Religious programs were part of the broadcast schedules of many of the country’s first radio stations. Locally, one of the oldest continuous radio broadcasts was the weekly program from the Wheeler Rescue Mission (now ). The Sunday night program aired on WFBM (predecessor to ) from 1925 to 1989. Another long-running broadcast on WFBM was the “Christian Men’s Builders’ Hour” from the Third Christian Church, which aired from 1926 through 1955. The of Indianapolis was a mainstay on radio; its broadcasts originated through the facilities of WLW, Cincinnati, and were fed to the Mutual Radio Network.
Religious programs have been part of the local television schedule since the 1950s. While most programs aired on Sunday mornings, Channel 8 featured “Chapel Door” each weekday morning until 1969. Also, paid specials, such as those that evangelist Billy Graham hosted occasionally replaced network fare on the major commercial stations.
The first local radio station to adopt a religious format was (1500 AM) in 1964. Two other AM stations—WNTS (1590 AM) and (950 AM)—abandoned traditional formats in favor of religion in the late 1970s. These smaller AM stations faced setbacks due to increasing costs and decreasing advertising revenues as FM stations became more popular. WBRI brought religious programming to FM in 1980 when it created WXIR from the former WART, Plainfield (98.3 FM). WGRT (107.1 FM in Danville, then 810 AM) tried a gospel music format in the early and mid-1980s. Most other stations have limited religious music and programming to Sundays.
The metropolitan area’s first religious television station was WHMB, Channel 40, which broadcasts from nearby in . In 1972, when South Bend evangelist Lester Sumrall purchased this UHF outlet it was bankrupt; advertising generated by old network reruns and children’s shows helped Sumrall support his television ministry. In 1987 California-based Trinity Broadcasting put WCLJ, Channel 42, on the air.
*Note: This entry is from the original print edition of the Encyclopedia of Indianapolis (1994). We seek an individual with knowledge of this topic to update this entry.
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