BROADCASTING PIONEER DIES

AUSTRALIAN CHRISTIAN BROADCASTING PIONEER DIES

Australian religious broadcasting pioneer Rev. Vernon Kenneth Turner, 89, died on Saturday, Nov. 18, following a lengthy illness, just two months after his wife, May Elizabeth, passed away. Turner was born in Adelaide in 1917, and he lived there until his family moved to Sydney in 1931.

At the age of seven he built his first microphone from a wooden Beecham’s Pills box and some mica and carbon granules. He later built much more sophisticated microphones. Before leaving Adelaide, he frequented the local radio stations after school. In 1937 he was accepted by Anglican Archbishop Howard Mowll for training for the ministry at Moore Theological College. After two Sydney parishes, he and his wife spent several years as missionaries in the outback of New South Wales.

In 1938 Turner began his first weekly radio broadcast called “Church News” which continued for many years. The outbreak of World War II in 1939 interrupted his studies that he resumed in 1946 at Emmanuel College at the University of Queensland, the training college for the Presbyterian Church, and he was licensed in 1951. By the late 1950s Turner and his staff were producing 800 weekly programs for 100 commercial stations across Australia. Among them were programs such as “Counsellor,” “Rev Gordon Powell,” “World Church News” and “From the Bible.”

In 1955 he called the first meeting of the Christian Television Association and was its first secretary. Having applied for an FM radio license for Sydney 23 years earlier, it was finally granted in 1978, and 2CBA-FM began broadcasting in March 1979, Australia’s first Christian FM station. Since then the station has operated 24 hours a day, reaching the entire Sydney metropolitan area. His daily program, “Morning Devotions,” aired for more than 20 years until his retirement in 1996.

Funeral services are planned for Friday November 24th in St. David’s Uniting Church, Haberfield.

50 YEARS OF BROADCASTING

TWR’S NORWEGIAN PARTNER CELEBRATES

During an international conference last month in Oslo, Norway, more than 1,000 people paid tribute to longtime Trans World Radio-Europe partner Norea Mediemisjon.

The “Hope for Life and Eternity” event included a special 50th anniversary dinner and celebration concert.

Norea Mediemisjon was founded by Norwegian Lutheran Mission in 1956, and by December of that year, the first Norwegian program aired from TWR’s Moroccan transmitter, The Voice of Tangier.

“We invited people from Asia, Africa, America and Europe to tell us about their mission needs so that we would see where we can serve in the years to come,” said Jan Gaute Sirevag, project director of Norea Mediemisjon.

(Trans World Radio)

Web Link

• Norea Mediemisjon

Growth Needed in Dominican Republic

Christian radio ministry looks for space to grow

Two years ago, frequent blackouts used to result in tremendous loss of production for TWR staff in the Dominican Republic. A new generator and studio equipment helped the team sustain the ministry.

Today, the Gospel is still going out in the Dominican Republic, but not without its challenges. Trans World Radio's Georgina Thompson describes their current studio location.

"We are on the second floor, so we have a family upstairs. We have a printing factory downstairs and a school with kids in the backyard. We are surrounded by a lot of noise that frequently disturbs our work and interrupts our recordings."

Every month, nearly 80 programs are produced there and distributed to stations throughout the Caribbean, Central and South America. Noise can be as disruptive as the earlier electricity problems.

TWR-DR's staff needs an office equipped with professional, soundproofed studios, storage space for vast amounts of literature, and reliable electricity to power their equipment.

Their solution: purchase a single-family house, and renovate it into an office and studio. "We have projects for the near future for more radio production that we won't be able to do in the conditions that we're in now. In order to grow and expand and do a better job, we have concluded we need to move from the facilities where we are. This is the only way to resolve these difficulties."

TWR-Dominican Republic is partnering with several radio stations in the United States to raise the funds over the next year. They've joined forces to provide a much-needed new office and studio to a partner ministry in the Dominican Republic.

(Mission Network News)

TV PROGRAMMING BY IRAQIS

ARAB VISION TO LAUNCH
TV PROGRAMMING PRODUCED BY IRAQIS

Despite increasing violence toward Christians in Iraq, Arab Vision is drawing up plans to produce Iraqi Christian TV programs by early next year.

These programs are to be made by Iraqi Christians in their own particular dialect while focusing on sharing the gospel message with their nation and encouraging Christians who deal with extreme dangers.

The international director of Arab Vision said,

“Iraq has had enough of bombs and wars. For many Iraqis, Islam has brought mostly violence and war, and more than ever before, they are turning to Christ. Now is the time to spread the gospel through TV in that land.”

Although Arab Vision’s programs already generate good response in Iraq, experience shows that locally made programs attract more viewers.

Arab Vision will begin production with Iraqis living in neighboring countries with hopes to eventually move production work into Iraq itself.

Despite the security risks, a number of Iraqi Christians are ready to face those challenges, indicating the dangers posed by producing TV programs aren’t much greater than what is already present just for being a Christian.

(Arab Vision)

Stamp Honours Radio Station

ECUADORIAN STAMP HONOURS
HCJB WORLD RADIO’S 75TH ANNIVERSARY

A postage stamp commemorating 75 years of broadcasting on Radio Station HCJB in Quito, Ecuador, was unveiled in a presentation at the station on Thursday, Oct. 26. About 80 people attended, including Carmen Elena Salazar, executive president of the Postal Services of Ecuador, and HCJB World Radio President David Johnson.

“I cannot forget the occasions when Radio HCJB was my companion,” said Salazar who presented examples of the first-day cover -- an official envelope bearing the anniversary stamp canceled with a special commemorative seal from the post office.

Salazar told of enjoying the station’s classical music as well as hearing the early-morning personal greetings from people living in Ecuador’s Amazon region.

“It was their only way to communicate,” Salazar said, explaining a longstanding programming service to Ecuadorians. “They sent messages via the radio to their relatives living in the rest of the country.”

Counting it a privilege to be a part of Ecuador’s entry into the technological age, Johnson thanked God for Ecuador’s varied landscapes of beaches, mountains and rain forests.

He also said the nation’s people have welcomed HCJB World Radio. Born in Ecuador of missionary parents, Johnson said Ecuadorians have warmly embraced the broadcasting ministry through the years “not just out of courtesy but with a deep desire, a deep affection that was much more than was deserved.”

Pictured on the stamp are five members of the ministry’s founding families who participated in Radio Station HCJB’s first broadcast in English and Spanish on Christmas Day, 1931. Superimposed on the photo’s lower portion is emblazoned “75 años” (75 years) while a close-up photo of an HCJB microphone lies diagonally across the stamp’s lower left-hand corner.

Ecuador previously issued commemorative stamps on the 70th and 50th anniversaries of Radio Station HCJB, the flagship station of HCJB World Radio.

Speaking of Ecuador’s golden era of postage stamps, Eduardo Espinosa, manager of philately (stamp collecting) and postal history, said the country’s stamps were once considered among the world’s best. That era began in 1950. He sees philately reviving again as the Postal Services of Ecuador promotes it through seminars in schools and elsewhere. His department’s slogan is, “Philately Is Art, Science and Culture.”

As part of the HCJB commemorative stamp, the cancellation seal (28 mm by 38 mm) includes the mission’s 75th anniversary logo. The stamp is valued at US$1, and first-day covers are available from Correos del Ecuador for $3.50. For more information visit http://www.correosdelecuador.com.ec/espanol/index.php.

(HCJB World Radio)