80 Years of Communicating the Good News

2026 marks 80 years of FEBC International communicating Christ to the world by radio and media. For eight decades, the life-giving message of the gospel has been announced to hundreds of millions of listeners, and this year marks another milestone towards the vision: a day when all peoples have heard the good news of Jesus Christ and responded in faith. 

Thanks to faithful friends like you, FEBC has grown and spread from one station in Shanghai, China, to hundreds of stations, partners, and media centres around the world. In the wake of World War II, three Christian friends reimagined the Great Commission and the use of technology to reach the lost and the distant peoples of the Far East.  

Bob Bowman, John Broger, and Reverend William Roberts first incorporated the Far East Broadcasting Company in late 1945. With one goal: to broadcast Christ to the world by radio, they followed the Lord’s leading, and by faith began building this innovative new mission. 

I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go;
I will counsel you with my loving eye on you.

Psalm 32:8

1946 was a year of building a team and support. The first FM station went to air in Shanghai, China, in early 1947. But by 1948, the rise of Communism forced FEBC out, and an alternative centre was established in the Philippines.

From Manila, FEBC was back on-air, now with international broadcasts. Using shortwave radio to China, programmes covered not just one city, but most of the communist nation. Hope-filled Christian outreach and discipleship broadcasting sustained many throughout the Mao years. Over the next four decades, FEBC’s signals and programs were expanded on AM and FM to Southeast Asia, Russia, Mongolia, and India. FEBC’s sister organization, FEBA, broadcasts programs in Africa and the Arab world.  

Today, FEBC’s outreach and discipleship programs are available worldwide in over 155 languages, to most of the world’s distant, least reached, and persecuted peoples. In 2024, we received 148 million listener responses, many attesting to newfound hope and faith.  

This is why FEBC was launched, and why we must press on in faith, hope, and love: Until all have heard. Much has changed since 1945, but your generous prayers and support sustain the mission, and the vision remains unchanged: to inspire people to follow Jesus Christ. 

Until all have heard.