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| AWR transmitting towers, Guam |
Three years later, the newly married
American couple, Allen and Andrea Steele, were invited to establish their home
in Lisbon Portugal, where they inaugurated the first official broadcast from
what soon became identified as Adventist World Radio. Their first shortwave broadcast was
inaugurated over the 250 kW transmitter number 3 at Radio Trans Europe at Sines
on Friday evening October 1, 1971 in a service beamed to Eastern Europe in the
31 metre band.
A Master Plan for world coverage on
shortwave that was developed during this era called for a network of four
stations; located in Europe, Western Pacific, Central America and Africa. A lengthy period of intense research was
entered into in an endeavor to obtain a suitable transmitter location in the
Pacific-Asian arena, and several different locations were given serious
consideration. Among the tentative
locations under consideration were Sri Lanka, Maldive Islands, Philippines, South
Korea, Hawaii, Palau and Guam.
Finally, Guam was chosen and the
Steele family, now well experienced in the international shortwave world, were
invited to relocate on Guam. The first
temporary office for the new AWR shortwave station on Guam was in a small
section of the Adventist mission office in Agana.
In September 1984, the FCC in
Washington DC issued a Construction Permit for the new shortwave station that
would be located on 40 acres of coastal land at Facpi Point on the island’s west coast. This property was on the downward slope of Mt
Lamlam, the highest mountain on the island of Guam.
Work began at the new property on
Wednesday September 11, 1985 when a bulldozer began to smooth a new access
roadway, “Torres
Adventista”, off of island Highway 2.
One month later on Friday October 11, a Ground Breaking Ceremony was
held at the yet undeveloped property, with the official participation of the
island governor, His Excellency Ricardo Bordallo.
At this stage, the Steeles
transferred the office function of Adventist World Radio to a house in Agat,
the Pink House, one mile from the radio station itself. In addition, the new Guam station was
designated as AWR-Asia, and the original AWR-Asia in Poona India was
redesignated as AWR-Southern Asia.
Two years later on January 18
(1987), the new radio station was dedicated in an official ceremony in which
the new island governor, His Excellency Joseph Ada, participated. Nearly 500 people attended this gala function,
including several denominational leaders from the world headquarters on the
edge of Washington DC. Official visitors
from the the city of Agana arrived in a long motorcade that was escorted by
local police on motorcycles.
The parade ground in front of the
gleaming white transmitter building was adorned with the colorful fluttering
flags from 22 countries, representing the territories that would be in the main
coverage area of this new shortwave station.
Among the grand musical items that were presented on the Day of
Dedication were renderings from the Voice of Prophecy Choir that flew in from
South Korea, and a Brass Ensemble from
Agana. The Korean Choir also performed
in special ceremonies at Government House, and also in the Korean Presbyterian
Church in Agana.
The first two transmitters installed
at AWR Facpi Point were manufactured in France by Thomson-CSF; 100 kW Model
TRE2311P. Transmitter No 1 was hard
wired into Antenna 1, a TCI Curtain Model 611; and Transmitter No 2 was hard
wired into a similar curtain, No 3. Many
possible callsigns, mostly some form of acronym, were given serious
consideration but ultimately the very obvious acronym KSDA , foe Seventh-day
Adventist, was chosen and approved by the FCC.
Transmitter KSDA1 was given its
initial test transmission at 2:35 pm local time on Thursday March 5, 1987, with
a simple test announcement stating: “This
is Adventist World Radio-Asia, KSDA Agat Guam, broadcasting on 11720 kHz. This is a test broadcast.” This transmitter began a regular schedule of
program broadcasting next evening at 7:00 pm.
Transmitter KSDA2 began a week long
series of test broadcasts later in the year on October 24 (1987) and it was
taken into regular service without ceremony just one week later on November 1.
Several
years went by, and two more shortwave transmitters at 100 kW were obtained,
this time from Continental in Dallas, Texas.
These new units were designated as Model 418E and 418F.
Dedication Day for KSDA3 was May 16,
1995, and the event was celebrated with a live broadcast in both Chinese and
English beamed to Asia. Transmitter
KSDA4 was taken into regular service in January of the next year (1996), thus
completing the original concept for AWR-Asia; four transmitters at 100 kW and
four curtain antennas.
More on the Guam story next time.