COVER STORY
sonalities that consistently turns out top-rated pro grams on a meager budget. Heading this team is Radio Director A1 Sanders, who at 30 is one of the most versatile men in religious radio. Sanders started in radio at 13, doing bit parts in drama over KTMS in Santa Barbara where he grew up. After high school he entered the Merchant Marine and while there came to the realization of his own personal need of Jesus Christ as Saviour. When he got out of the service he headed for the Bible Institute of Los Angeles where he graduated in 1949. While in school Sanders did announcing for Dr. Louis T. Talbot and organized Accent on Youth, a student program that today is heard on 31 stations. During this same time Sanders met and fell in love with Margaret Bascom, student organist for the radio broadcasts. They were married in 1948. After graduation the Sanders went to Chicago where A1 worked on Moody Bible Institute’s WMBI for two years. Then it was back to Santa Barbara as a com mercial disc jockey. While doing this job he received a long distance telephone call from B iola offering him the job of dean of men. He took the job and a few months later he was shifted to radio director.
A c ro ss America ministers of the gospel have long made good use of radio. And nowhere has the use been more concentrated than in Los Angeles. For those who cared to count, the current number of religious broadcasts in Los Angeles totaled 353 per week. With competition of this caliber a sizeable audience was hard to come by. According to Pulse radio sur veys Billy Graham’s Hour of Decision rates a 1.3 (meaning 1.3% of all home receivers in the area were tuned in on it when the test was made). Graham was topped by the Salt Lake Tabernacle Mormon program which received a rating of 2,3. Leading the entire list of weekday programs was the Bible Institute Hour (1.7) which is heard three times a week (Monday-Wednesday-Friday) at 8:30 A.M. over more than 40 stations of the Don Lee leg of the Mutual Broadcasting System. Veteran radiomen were not surprised at the Bible Institute Hour’s high (for religious broadcasts) rating. Producer of the program is the Bible Institute of Los Angeles which has been in the radio business for 35 years. And coupled with this experience is a team of per
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