May 11 - Religious Radio

May 11 – Religious Radio

On a personal note … as I read the information regarding the beginnings of religious radio, I nearly fell apart laughing.  Evangelical Christians weren’t necessarily thrilled about radio.  In their minds, Satan was the “prince of the air.”  Early radio preachers faced incredible opposition from the church, in fact, moreso than from secular listeners.  The reason I laughed so hard when I read this was that in the early days of the internet, many conservative Christians that I listened to (on the radio, no less) decried the use of the internet, stating that it was Satan’s tool and would corrupt people in unimaginable ways.  Yup … we Christians aren’t real supportive of change, are we!

Anyway, back in 1921 when radio was just a few months old, Westinghouse was selling radio sets to its new listeners in the Pittsburgh area just after KDKA had gone on the air announcing results of the 1920 election.  One of the Westinghouse engineers sang in the choir at Calvary Episcopal Church in Pittsburgh and set it up so that his church could go on the air.  The engineers onsite at the church service were Catholic and Jewish and to disguise themselves on the platform, wore choir robes.  The response was overwhelming … Christian radio was born.

A pastor in Chicago realized that the radio station WBBM closed down every Sunday, so he arranged to use the studio for fourteen hours every Sunday and set up his own station – WJBT – Where Jesus Blesses Thousands.

Omaha began broadcasting in 1923 on WOAW (WOW) and couldn’t find a preacher to do a show.  They finally found R.R. Brown, a Christian and Missionary Alliance pastor who had just gotten to town.  After prayer, he agreed to do the show, figuring he would leave after the first program.  But, as he left, he was met by a man who had a life changing experience from that show.

Back in Chicago, a station looking for musicians at the last minute ran to Moody Bible Institute to borrow a couple of cornetists.  They invited the Institute then to do a show each Sunday and this led to Moody’s own radio station.

By 1928 there were sixty religious stations, a phenomenon that continued to grow as Christians grew to accept and use new media as a tool to reach the world.