HCJB partner opens radio station

13 SEPTEMBER, 2011

100 students are attending Africa Bible College University.

Liberia (MNN/HCJB) ― Young radio broadcasters are praying that God will use them to share the 

Gospel to their countrymen and beyond. It's a partnership between HCJB World Radio and Africa 

Bible College in Liberia. They're praying that a mountaintop will become the broadcasting site for 

a station run by Africa Bible College University (ABCU) in Yekepa, Liberia.

Alex Walker, a British HCJB Global missionary, recently concluded a module on the practical 

essentials of quality broadcasting for Liberian students on the campus. An agreement to broadcast 

from the mountain is not finalized with a cell company, so ABCU's communications students currently 

broadcast from the campus.

With help from radio trainer Joseph Kebbie, the school was granted a radio frequency just weeks after 

it had filed an online application with Liberia's government regulatory body. The licensing process can 

take months, or even years, in some African countries.

"From the mountaintop they could see parts of Guinea, Côte d'Ivoire and many miles of Liberian 

countryside," said Jeremy Maller, projects coordinator for HCJB Global's Sub-Saharan Africa Region.
"When we were ready for the first test broadcast, the students ... volunteered to sit behind the microphone 

and announce to a live audience that ABCU Radio is now ready to be heard," added Maller. "In the coming 

months, students will use the radio studios to improve their skills in radio production."

Some 100 students are enrolled at the school that reopened in 2008 after years of civil war in Liberia had 

devastated the campus. In July 1990 the war also forced the evacuation of staff from renowned international 

broadcaster ELWA after clashes on the station's campus between fighters of the National Patriotic Front of 

Liberia and government troops.

Staff returned and reopened the broadcasting and healthcare ministries in 1991 only to flee fighting in 

Monrovia again in April 1996. Missionaries and Liberian staff reinitiated ministries in 1997.

ELWA has partnered with HCJB Global and other broadcasters since 1985 in the World by Radio effort, 

making Christian broadcasts available in numerous languages that didn't yet have Gospel programming.
Further back in history, HCJB Global's French-language programming reached African listeners via 

international shortwave radio as well as medium wave radio. "Impact in Africa!" headlines an August 1968 

edition of the mission's magazine, "Call of the Andes." Segments of letters sent to the station accompany 

photos of Radio Station HCJB's African listeners. "Did you know that HCJB's French programs are being 

broadcast over 19 stations in Africa?" the article asked its readers.

Nine of the stations that aired Christian programs were in the Democratic Republic of Congo or Republic of 

Congo. HCJB Global's programs were also aired in Burkina Faso, Burundi, Central African Republic, 

Gabon, Liberia, Mauritius, Niger, Rwanda and Senegal.

 

SOURCE: HCJB partner opens radio station http://bit.ly/q8N0dz

Via Yimber Gaviria, Colombia