 90 on April 24, 1985.
< Audio Clip – Have Faith in God >
Back to you, Jeff.
Jeff: Thanks, Ray. In 1971, the denomination decided to expand Adventist radio
programming into many other languages and parts of the world, beginning with the
establishment of a new entity – Adventist World Radio. And that’s where Ray will
pick up the story in part 2, in a couple of weeks’ time. Next week, Ray has an
interesting feature from Canadian radio, part of a Vinyl Tap program with Randy
Bachman, about the development of music radio in North America.
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