Welcome back to another episode of Five Minutes in Church History.

On this episode, we are continuing our journey through the institutions of American

Christianity in the 20th 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. And the vast history of the world, radio, that is, commercial radio stations, has a relatively brief history.

KD.K.A, owned originally by Westinghouse went on the air on November 2, 1920 in

Pittsburgh, PA. Its first broadcast was coverage of the Warren Harding versus James Cox's

presidential election. The first religious broadcast also went over the airwaves of KDCA. 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, D.C.,

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,

Raider was minister at Moody Church in Chicago.

He wrote many hymns over his career, including The Invitational Only Believe, 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 Raider, services were simply recorded in the church and then aired, but Raider 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 in 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.

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