Christian radio celebrates 75 years in Newfoundland

Diane Trail
Atlantic Correspondent
atlantic@christianweek.org

ST JOHN'S, NL-Canada's largest Christian radio station has come a long way from its humble beginning.

In the autumn of 1929, Seventh Day Adventist pastor Harold Williams and a group of volunteers constructed the first homemade transmitter for Voice of Adventist Radio (VOAR) in Mount Pearl, Newfoundland.

Now the station is broadcasting coast to coast via a home satellite provider and this year, celebrates its 75th anniversary.

When the station first launched in 1929, Newfoundland was a British dominion and not subject to approval of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) for religious broadcasting. After Newfoundland became a Canadian province in 1949, "Premier Joey Smallwood negotiated the continuation of Christian schools and radio as part of the articles of Confederation," says VOAR station manager Sherry Griffin.

In 1949, VOAR applied to the Board of Broadcast Governors for a Canadian Broadcast License. The license was finally granted in 1951, limiting VOAR power to 100 watts but allowing unlimited broadcast hours.

"The CRTC did try to put an end to [us at that time]," says Griffin. "But in the end, they failed."

Owned by the Seventh Day Adventist church and supported financially by listeners, VOAR has only three full-time staff. However, 20 to 30 volunteers assist with everything from stuffing envelopes to producing shows. The station is on the air 16 hours each day, running live from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.

"I like it ‘live,'" says Griffin. "Listeners know. It's a different feel."

With much of Newfoundland and Labrador remote, weather challenges are inevitable. "Sometimes, repair crews have to make their way through heavy snow to repair our [isolated] transmitters," says Griffin.

Despite being low budget, VOAR is well in step with technological advances. Griffin, who became manager in 2000, implemented a vision that has made VOAR Canada's largest Christian station.

That vision, which VOAR articulated as "expansion of coverage through terrestrial repeaters and translator towers, and into worldwide broadcasts through the internet," is now a reality. In February 2002 the station received CRTC permission to add 12 new low power transmitter sites enabling VOAR to cover Newfoundland and Labrador coast to coast. In November 2002, they began broadcasting on a home satellite provider reaching more than three million homes nationwide.

"It's really encouraging to receive internet responses. The majority of our [internet] listeners are from Asia and the Middle East," says Griffin. "In these countries, it is dangerous to listen to us but they are hungry for God's message."

For more information, visit www.voar.org