History

Sunday, 25 October 2009 02:13

The worldwide broadcasting radio The Voice of the Andes came into being in 1931. Its first programmes were broadcast only in English and Spanish. A small 250 watt transmitter in Quito, Ecuador has now expanded into an international radio station. Today the main languages are English, Spanish, German, Portuguese, Russian, French, Japanese and over a dozen languages spoken by indigenous groups. New languages are added constantly to reach as many people as possible.
The founder of this radio station was Dr. Clarence Wesley Jones. When radio was invented God needed servants who would be obedient to Him and work in His plans. Clarence Jones was such a servant, a young energetic musician and preacher. In 1927 he heard God’s call and founded a Christian radio ministry in South America. Together with some helpers, he was looking for a suitable place in Ecuador to establish a radio station. Experts were warning Jones and explained that Ecuador would not be the best place to build a radio station in. It would be better to move further away from the Equator and especially from the mountains.
At that time, research into radio waves was still not very developed. Led by the Holy Spirit, Jones moved to the city Quito, together with a group of radio missionaries. From high up in the Andes, the first Christian radio programme was aired. The 25^th December 1931 became the radio station’s birthday. Twelve years later at a conference of radio technicians, specialists found themselves to be impressed. Apparently there were clever and competent people in the group of The Voice of the Andes. They had chosen the best place for a radio station, because the higher in the mountains you place the antenna, the further it transmits. Besides, the Equator is the best place for broadcasting to the South and North.
No, these were not those outstandingly clever people: they were just people obedient to God.

HCJB – the station’s Spanish acronym stands for “Hoy Christo Jesus Bendice“ and means “Today Christ Jesus Blesses“.
In 1941 Dr. Jones asked Peter Deyneka to take over the Russian section of the ministry. On 22 June 1941, the first Russian programme was then broadcast, which Deyneka had produced and led. Later Deyneka became director of this first radio mission of the world. For additional work, Constantine and Elisabeth Levshen and Aleksey P. Leonovich were recruited, alongside with other brothers and sisters. In 1945 the radio station was already broadcasting in several languages: Russian, German, Portuguese, Japanese, French, Italian, Dutch and Czech.
In 1955 the radio station already counted 87 missionaries working for the radio ministry. For 17 years The Voice of the Andes was the only Christian radio station in the world. The Russian programmes that were started back in 1941 have not missed one day. People still listen to them. Today more than 150 million people worldwide can listen to the programmes.