Christian Radio
Christian radio transformed how the gospel reached the masses in the 20th century. Today, Stephen Nichols explores the history of this powerful medium, highlighting figures whose programs brought God’s Word into homes around the world.
Welcome back to another episode of 5 Minutes in Church History. On this episode, we are continuing our journey through the institutions of American Christianity in the twentieth century. Last we stopped off at Bible camps and conference centers in the woods and at lakes. Well, this week we are headed to the airwaves. It's Christian radio. In the vast history of the world, radio, that is, commercial radio stations has a relatively brief history. KDKA owned originally by Westinghouse, went on the air on November 2, 1920 in Pittsburgh, PA. Its first broadcast was coverage of the Warren Harding vs. James Cox presidential election. The first religious broadcast also went over the airwaves of KDKA on January 2, 1921. The Sunday Vespers service from the gothic sanctuary of Calvary Episcopal Church in Pittsburgh was aired. By December of 1921, the first religious station began airing in Washington DC and then it was off to the races.
An early pioneer was Paul Rader. After an early and brief career as a college football coach, he became a minister and an evangelist. From 1915 to 1921, Rader was minister at Moody Church in Chicago. He wrote many hymns over his career, including the invitational “Only Belief,” a song that was recorded by Elvis in 1970. In 1922, Paul Rader took a brass band to WBU in Chicago. The band would play some gospel songs, and then Rader began preaching. He soon developed his own station, WJBT. The call letters stand for, “Where Jesus blesses thousands.”
Well, prior to Rader, services were simply recorded in the church and then aired. But Rader produced shows for radio. He developed programs like the Breakfast Brigade, which was syndicated on CBS stations across the country. One of Raiders associates, Clarence Jones, went on to start HCJB and Quito, Ecuador in 1931. That soon developed into HCJB World Radio, and it broadcast missionary and gospel programming in countries around the globe.
Well back to America. In the 1930s, such figures as Donald Gray Barnhouse, pastor of Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was reaching millions through his program, Bible Study Hour, that would later be served by his successor at Tenth and the teacher of Bible Study Hour, James Montgomery Boice. Well, Walther Mayor of the Missouri Senate Lutheran Church set up the Lutheran Hour in 1930, and by 1940, over one decade, he had 20 million people tuning in to his radio program. In 1937, Charles Fuller launched the Old Fashioned Revival Hour. It was one of the most popular shows on radio, eclipsing Amos and Andy and Bob Hope. Fuller said of the Old Fashioned Revival Hour, “We are allied with no denomination. We are fundamental pre-millennial, and our desire is to bring up no controversial questions but only to preach and teach the word of God.”
Percy Crawford launched his Young People's Church of the Air in 1931. That radio program spawned conferences and books and publishing and camps and colleges. If we step outside of conservative fundamental circles, we have Harry Emerson Fosdick's, National Vespers. Backed by John D. Rockefeller, this was on the air from the 1920s through the 1940s. Fosdick is the image of American liberalism, and he used radio among other things to get his message out.
Well, back to conservatives in American Christianity. Billy Graham could be heard throughout Christian radio in the 1950s. And then in the 1970s, there was a virtual explosion of Christian radio stations and program. Alongside of teaching, there would be plenty of music supplied by the new and burgeoning Christian contemporary music industry.
One last innovation in Christian radio, Renewing Your Mind went on the air in 1994. This was not preaching of sermons, but teaching, complete with the sound of chalk, scratching out Latin words and theological terms on a chalkboard. Well, that's Christian Radio, an American institution. And I'm Steve Nichols and thanks for listening to 5 Minutes in Church History.
