Origins

While attending a Bible college in Pasadena in 1934, Robert Bowman became the baritone in a men's quartet that was part of the Haven of Rest radio ministry on KMPC in Los Angeles. The quartet was headed by Paul Myers, known as "First Mate Bob" on the air, and Bowman would often host the program in Myers' absence, thus becoming known as "Second Mate Bobby." He remained with the program for 12 years.

Given his radio experience, Bowman became interested in the potential of radio use by those wishing to reach an international audience with a similar religious message. In 1938 he began initial planning for such an outreach program with John Broger, an actor and producer who was a former classmate of Myers at the Pasadena college. The war intervened and Broger became a communications expert in the Navy. On 20 December 1945, Bowman, Broger, and minister William J. Roberts founded the Far East Broadcasting Company to provide Christian programming in Asia.

After the incorporation of this new venture, Bowman left the Haven of Rest program to become FEBC vice president; Broger was president, Roberts executive secretary. The three agreed that, as Bowman was well known from his years with Haven of Rest, he should head the fund-raising process while Broger sought broadcasting licenses in Asia. As their original aim was to broadcast Christian programs in China, Bowman and Broger worked with the Chicago-based Moody Bible Institute to produce a syndicated radio series, The Call of the Orient. Broger traveled to Shanghai to meet with Christian missionaries, and by June 1946 the China Christian Broadcasting System had been established with plans (never realized) to place stations on the air throughout China. In September Broger was granted a one-year franchise for stations in the Philippines, with the goal of establishing a base for shortwave broadcasting to the rest of Asia.

While Broger was involved in these negotiations, Bowman was raising funds through speaking and singing engagements in churches throughout southern California. He explained that funds were needed for the land, power generators and transmitters, antenna towers, and production equipment needed to put FEBC on the air. In November 1946, FEBC made the final payment for 12.5 acres in Karuhatan (north of Manila) in the Philippines. The next month, the first missionaries traveled to Manila. In April 1947 the first FEBC programs were carried (briefly as it turned out) on local stations in Shanghai, and on 4 July 1948 FEBC's own 1,000-watt station, KZAS (soon changed to DZAS) in Manila was dedicated in what was called Christian Radio City, putting out an AM signal to the metropolitan region. Shortwave capability was added later that year. Until 1954, Bowman's and Broger's families took 18- to 24-month stints running the station. Bowman's first year was spent attempting to get the one-year franchise extended. With local legal assistance he was able to convince the Philippine Radio Board of Control to grant FEBC its first permanent license.

By July 1949 FEBC had initiated shortwave broadcasts to other parts of Asia from the Philippines, including China and Russia. (The Shanghai operation had been closed down by the formation of the People's Republic, and listener mail from China disappeared for three decades.) By the end of the year, FEBC was broadcasting in 27 different languages, using station DZH-6 with 10,000 watts.

By the end of 1951, FEBC had five transmitters operating and began broadcasts to Japan that September. Bowman traveled to the U.S. to continue fund-raising efforts to expand the operation, but in 1953 returned to Manila to take over the administration of FEBC. By the end of that year, FEBC had three domestic stations and four more for overseas broadcasts. Broger became an information and education official with the Department of Defense beginning in 1954 and resigned his FEBC post three years later. Bowman became president, a position he held until his 1992 retirement when he became president emeritus.

In 1957 FEBC received licenses to broadcast in Okinawa using two AM stations (these were surrendered in 1972 when the island reverted to Japanese control). In September 1958, FEBC placed its first 50,000-watt transmitter into operation in the Philippines and opened recording studios in Hong Kong, then a British colony. A Tokyo studio followed in the next year. FEBC purchased KGEI in San Francisco in 1960 to initiate broadcasts to Latin America; the station had previously been used by the Office of War Information to broadcast news and information to the Pacific theater during World War II. Becoming known as "The Voice of Friendship," FEBC operated the station (soon placing a second shortwave transmitter on the air) until 1994.

FEBC efforts to broadcast to Asia were expanded in 1968 with the establishment of a British associate company, Far East Broadcasting Associates, to operate shortwave transmitters in the British-controlled (now Commonwealth) Seychelles islands, with the goal of reaching the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia. Two stations in South Korea and another on the Pacific island of Saipan (1977) replaced the stations lost on Okinawa. Broadcasts to China were expanded with huge transmitters (100 and 250 kilowatts) beaming signals to the mainland from several locations.

By 1979 FEBC was providing some 300 hours of programming per day, in 72 languages from 28 stations. Service was extended to areas of what had been the Soviet Union in the early 1990s. FEBC operated more than 30 transmitters by 1995, with a staff of more than 1,000 (90 percent of whom were non-U.S. citizens) and an annual operating budget of $17 million. In 2000 the Far East Broadcasting Company broadcast its gospel message more than 400 hours a day in 154 languages.