Radio sample

Excerpt (3 minutes) from tape T4 in Collection 38, oral history interview with Virginia Latham, wife of Tabernacle musician and youth leader Lance Latham.

LATHAM: He started the first radio ministry that we ever had in Chicago. It was out over the station WHT, which was, of course, William Hale Thompson, who was the mayor of Chicago at the time. And every single Sunday from 12 noon until 12 midnight we...we continuously went over the radio. And it was divided into half-hour groups. Of course, the afternoon service was broadcast, but the other part of the time, outside of the afternoon service and the evening service, was divided up into half-hour periods. And they had different groups take part and carry them, like one for shut-ins, the other one was for...was for boys, another one was for girls, another one was for wom...business women and so on. I can't go into detail. But at the end of the evening service where he was evangelistic, crowds in that place that you could not seat. And he preached his heart out and saw hundreds of people come to Christ. After his ser...evening service, he would take a shower and then rush into the radio studio and then he started a...well, let me see (what could I call it?)...a request hour. People wro...called in and wanted certain songs played. And some of us who were in the musical groups got up there and sang them or quartets sang them or a trio sang them or there was a solo and so on. It was very interesting. And after that he had what they called a Back Home Hour from eleven to twelve. There he talked very personally to people. He had what they called radio drama. He'd dramatize Bible stories. And of course, every last one of them were evangelistic, geared to unsaved people and how to find Christ through the gospel of the grace of God. And scores of people came down in the cars that they had, a few of them, and street cars. And at 12 o'clock, when we were through at...in the radio studio, we came out and find a...found a crowd of people sitting there, waiting to talk to some of us. We led them to Christ. They had heard him preach. They heard the Back Home Hour and they sat there in tears. We...we led them to Christ. We helped them to see the Gospel and what to do. This was our ministry. It was wonderful. We did not know to where it was going to lead, but this is the way it went on every Sunday and every Sunday all along the way.