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In the summer of 1933 I was preaching to an average
audience of 40 people in a country school-house. At that time I
actually believed that I had no ability to speak over the air.
Then that fall I was asked to speak on the radio for 15 minutes
each morning for one week. Before the week was out, the radio
station manager called me to his office. Many letters had been
received. He informed me I possessed a good radio voice. I was
astonished. GOD HAD OPENED THE DOOR! The very LITTLE strength I
had was now MULTIPLIED.
At first it was just a little tiny 100-watt station. But
two or three thousand people were listening. The RADIO CHURCH OF
GOD went on the air with a regular half-hour broadcast the first
Sunday in 1934. I has not lost a single week on the air since.
Today, "The WORLD TOMORROW" as the program has been called for many
years now, is one of the most listened-to programs in all North
America. HERE ARE SOME FACTS: An article in Colliers for May 2,
1953, reveals that the heaviest mail response received by ANY
program on radio and television is brought in by the Arthur Godfrey
program. It is on BOTH television and radio---ON THE BIG CBS
CHAINS---apparently the biggest thing in radio and television.
Godfrey, says this article, receives more mail than any other
program on radio and television----upward of 60,000 letters and
postcards per month. THAT'S BOTH RADIO AND TV! Garry Moore is
CBS's second highest, with 18,000 pieces of mail per month. On the
ABC net-work, BOTH television and radio Coast to Coast, Bishop
Fulton J. Sheen, with the powerful following of the Roman Catholic
Church, receives 32,000 pieces of mail per month. ABC's second
best is Don McNeill, with 10,000 per month.
That is radio and television combined---and television is
supposed to bring MANY TIMES the response of radio---and those
programs are THE TOP programs on the big net-work chains, with
HUNDREDS of stations. Now how do you think The WORLD TOMORROW
compares? On only 12 radio stations alone (four of them very
powerful) and with NO TELEVISION, the very latest reports turned in
to my office shows 11,486 letters received in the month of April
16th to May 15th inclusive. But at this time of year our mail
drops off. We have had no week-day broadcasts since May 1st. The
month February 24th to March 23rd inclusive brought us 13,020
pieces of mail. IT RUNS MUCH HEAVIER from November until late
February---sometimes 20,000 to 30,000. So you see, as compared
with the most popular worldly programs on the biggest net-works,
using BOTH television and radio, The WORLD TOMORROW ranks third or
fourth among all programs in the United States in ACTUAL LISTENER
RESPONSE!
THIS IS TREMENDOUS! And, on a program such as ours, HOW
MANY MILLIONS of people do you suppose actually LISTEN, but never
write in? Radio experts estimate that each letter represents 1,000
listeners.
And now, as we start this second 19-year cycle, GOD HAS
AGAIN OPENED THE DOOR! When Mrs. Armstrong and I were in Europe
and England in February and March, 1947, one of my main purposes
was to find ways of carrying the true Gospel to Britain and all
Europe. But at that time EVERY DOOR WAS CLOSED! All radio
stations were government owned and operated. No programs were