Re: Early religious broadcasting

[Donna Halper <dlh@donnahalper.com>]

At 01:39 PM 4/30/2003 -0400, you wrote:
>I am currently putting together a term paper on religious broadcasting and 
>its history.  An excerpt from a short bio on Percy Crawford said that the 
>number of hours religious broadcasters were permitted to be on the air. I 
>can't find any independent source to verify this (despite about an hour of 
>Googling and Yahooing).

The earliest religious broadcasts were as far back as 1921-2, when various 
stations offered church services.  In 1923, synagogue services wera also 
offered, and a number of churches even owned or operated radio stations.  I 
have plenty of info about this.  Here in Boston, the first synagogue on the 
air was Temple Israel in Boston, an idea that came from the late great John 
Shepard 3rd and the equally late and great Harry Levi, the Radio 
Rabbi.  Rabbi Levi became so popular that 2 books of his sermons had to be 
issued, and non-Jews frequently came to services to ask for his 
autograph.  The most controversial religious broadcaster was Aimee Semple 
MacPherson, of course, and I can put you in touch with an expert on her 
life.  The Department of Commerce had a very hands-off policy on religious 
broadcasters, but eventually the Federal Radio Commission put in a set 
percentage of time you had to offer educational programming, religious 
broadcasting, public service, news, etc.  This seems to have been enforced 
very sporadically.  The creation of the FCC in 1934 brought in more 
consistent standards, but I don't recall reading anything about putting 
extreme limits on religious broadcasters.  Check the new version of "Stay 
Tuned" by Chris Sterling and J. Mike Kittross to see what they say about 
it...