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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.
AWR 30th Anniversary
The primary date for the broadcast of this edition of Wavescan is Sunday, September 30, which means that Monday, October 1, is tomorrow; and October 1 is the 30th anniversary for Adventist World Radio. On that date, back in the year 1971, AWR made its first broadcast from Radio Trans Europe at Sines in Portugal, but in that year, it was a Friday, not a Monday.
Allen and Andrea Steele, just newly married, were invited to transfer from the United States to Portugal and to launch a new shortwave radio service on behalf of the Seventh-day Adventist denomination. They arrived in Lisbon just a few weeks in advance of the projected launch date, Friday October 1, 1971.
The original programming for the new shortwave service was recorded in the "Voice of Hope" studios located in Paris, France and in Darmstadt, Germany. The tapes containing these programs were then delivered to Lisbon in Portugal, where Allen edited them and timed them, ready for broadcast.
In his book, "Loud Let it Ring", Allen refers to the hectic events leading up to this first historic broadcast. He states that he worked almost the entire night of Thursday in preparing the tapes for the initial broadcast. Next day he made a fast dash by car to the studios of Radio Trans Europe at Sesimbra, where they were readied just one hour in advance of the broadcast deadline.
At the appointed time that evening, Friday, October 1, 1971, the first broadcast from the new Adventist World Radio went on the air on 9670 kHz. The tape was played in the Sesimbra studios of Radio Trans Europe, 35 kM south of Lisbon, and from here it was relayed by VHF link to the transmitter base at Sines, a further 50 kM south.
This first new broadcast was directed towards Italy in Italian from the 250 kW transmitter RTE1 at Sines, Portugal, using a curtain antenna beamed towards the east. Although the Italian program was the first on the air, many other European languages, mostly for Eastern Europe, were included into that original schedule. Programming in English made its first appearance on the Sunday morning.
The theme tune for the new programming from the fledgling Adventist World Radio was the melody, "Jesus is Coming Again", which was borrowed from the long-standing "Voice of Prophecy" radio program with Dr. H. M. S. Richards. This melody is still the identification music for all AWR programming, even to this day, thirty years later.
Two weeks after the inaugural broadcast from Adventist World Radio, the first mail response to the new programming began to trickle in to the new office in Lisbon. Soon the trickle turned into a flow, and the flow into a deluge.
In the meantime, however, international radio monitors and DXers throughout the world began to note the new religious programming on the air from Radio Trans Europe. This service had begun without any prior publicity.
Several monitors in Europe reported to Radio Sweden that they had heard the new broadcasts from Radio Trans Europe, which they described as "unidentified". In its DX broadcast the following week, Radio Sweden correctly identified these broadcasts as Adventist World Radio, the Voice of Hope.
Similarly, the Australian DX News listed reports from Robert Chester in Adelaide and Bob Padula in Melbourne regarding the initial AWR broadcasts, which were likewise described as "unidentified". Subsequent reports from both Robert and Bob correctly attributed the new programming to Adventist World Radio.
That was 30 years ago. And today Adventist World Radio is on the air in 55 languages for 1200 hours each week. The programming from AWR is on the air from large shortwave stations located in Europe, Africa, the Middle East and the western Pacific. I might add also, that AWR can be heard in every country of the world; you just need to know the best time and frequency for reception in your area.