This Week in Christian History: Pentecostal Revival, Black Church Founding, NRB
National Religious Broadcasters Founded - April 12, 1944
This week marks the anniversary of when the National Religious Broadcasters, which oversees the largest annual conference for Christian communications groups, was founded in a meeting held in Columbus, Ohio.
In September of that year, NRB would be ratified at a meeting in Chicago, Illinois and then in December officially incorporated. The organization was founded in response to efforts by mainline Protestants to limit evangelical radio programming.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
"And thus began a multi-year effort by NRB to build credibility for Evangelical broadcasters, to secure their fair share of the available public interest slots, and to overturn the ban on the purchase of radio airtime for religious broadcasting," noted NRB in a 2014 website entry.
"In 1949 that effort bore fruit as the newly formed ABC radio network reversed the ban on paid religious broadcasting, with the other networks following their lead. In a few short years, Evangelical radio broadcasters were again a dynamic and growing presence on major radio networks, with scores of new programs serving a vast national audience."
