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its 3-mile limit!
The British Government, finally gave up the fight for the time
being. Then, this last December, the most powerful ship-station of
all, Radio LONDON, a super-power station broadcasting 50,000 watts,
got on the air, anchored just off the British coast in the Thames
Estuary. On Friday, December 4th, our office at the college in
England called me long distance. It appeared that Radio LONDON was
about ready to accept the WORLD TOMORROW for daily broadcasting!!!
Our people at the college there were terribly excited! On Monday,
December 7, I flew back over to London for a Tuesday morning
appointment with the Radio LONDON people at the office of our
advertising agency.
We had conferences Tuesday morning and Wednesday afternoon,
and all doubts on both sides were cleared up and erased. I flew
back to the U.S. on Thursday. We had agreed on a daily broadcast
time -- of 7:00 P.M. With this 50,000-watt transmitter virtually
inside of the area of England, this would give us a clear
reception, not only in downtown London, but over an area populated
by some 37 MILLION PEOPLE!!! -- even in daylight! During some 7
1/2 or 8 months a year, it ought to give us good listening coverage
of all Great Britain -- including Ireland and Scotland!
The station management had a few fears about the program going
on daily. We both felt it advisable to go on by degrees -- not all
at once. So we decided on a schedule as follows: The first three
weeks, Monday nights only; the second three weeks, twice weekly --
Monday and Friday nights; the third three weeks, three times a week
-- Monday, Wednesday and Friday nights. Beginning the fourth three
weeks, or the tenth week, EVERY-NIGHT broadcasting, at 7:00 P.M.,
every night in the week.
The station management wanted to start with the first Monday
in the new year, 1965.
On Monday morning, January 4, we called our college in England
at 10:45 A.M., by long distance (trans-Atlantic) telephone.
Everyone there was tense. The program was supposed to go on at
7:00 P.M. -- which was 11:00 A.M. in Pasadena. In our radio studio
at Bricket Wood they had Radio LONDON tuned in. Reception was loud
and clear, with music coming from the station. We could hear it by
telephone here in Pasadena. Then, suddenly, about 7 or 8 minutes
before 7:00 P.M. in England, the broadcasting stopped!! The
station was OFF THE AIR! We were disappointed. Yet we knew every-
thing would work out as God decreed.
Later that day in Pasadena a telegram explained the station
had shorted an insulator. They had been putting out only 10,000
watts. The engineers on the ship wanted to boost it up to the full
50,000 watts for the first time with our program. When they pulled
the switch for the full power, a few moments before 7:00 P.M., it
shorted an insulator and put the station off the air.
We got word to them to broadcast the program on Tuesday night.
About ten minutes before 11:00 A.M., in Pasadena, we once