Family radio international website1/3/2024 ![]() The California native first became aware of Family Radio, started in 1958 in the San Francisco Bay Area, while he was a history major at University of California-Berkeley. The network has come a long way since Tom began his tenure there in 1987. Right now, Family Radio is a “hybrid.” “We’re about 65 percent music and the remaining portion is talk and teaching,” the latter divided among syndicated programming from such teachers as John MacArthur, Alistair Begg, and Ken Ham. Some of that content will soon include regionally focused storytelling along the lines of NPR’s This American Life. That’s why we’re putting more emphasis on podcasting and on-demand content.” Five years, maybe? Ten years? It’s a transitional step. “How much longer is radio going to be viable? We don’t know. “It’s just becoming more apparent that more and more people, young and old, are gravitating towards these types of things and using radio less and less,” he says. Smart speaker usage to listen to Family Radio is also increasing, Tom notes. More people are tuning in to those streams, using the FR app on their phones. Right now, it has two streams but is looking to multiply those by three or four times. Every Christian broadcaster needs to embrace technology for new ways of bringing the Gospel.”įamily Radio has seen “a tremendous amount of growth” on its streaming sites. ![]() ![]() The digital marketplace is opening like crazy. There are so many digital opportunities now. “Our challenge as a Christian broadcaster is how can we go where people are? Our job is to present the Gospel. “We call ourselves a 60-year-old startup and we’re looking for ways to capture the changes but keep the essential part of what we are,” Tom says. The CEO is leading the network, which has 76 stations with a potential market of 70 million people throughout the U.S., into a digital future and new headquarters as the reach and influence of over-the-air radio fades. Here’s a clip of a Spanish language broadcast from shortwave station WYFR.Tom Evans strives to keep Family Radio “laser-focused on our mission to spread the Gospel and comfort the saints.” The article makes no mention of the future of shortwave for Family Radio. Family Radio now broadcasts three separate, 24-hours-a-day, channels for our satellite outreach…” This growth of the DTH industries presents a readily available way to transmit the Gospel to a lot of the world without requiring the use of radios or radio stations…Family Radio has been in the DTH industry for many years…Family Radio is available on satellite television at no cost to the DTH user in Europe and North Africa. To better serve countries where DTH use dominates the airwaves, and where access to the Internet is beyond the means of a typical overseas resident, Family Radio is pursuing DTH as a means to reach the people of these countries… However, over the course of the last 36 years, the world has been shifting from its use of shortwave to DTH – Direct To Home – TV. “Family Radio continues to broadcast programming via shortwave to Asia, and Central and South America. Cuba was then added to the listening range and by 1978, Family Radio was the strongest signal heard in that Communist country.”Īlthough an archived Family Radio web page from 2011 lists shortwave broadcasts into Ethiopia, India, Pakistan, Africa, China, Korea, Myanmar, Russia, Brazil, Vietnam, and Central America in a huge array of languages, current listings on the Family Radio website indicate a smaller line-up of international broadcasts in English, Chinese, Portugese, Russian, Spanish, and Southeast Asian languages (Tagalog, Burmese, Indonesian, and Vietnamese).Īn article, “The World’s Shift from Shortwave to DTH – Direct to Home TV” in the Family Radio newsletter, Open Line ( PDF) seems to indicate that the network is moving much of its international broadcasts to satellite services. The owners knew at that point, that their ministry was expanding. Cumbie wrote, “In 1977, WYFR received 13,000 letters in one year from Latin America alone. In an account of the history of the station, Jim Cumbie said that station was moved to Florida in 1976 and broadcasts to Europe and South America were made from the new location beginning in 1977. Waits)įamily Radio has owned WYFR (which originated in 1927 as an experimental shortwave station out of Boston) since October, 1973. Family Radio Stickers on a Door at the Network Headquarters (photo: J.
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