Far East Broadcasting Company (FEBC) is an international Christian radio network.[1]
History
FEBC was established on December 20, 1945, months after the end of World War II, using an initial budget of US$1,000 to establish a nonprofit Christian shortwave radio organization. In April 1946, negotiations to start a radio station in Shanghai (before the Communist regime took over three years later) started, but the Nationalists opposed the plan, under the grounds that FEBC was a foreign operation. Once the negotiations in Shanghai failed, at the end of 1946, Robert Bowman, founder of FEBC, moved to Manila at the end of the year for the same purpose: setting up the first FEBC station. The licenses were granted for medium and shortwave stations on September 4, 1946, with construction work starting in October and payments ending on November 30. The first test broadcasts were held in Manila on February 23, 1948, becoming regular a few months later, on June 4 at 6pm. The station used the KZAS callsign.[2]
The company purchased KGEI in 1960, a station founded by GE in 1939. The station went off air in 1994 and had its equipment donated to another Christian missionary group for use in Liberia.[3]