History
Although World Christian Broadcasting was formed in 1976, the idea came about 30 years earlier when Army Signal Corps officer Maurice Hall prepared shortwave transmitters for the Yalta Conference for use by President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his staff so they could keep up with news from Washington. Hall began to realize that if shortwave radio could transmit political news across long distances, it could also broadcast Gospel messages to large parts of the world.
Dr. Lowell G. Perry, a communications professor at Abilene Christian University, served as the first president of World Christian Broadcasting. In 1977, Perry died in a plane crash as he and others sought a location for the station’s transmitter. Two years later, a site in Alaska was selected and construction began.
KNLS signed on the air July 23, 1983, broadcasting ten hours a day in Mandarin Chinese and Russian and reaching roughly one-third of the world. English broadcasts were added later. As the Soviet Union’s empire fell apart, listeners from those countries began writing and requesting Bibles and other religious materials. In 2005, the station signed on a second 100 KW antenna in Alaska.
In 1991, World Christian Broadcasting presented a program called “The Reflection Hour” from Moscow over Russia’s All-Union Radio network. The program reached all 15 republics of the former Soviet Union.
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—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
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—John Lydon (formerly Johnny Rotten)