         
|
 
|
|
Professional Organizations Evangelicals responded to the challenge of being locked out by creating the National Religious Broadcasters in 1944. This newly created organization, under the leadership of James March took steps that would eventually allow evangelicals to dominate access to religious airtime. The first act of the newly created organization was to retain a Washington-based communications attorney. Second, they created a code of ethics which placed distance between themselves and certain broadcasters the liberal church traditions had explicitly labeled "radio racketers." Third, they petitioned the networks to reconsider their policies. Fourth, they lobbied the Federal Communications Commission for help in ameliorating the unequal distribution of air time. It didn't take too many years before the presence of the National Religious Broadcasters was felt in Washington. An important step toward expanding the influence of evangelical broadcasters occurred in 1956 when the NRB commenced to hold their annual meetings in Washington. Their annual Congressional Breakfast brings scores of dignitaries from Capitol Hill, and the annual Federal Communications Commission Luncheon usually finds most of the Commissioners at the head table. A former chairman of the FCC is legal counsel to NRB. Religious broadcasting in the U.S. now exists on a vastly larger scale than in any other nation. In fact, it exists on a scale beyond the recognition of most Americans. Further, religious broadcasting continues to experience a period of sustained growth. The National Religious Broadcasters has played a significant role in promoting and facilitating this growth. The National Religious Broadcasters homepage is a good resource for understanding how this organization functions. The page focuses on delivering valuable information to its member constituencies. At the time of this writing, for example, there is a large section of links with advise on how to meet the requirements to ready computers for the year 2000. Another segment provides practical guidlines for those organizations who would create a web page. The page also provides links to the web sites of many of NRBs constituent members. Aside from advertising a book commemorating the 50th anniversary of NRM (Air of Salvation by Mark Ward, Sr.), the page does not presently contain a great deal of information on the history of the organization. In the months just ahead, we expect to add manuscripts to this page that will examine the history of NRB. We have some manuscripts in hand and are presently searching for other materials we know about. We would welcome feedback from readers about materials that tell the story of the emerging of religious broadcasting including the NRB.
At the present time, the only other professional religious broadcasters organization that we
know about it Unda-USA. Founded in 1928, Unda-International is an international Catholic
association for radio and television broadcasters. The American affiliation was created
in 1948. The Unda-USA provides some
information about the organization. A major function of the organization appears to be
the holding of an annual meeting for Catholic broadcasters. We will include more information
about Unda-USA as it becomes available to us. Our searching has not identified a web site
for Unda-International. We would welcome any information that readers may have about this
organization. Links to Professional Organizations of Religious Broadcasters
|