¡Shipmates” MATE BOB > ANSWER: No, I have at my home a couple of trunks /- of old scripts that we used when we first began these broadcasts. It is amazing how little deviation there has been from the original format. QUESTION: Are any of the original members of your staff still with you today? ANSWER: Yes. Ken Nelson, Ernie Payne and myself are the three of the original six who went on the air twenty-four years ago in the year 1934. QUESTION: Why do you broadcast just on the week days? Why aren’t you on Sundays? ANSWER: To begin with, we didn’t feel we wanted to compete with the churches. Secondly, there are 100% more Christian programs on Sundays and we would just be competing with them. Lastly by broadcasting through the week we reach a tremendous amount of businessmen on wheels and people who are traveling from here to there, not to mention the homemaker in her home. QUESTION: How many poems would you say you have read over the air in the past twenty-four years? ANSWER: Oh, I couldn’t begin to tell you. I have blanket permission from a number of publishers. When poetry comes to me I put it in three piles; one pile is if I like it, the other I don’t, and the other is “maybe.” QUESTION: What observations, First Mate Bob, would you make regarding present day radio as compared to what it was twenty-four years ago? "The Lord has sent the money in just in the 'nick of time.' Our wonderful radio agent, Mr. Van Newkirk, has been very patient with us." i< V ! 'r T ¡f.
"It is harder to buy timet on Radio today than ever before. Some stations won't even sell time, they only want to sell 'spot' announcements." ANSWER: Well, I think there is a general overall improvement. Of course, there is a great deal of room for improvement. Christian broadcasts need to continually strive for betterment. QUESTION: Is it harder to buy time on radio stations today? ANSWER: Yes, definitely. We at first felt that with the advent of television, radio would suffer. Actually however, there has been a resurgence of radio. Many stations today won’t even sell time, only spot announce ments. They use popular music and then “spots.” QUESTION: Do you recall any particularly unusual letters in the last few weeks that have caught your eye? ANSWER: There was one man who was a mechanical engineer. His wife was a Christian but he was only a nominal Christian. Then one day she died and left him all alone with their little daughter. Shortly after that his little daughter died. He became very bitter and dis illusioned. Then he happened to . . . well, I don’t like to use the word “happened.” I think he was directed by the Lord to time in to the broadcast. He did again and again in his car driving to and from work. Finally he was sitting at home one night all alone. He opened the Bible which his wife had been reading and had marked. He put his finger upon the passage that was well marked and worn. “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” He wrote to say that then and there he accepted the Lord. He has joined a Christian Businessmen’s Association and is now a very active worker. We are grateful to the Lord for having reached that one, only an example of, I believe I could say, tens of thousands reached in almost a quarter of a century of broadcasting. QUESTION: First Mate Bob, does Mrs. Myers, your wife, help you in this work? ANSWER: Very definitely. She is the sweetest Chris tian wife in the world with a possible exception of yours, sir. She goes with me to every meeting everywhere I travel, always by my side. She’s my prayer partner, my helper and here in the studios we have a Thursday morn ing Bible class under her direction. She is a teacher of continued ► 47
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