Originating as a regular radio broadcast on Sunday mornings in Southern California in the mid-1930’s, the broadcast became known as the “This Is Your Bible” program in the 1950’s. In the 1970’s it was transitioned into a half hour TV program on Sunday afternoons. Through the support of the Southern California ecclesias, the TV programs were produced, filmed and broadcast through an expensive process that involved renting a studio, hiring a director and professional staff.
With the advent of cable networks in the 1980’s, the Radio-TV Committee of Southern California found a new and low cost way to carry on with television broadcasting by taking advantage of the Public Access channels and producing their own programs. After renting a TV studio for the day, a set was built, and a professional director led the five speakers through their sessions. The Public Access station enabled the committee to use free air time, but still the production costs were considerable for the studio equipment and hired staff.
Partnering with Bro. Jeff Wallace of the Boston ecclesia in the 1990’s, a new approach was put together and taping sessions were set up to produce 26 programs each over a long weekend. The process was repeated in Houston, Pittsburgh, Detroit, Toronto, Boston and Los Angeles. By purchasing advanced editing equipment, now the programs could be assembled and edited at home instead of hiring an expensive studio to do it.
A few years later the Radio-TV Committee of Southern California changed its name to the Christadelphian Preaching Committee of Southern California. In the interest of cutting television production costs even further and yet retaining control over the finished product, the committee began using a studio at Rio Hondo College. By staffing the entire crew with Christadelphians, and utilizing Bro. Fred Reister as director, costs were dropped to the bare minimum. Bro. Fred has extensive experience working as the director for the Los Angeles ABC Eyewitness News team, and was able to train the crew to produce a very professional series of programs. Donations from the Southern California Ecclesias enabled the Committee to purchase a high quality editing system, studio camera, and other systems to minimize the costs associated with renting equipment and studios.
The Public Access cable channels are available for broadcasting “This Is Your Bible” programs throughout the United States. Please contact Bro. Bruce Andrews at PapaAndy@juno.com for details to enable you to participate.
These last days call for more effort on our part to interest our friends and neighbors into heeding Christ’s call for repentance and salvation.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One