Far East Broadcasting Company (FEBC) is an international Christian radio network.[1] From 1960 to 1994, FEBC owned and operated shortwave radio station KGEI in San Francisco, California.
FEBC was established on December 20, 1945, months after the end of World War II, using an initial budget of US§1,000 to establish a nonprofit Christian shortwave radio organization. In April 1946, negotiations to start a radio station in Shanghai (before the Communist regime took over three years later) started, but the Nationalists opposed the plan, under the grounds that FEBC was a foreign operation. Once the negotiations in Shanghai failed, at the end of 1946, Robert Bowman, founder of FEBC, moved to Manila at the end of the year for the same purpose: setting up the first FEBC station. The licenses were granted for medium and shortwave stations on September 4, 1946, with construction work starting in October and payments ending on November 30. The first test broadcasts were held in Manila on February 23, 1948, becoming regular a few months later, on June 4 at 6pm. The station used the KZAS callsign.[2]
The company purchased KGEI in 1960, a station founded by GE in 1939. The station went off air in 1994 and had its equipment donated to another Christian missionary group for use in Liberia.[3]
Philippines
Far East Broadcasting Company, Philippines (FEBC Philippines)
The 2022 FEBC Pioneers' Wall (Bantayog ng Kasaysayan) was unveiled at the former Christian Radio City Manila (CRCM) or FEBC compound in Valenzuela. The First Filipino leaders included Rev. Proceso Marcelo, Rev. Ferico Magbanua and Rev. Maximo Atienza.[8]
FEBC operates its shortwave broadcasts on SW 15580 in different languages, transmitting from its facilities in Bocaue, Bulacan and Iba, Zambales.
Digital media
FEBC Philippines also owns Saved Radio, a Contemporary Christian-formatted music station currently available on internet radio. FEBC took over the ownership of Saved Radio from its original owner Becca Music in 2022, effectively shutting down its previous station Now XD.
FEBC owns a number of stations in South Korea, the main station being HLKX in Soul. Its station in Yeongdong (HLDY) was damaged by wildfires in April 2019. The station alone is used to disseminate religious programming to North Korea, where religious broadcasting is strictly forbidden. Only sheet music for hymns survived the blazes.[9][10][11]
Being a puritan Christian radio network gives the connotation that FEBC in South Korea has right-wing conservative tendencies. For example, in the Special Current Affairs Symposium broadcast on September 10, 2001, professor Kim Dong-gil and others took part and aired content critical of Kim Dae-jung's government of the time.[12] Also, former president Chun Doo-hwan, who led a dictatorship in the 1980s, celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of its founding in Korea, at a speech given on May 20, 2006. This also coincided with the anniversary of events on May 18, 1980; even after the event was held, posts appeared on FEBC Korea who demanded the removal of sponsorship contracts with the network.[13]
There was an FEBC station in Okinawa starting in 1958. After the reversion agreement, the station became a commercial operation (Kyokuto Hoso Radio) as religious broadcasters were forbidden under the Law on Special Measures for the Reversion of Okinawa. Per a decision taken by the Diet of Japan in 1983, the station shut down in 1984.[25]
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