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"Wavescan" is a weekly program for long distance radio hobbyists produced by Dr. Adrian M. Peterson, Coordinator of International Relations for Adventist World Radio. AWR carries the program over many of its stations (including shortwave). Adrian Peterson is a highly regarded DXer and radio historian, and often includes features on radio history in his program. We are reproducing those features below, with Dr. Peterson's permission and assistance.
Wavescan N658, October 3, 2021
Adventist World Radio Celebrates 50 Years
It was on Friday evening, October 1, 1971, that the first shortwave broadcast from Adventist World Radio (AWR) was beamed towards Eastern Europe from a 250 kW Marconi transmitter at Radio Trans Europe in Sines, Portugal. That was the beginning, and Friday, October 1, 2021, was the 50th anniversary of that now historic introductory broadcast from what was then an important shortwave station that now no longer exists.
In that earlier era, there were three major units of Adventist World Radio, though initially each facility was operating independently. AWR-Europe was inaugurated via the German Deutsche Welle relay station at Sines in Portugal back in 1971. The original AWR-Asia was on the air from the shortwave transmitters of the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation at Ekala, a dozen miles north of Colombo, and it was officially recognized as an AWR unit five years later. Then, in 1991, the AWR unit in Latin America procured the shortwave station at Cahuita in Costa Rica that was previously operated by the American government as Radio Impacto.
We go way back, before the beginning.
Adventist Shortwave Broadcasting: Before the Beginning
The earliest attempted foray into shortwave broadcasting on the part of the Seventh-day Adventist denomination occurred in March 1928 when John Fetzer lodged a request with the newly established Federal Radio Commission in Washington, DC for a shortwave broadcasting license. It was Fetzer's intent to co-install a shortwave transmitter with his mediumwave station, WEMC, at what is now Andrews University in Berrien Springs, Michigan.
However, Fetzer's shortwave request was denied, and subsequently he bought the mediumwave WEMC and transferred it to Kalamazoo as WKZO. A dozen years later, Fetzer also participated in establishing another mediumwave station, the 50 kW KXEL (1540 kHz) in Waterloo, Iowa, a station that is often heard across the Pacific.
In 1942, the legendary Dr. H. M. S. Richards, with his Voice of Prophecy radio program, was on the air from AFRS shortwave in the United States; and two years later (1944), the Australian version was heard from Radio Australia, Shepparton in Victoria. Back during that era, other shortwave stations that carried similar Adventist programming were ETLF in Ethiopia, CR8A in Goa, SLBC in Colombo, Ceylon, as well as several other shortwave stations in Asia and Latin America.
Adventist World Radio - Europe: The Beginning
During the year 1968, while they were living in Lahore, Pakistan, our Wavescan DX editor Adrian Peterson was invited to serve as an informal adviser to fellow Australian, Dr. Walter Scragg, who was serving in international radio leadership at the global headquarters of the Adventist denomination in Washington, DC. It was at this stage that serious planning was underway for establishing a coordinated global radio outreach on shortwave.
Three years later, the newly married Allen and Andrea Steele were transferred from specialized FM radio programming in Washington, DC, to Lisbon in Portugal to head up the inauguration of the new Adventist World Radio, a name that Adrian Peterson had suggested to Walter Scragg. After many weeks of coordination with the main production studios in Paris, France and Darmstadt, Germany, the time had come for the inaugural shortwave broadcast from the fledgling Adventist World Radio: Friday evening, October 1, 1971.
In preparation, Allen and Andrea had timed and coordinated all of the programming for the first full week in a special studio of Radio Trans Europe on the top, 6th floor of an ornate residential building at 84 Rua Braamcamp in Lisbon. Then, by car, they personally delivered the complete set of program tapes, now ready for broadcasting, to the Radio Trans Europe on-air coordinating studio at Sesimbra, some twenty four miles south of Lisbon.
At Sesimbra, all programming was microwaved forty miles across Setubal Bay to the shortwave station, which was located near the ocean on Monte Mudo Hill, close to Cape Sines. The inaugural AWR broadcast was in the Italian language and it began at 2015 UTC over Transmitter 3, a 250 kW Marconi transmitter at Radio Trans Europe on 9670 kHz.
Radio Trans Europe at Sines in Portugal was established under supervision from Deutsche Welle in Germany. The two original transmitters had been procured initially for installation in a new Deutsche Welle shortwave relay station in El Salvador in Central America. However, when that project was cancelled due to lack of government approval, the two transmitters were instead diverted for installation at the new Deutsche Welle shortwave station near Sines in Portugal. This station was closed ten years ago (2011).
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Audio Insert: AWR Europe, Ron Myers, ID & DX program (1981) |
Adventist World Radio - Asia
The first Adventist broadcasts on shortwave in Southern Asia were on the air from the original Radio Goa, beginning in April 1950. Six months later (October 1950), the same program relay was carried by Radio Ceylon from their shortwave station at Ekala, a dozen miles north of the national capital, Colombo.
A quarter of a century later (1975), the Peterson family was transferred from Colombo in Sri Lanka to Poona in India for the purpose of coordinating the Adventist media ministry in the twelve countries of the old British India. At that time there were more than half a dozen programs in almost as many languages on the air shortwave from SLBC Ekala, most of which were produced in the radio studio at Salisbury Park in Poona (Pune) India.
A year later, all of the separate radio programming was organized into a combined unit, and on October 7, 1976, the head office in Washington, DC gave formal recognition of the Poona based radio studio as an AWR unit, AWR-Asia. All of the AWR programming that was produced in the Poona studio was broadcast in Sri Lanka on shortwave, mediumwave and FM. The Ekala shortwave station was closed and abandoned in 2013.
Adventist World Radio - Latin America
Back in the earlier radio broadcasting era in Latin America, many mediumwave stations also co-installed a shortwave transmitter with their mediumwave unit. Likewise, several Adventist radio stations in Latin America also operated on shortwave, at least for many years. Back then, for example, there was Union Radio (mediumwave and shortwave) in Guatemala City; and Radio Amanecer in the Dominican Republic, and Radio Celendin in Peru; and Radio Alajuela in Costa Rica.
Under the leadership of David Gregory, the Radio Impacto
shortwave station at Cahuita on the Caribbean coast was procured in 1991. With studios in Alajuela, the programming of Adventist World Radio-Latin America in Spanish and English was carried over their five shortwave transmitters. However, eight years later (1999), the Cahuita shortwave station was sold off to new owners, and then a couple of years later again, it was closed.
Conclusion
It is true, all three of the original shortwave stations that were on the air with AWR programming have since been closed. However, the international shortwave service of Adventist World Radio lives on with programming produced in more than a hundred languages in almost as many different production studios on all continents. Affiliated with AWR are 1,700 local AM, FM and shortwave stations in a host of different countries on all continents.
Subsequent to the story of the AWR shortwave units that were established in Europe, Latin America and Southern Asia, the next AWR shortwave station was KSDA on the island of Guam. That station was built under the supervision again of Dr. Allen and Mrs. Andrea Steele beginning in 1985, but that's a story for another time. In the meantime, we honor the 50th anniversary of the first shortwave broadcast from Adventist World Radio, which took place over the Deutsche Welle relay station at Sines in Portugal on Friday evening, October 1, 1971.