QUESTION: What type of religious broadcast do you think most successful?
R. L. BOOTHB: The best program is the program that produces results. Coordinate the broadcast with-evangelistic meetings. Use radio as an aid'to advertise the meetings and to create an atmosphere for the public. I have a fifteen-minute broadcast six days each week. The cost of the broadcast is counted in the evangelistic budget. I have found that it pays for itself in a few months after the campaign is over. I use a theme song or instrumental music, make announcements regarding the evangelistic meeting at the beginning and close of the program, then have a hymn of two stanzas, prayer, a seven-minute sermon, prayer, and background muSic, hymn of one stanza, and close with theme and announcement. If the program is longer than fifteen minutes, it has lost its purpose to accomplish results.
ROBERT CORRELA: I believe in diversity and variation. I cannot imagine a man preaching a sermon on Daniel 2 at Christmas time. Make the message seasonal, appropriate for the Fourth of July, Thanksgiving, or some other event. Adapt the program to the time, occasion, or season. Like the old colored preacher said, "I'm an enemy of monotony."
E. F. KOCH: I broadcast six days a week. My program is called "Prophecy Speaks"—a program designed to meet the spiritual needs of the people in this crisis hour. I have a theme song, an announcement of my evangelistic meetings, and a book for the month. The sermon is on prophecy and is confined to seven minutes. I like to open with a song that is appropriate to the topic, something to go with the talk in the presentation of the message.
C. W. TEEL: "The -Christian Home Hour" is the name of my program. In my evening broadcast I try to visualize the father and mother and the children. We start out with our theme, "Home, Sweet Horne." There's no place like home—a Christian home. Everybody wants a Christian home; even if the husband is not a Christian, he wants his wife and children to be, and he wants to live in a Christian home. A fifteen-minute broadcast is the best length of time, according to my experience.
R. A. TYSON: I conduct a Bible quiz program. I was giving studies to a man whose wife would not listen at first. But she stayed up all night one night to work on the questions in the Bible. quiz. I give a Bible to the winner in the quiz, and have interviews with those who win.
L. O. COON: I have a thirty-minute program. At the beginning I recite the poem "If radio's slim fingers . . . ," then have prayer and announcements. I announce myself as the preacher of the First Seventh-day Adventist church. My wife interviews me as the -Preacher of the Heart." On my half-hour program I use fourteen and a half minutes for my message. I cover the truths quite thoroughly in a short sermonet. I had forty or fifty visitors in the church one Sabbath because of the program. I fully believe that I must feel the message I am trying to give. I must be those people. I must make the Word of God live. In order to do this, I have taken the part of one of the apostles, or one of the shepherds at Christmas time, or of John the Baptist, and speak in the first person. I try to walk right out from between the covers of the Bible.
L. R. MANSELL: My method varies according to location. I use a different approach in rural areas from that in the Metropolitan area. I use the fifteen-minute broadcast, six programs a week. I would rather have two fifteen-minute broadcasts than one thirty-minute broadcast. My program consists of one third music, the announcements, and a short message of six or seven minutes. I make an announcement regarding the Bible course, and conduct the broadcast in conjunction with the evangelistic series, tying in the meetings with the radio. I do not believe in announcing our church identity, but this would be determined to a great extent by the location. Ordinarily I would say it would be safer not to announce the identity.
I like a quartet arrangement of music better than a single voice, and even prefer a quartet to a choir. Male voices are preferable to female voices. If you can get good, live music, have it, and feature the evangelistic singer. I like an organ background for prayer. The successful broadcast is the one that wins souls. It must be a dignified program.
KENNETH WOODS: I believe that the most successful type of broadcast is one that has a maximum of music and a minimum of preaching. Music is worship too, and makes it easier for folks to listen. The more people we can keep listening, the better. Emotion is tied in closely with the religion of Jesus Christ. Appeal that is made entirely to the head often fails.
In an experiment conducted in a city to appeal to the upper class no music was used. Not one single baptism resulted. Music has a definite place in winning souls, especially when one is trying to hold the attention of people over the air. Music baits the hook. The bored listener who is turning the dials will stop for a program having music, when he will not for a sermon. It is one way to pick up new listeners. Preaching of the Word should have a definite part; we must remember that we are preachers of the gospel.
SUMMARY: In answering the question, "What is the type of religious broadcast you think most successful?" the consensus seemed to be for a program fifteen minutes in length. Variety, timeliness, and good music are important. Preach the Word.
