offers.” She bowed her head and prayed for this spiritual experi ence to take place in her life. Later, she contacted the station and shared the news with the personnel. Still later, she became a WMBI radio personality her self, taking over the responsibil ity for women’s programming and hosting a pleasant daily fea ture, “ The Home Hour,” until her retirement about six years ago. The feature, consisting of recipes and household hints inter spersed with lively spiritual ad vice, was one of the original WMBI broadcasts and in a way is still heard. With a modern for mat and new title, hostess Gwen Waggoner inv i tes listeners to share her “ Coffee Break,” a light, chatty interview and variety program for the homemaker, while Frances Beerthuis has a 15- minute “Woman to Woman” fea ture, offering practical, spiritual help to the housewife. In many evangelical quarters, gospel music is synonymous with the Moody Bible Institute. There fore, it was natural that WMBI would have its share of musicians. The first broadcasts carried the voices of gospel songwriters T. J. Bittikofer, George Schuler, and Harry Dixon Loes to midwestem listeners.
Pictured above is a copy of a very old photo depicting the first WMBI radio studio. The facility no longer exists. The station is now housed in the top three stories of a modem office building on the school campus. Three employees cared for the broadcasting of the first programs. WMBI now has nearly UO full time and as many part time employees caring for 17 hours of programming each day.
“ It was at WMBI that such musical notables as George Bev erly Shea, Don Hustad, Bill Pearce and Dick Anthony were first exposed,” declares current Production - Talent Supe rv iso r Wendell Borrink. Shea started as staff a n n o u n c e r - s o l o i s t and worked several years before tak ing his place on the platform
with Billy Graham. John W. Peterson, probably gospel music’s most prolific con temporary published songwriter, was a student at MBI when he wrote his now famous “ It Took a Miracle.” He subsequently joined the staff of WMBI and continued writing and playing his songs for Chicago area listeners. Although records have all but displaced “ live” music programs, WMBI still recalls the days when many musical programs were broadcast daily, many of them in volving choirs. Dur ing these “ golden years” of radio produc tion, WMBI launched the musical careers of many talented per formers and directors. The sta tion still produces programs with musical ensembles, taping them to air later on Institute stations and others which use the tapes. WMBI talent has played a domi nant role in the field of gospel mu sic records. Every major religious record producer has at least one WMBI personality or “alumnus” under contract. Currently WMBI is more than one station. In addition to the
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News Director Walter Carlson came to WMBI after graduation from the Insti tute. He is a favorite Chicago person ality.
“Sailor Sam” is also “ Uncle Chuck” of the children’8 feature, “KYB Club.” He is also Charles Christensen, Station Manager of WMBI.
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THE KING'S BUSINESS
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