Herald of Truth Magazine: Winter Herald of Truth
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Abilene Christian University Digital Commons @ ACU Herald of Truth Documents Herald of Truth Records Winter 2-4-1968 Herald of Truth Magazine: Winter Herald of Truth Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.acu.edu/hot_docs Recommended Citation Herald of Truth, "Herald of Truth Magazine: Winter" (1968). Herald of Truth Documents. Paper 198. http://digitalcommons.acu.edu/hot_docs/198 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Herald of Truth Records at Digital Commons @ ACU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Herald of Truth Documents by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ ACU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. WINTER1S6B Heraldof Truth IVIA.GA.Z IN E "SPEAKER'SCORNER" by John Allen Chalk . The mental images are as sharp today as the morning Jame s Nichols and I walked into Mr. Ed Stanley's office more than a year ago. New York's crisp fall air outside matched the atmosphere in the highly important Public Affairs Department of NBC Radio and Television Network s. Fortunately , our advertising agency had properl y prepar ed Mr. Stanley for our visit by providing all kinds of background information on the Herald of Truth prior to our visit. As a result, our meeting that day took but few minutes to become meaningful. This was information time, cultivation time, as Mr. Stanley poked beneath the surface with some choice questions aimed at both of us. Our agency continued this cultivation following our first visit. Through many months of contact, the opportunity for Herald of Truth radio to be aired by NBC ripened. My second visit with Mr. Stanley at NBC also occurred in the company of James Nichols. More material, including radio sermons, Herald of Tru th magazines, and articles relative to churches of Christ generally, preceded even this second visit. At this meeting we received our first "word" that Herald of Truth could begin anticipating a spot in NBC's religious pro gramming. And now, more than a year after my first visit with network officials and after countless efforts by our agency, the word has come! We are going on NBC Radio! I immediately rememb ered a group of dedicated Christian s, my dearest personal friends, in Cookeville, Tenn essee, who had prayed about this development. Brethren all over the country, in fact, had prayed for this opportunity . The announce ment meant answered prayers to all of us. The opportunity to broadcast the gospel of Christ on NBC demands our very best efforts. This network spells "excellence," and we are committed to the best possible, the most exciting and provocati ve, present ation of Jesus Christ as God's answer for modern man. NBC also spells "competence"; and Herald of Truth's opportunity to use the facilities of this network has come largely because the Highland elders accepted the task of mass communicating the gospel fifteen years ago and have stayed with the job, because a small group of dedicated men have given themselves to this difficult task , and because thousands of congregations and individuals have supported repeatedly our growing efforts. This opportunity propels us to the center of the stage in this countr y's real drama. NBC means that Herald of Truth will speak to America with the strongest voice in the program's fifteen-year history. This opportunity is the challenge of making Christ's sovereignty explicit, Christ's promises warm, and Christ's life attractive to a nation desperately in search of moral and spiritual direction. Herald of Truth Magazine is publi shed quarterly by Highland Chu rch of Chri st, Box 2439, Ab ilene, Texas 79604, in th e int erest of wo rld wide televis ion and radi o evangeli sm and the Herald of Truth prog rams. This magazine wi ll be mai led free to th ose makin g a contr ibuti on to th is effor t. w. F. Cawyer , Editor • Vo lum e XV, No 4 Seco nd Class Postage Paid at Abilene , Texas 79604 A well-known columnist once re Years ago, during the infant stages is not the largest of the radio networks The National Broadcasting Com marked that the three most unmistak of Herald of Truth, the producers of on the basis of number-of-affiliates, its pany is replacing one of its six religious able man-made sounds in the world the program often said, "Someday we'll stations are generally "stronger" sta programs with a "new" program. were the tolling of Big Ben in London, be on NBC. ... " At times it seemed tions (in the 5-to-50,000-watt-cover A Herald of Truth. the clang of a San Francisco cable car, like a feat roughly equivalent to climb age range) in the more highly popu Coast-to-coast, on the NBC radio and the NBC chimes. ing Mount Everest or walking around lated areas. network, effective February 4, 1968, Certainly no other sound-signature the world. In either case the journey In short, we would reach more 8: 30 a.m. in each time zone. has become so familiar to millions of could be made only a step at a time, people at less cost in all the major The determination of the elders at radio listeners as the "bong-bong-bong" and in our case no less than the entire cities and towns across the country, Highland Church of Christ, and the that has concluded every program on world was our objective. while freeing many Herald of Truth unflagging support of sister congrega the National Broadcasting Company Step by step, day by day, station by staff workers to turn their time and tions and interested individuals around for the past 40 years. station, Herald of Truth continued on efforts to other areas of thrust in our the world have made it possible. Through the so-called Golden Days its way, amassing schedules on some ultimate goal to saturate the world with Another giant step forward has been of Radio to the present time, the list 800 radio stations across the United the gospel of Christ! If we have taken made on the journey to preach Christ of radio programs and personalities States and overseas, though time on the slow, laborious, uphill steps during to the world. that have paraded across the NBC NBC still remained out of reach. Re the past 15 years, now we must take chain reads like a complete and incom peated requests by the agency met with the giant strides, wearing seven-league parable roll call of everybody that was polite "No's" and "Maybe later's"; but boots, in order for every square foot of There are many ways you can help to anybody in the fields of entertainment, hope never faded, and the challenge six continents to be a place where the guarantee the success and efjectiveness news, special events, and public inter never lost its edge. Word of God is heard! of Herald of Truth on the NBC Radio est broadcasting. Why pursue NBC when Herald of In recent months renewed assaults Network. In terms of prestige and professional Truth is broadcast on radio stations were made on the seemingly impene First of all: be sure to listen. Tell recognition, being on NBC means that in 46 states? Time on the National trable paneled offices at Rockefeller your friends. Spread the word wherever this program has added a vital com Broadcasting Company represents Plaza, the New York headquarters of possible. munications link in a highly competi many advantages: it being the oldest the National Broadcasting Company. Second, let the NBC radio station in tive field where demands for time are network, its affiliates are usually the Week after week, month after month, your city, or the one you listen to, hear enormous and the time itself is de number- one stations in their commu the agency talked, coaxed, talked, from you. Station managers and pro manding. nities in terms of prestige, long-estab wrote letters, talked, and kept Herald gram directors are vitally infiuenced Network policy allocated time for lished audience loyalties, ratings, and of Truth on the minds of NBC execu by audience response. When they hear six religious programs each week. outstanding program adjacencies; be tives, if not on their schedules. favorable comments about a program, Those selected by the network were ing a strong promotional network, it Continuing efforts were exerted to they are naturally pleased. A surge of mostly old and well-established shows lends advertising and on-the-air sup improve the program itself- to make complimentary mail and phone calls is "EVERYBODYTHAT'S - some with as much as 25-year ten port to its programs; and while NBC the gospel messages clear, understand one of the best ways to make sure the ure in the same time periods every able, meaningful, and moving, not program continues and receives the full Sunday. The waiting list grows longer simply to the brotherhood alone, but support of local network affiliates. ANYBODY... " every year. to the enormous untapped numbers of Write and call your NBC radio sta Understandably, the network could non-church people - the uninformed, tion when you hear a Herald of Truth be choosy about programs that even the indifferent, the backsliders, the ag in February . .. and if the station does got to the stage of being considered. nostics, the atheists. We had to make not carry the program for any reason, Requirements were high: proved ef sure we were not talking to ourselves, let them hear from you, too. fectiveness; sizable audience interest but were - in fact - presenting the and response; outstanding production most effective story of Christ in the elements such as format, sound qual most dramatic use of the broadcast ity, good speakers, good music; over media in the history of modern-day all program content.