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| KTWR QSL (Gayle Van Horn Collection) |
At the time, Trans
World Radio was in an era of expansive growth, and Arthur Cushen went on to
state that this new Guam station would be their fifth radio broadcasting
facility, after Monte Carlo in Europe, Bonaire in the Caribbean, Cyprus in the
Mediterranean, and Swaziland in Africa.
At this stage, TWR had already established an office facility in Agana
and they planned that their first unit in Guam would be their new mediumwave
station.
Their new shortwave
station was constructed near the town of Merizo right towards the southern end
of the island of Guam. The actual
location is just a little inland from Bile Bay on the west coast, a Two years later, in June
1977, the new KTWR shortwave station was ready to go on the air with test
transmissions, and at this stage the programming consisted entirely of test
tones and test announcements. Trans
World Radio issued a special QSL card acknowledging these initial transmitter
tests.
Regular program broadcasting began
three months later on September 4 (1977), and by then, two 100 kW Harris
transmitters Model SW100 were in use, with two TCI wide band curtain
antennas. Transmitter KTWR1 was hard wired
to Antenna 1 at 285˚, and KTWR2 was hard wired to Antenna 2 at 315˚.
Three
years later (1980), Trans World Radio received FCC approval for the
installation of two more shortwave transmitters at 100 kW, the same Model
Harris SW100. At the same time, the
transmitter building was enlarged to accommodate the two additional units, and
three new curtain antennas were also installed.
Test broadcasts from the two new transmitters and antennas took place
during the following year (1981).
In
April 1999, a fifth transmitter and a sixth curtain antenna were installed;
however, the 100 kW transmitter on this occasion was manufactured by the HCJB
facility located at Elkhart in Indiana.
Then give two more years (2001) and the two early curtain antennas were
replaced by two similar units with reflectors.
However
at this stage, two of the early 100 kW transmitters were removed and replaced
by two higher powered units rated at 250 kW each with digital DRM
capability. During the installation of
the new high powered transmitters, there was a rearrangement of transmitter
locations within the building, and the earlier KTWR3 was removed for sale.
Friday
November 11, 2011 was an auspicious day for Trans World Radio KTWR down near
the town of Merizo on the island of Guam.
On that date, a special dedication ceremony honored the installation of
the ultra-modern new equipment, and a special quarter hour program in the
digital DRM mode marked the occasion.
This
special shortwave broadcast in the digital mode was broadcast at 0900 UTC on
17640 kHz. The entire dedication
ceremony was broadcast live from KTWR, and in addition, this special event
programming was relayed throughout the United States via the several hundred FM
and mediumwave stations in the nationwide Moody Bible Radio Network.
In
recent time KTWR has been involved in two interesting and significant radio
experiments, in addition to the transmission of shortwave programming in the
digital mode. During the past three
years, Trans World Radio has been installing three huge solar arrays for the
generation of electricity at the rate of 60 kW hours per day from each
array. When totally completed, this cost
saving equipment will save the station around $50,000 for electricity each
year. Then, just last month by special
arrangement, one of the 250 kW transmitters at shortwave KTWR beamed an
experimental digital internet signal to Thailand that allowed the download of a
complete Bible on a smart phone.
Trans
World Radio KTWR on Guam has always been a reliable verifier of listener
reception reports from their office in Agana, and more recently directly from
the station at its Merizo address. Over
the past nearly forty years, KTWR has issued a host of colorful QSL cards, in
English and at times also in Japanese.
These QSL cards often depict delightful island scenes in full color.