After a decade of perseverance, Madagascar World Voice debuts

More than 10 years of trials and tribulations battered World Christian Broadcasting’s efforts to set up a radio antenna in Madagascar. 

The list of hindrances to the $12 million project included cyclones, manufacturing delays, vandalism and economic downturns, said the nonprofit’s president, Charles Caudill.

But workers with the international Christian shortwave broadcaster — supported by Churches of Christ and individual Christians — pushed past the discouragement and progressed in setting the generators, transmitters and antennas in working order on the island nation, east of Africa’s mainland. 

Finally, on March 27, Madagascar World Voice debuted on the airwaves, joining its sister station KNLS, which broadcasts faith-based programming from Anchor Point, Alaska. 

“It’s exciting to think about the opportunity we now have to let more people know that God loves and cares about them,” Caudill said.

Both stations utilize shortwave frequencies, used to send information long distances using a process called skywave or skip propagation. Radio waves are broadcast from an antenna and are reflected or refracted back to Earth from the ionosphere, allowing communication around the curvature of the planet. 

Madagascar World Voice broadcasts 13 hours a day in Arabic, English, Mandarin Chinese, Russian and Spanish. Its transmitters reach Africa, India and the Middle East, as well as most of Europe and the Americas. 

Combined with KNLS, which reaches Russia, China and the Pacific Rim, World Christian Broadcasting reaches a potential audience of 3 billion souls, Caudill said.

Each language service produces a daily, one-hour, magazine-style program with Gospel teaching segments, news features and music, — broadcast on radio and Internet. 

Caudill praised the work and perseverance of the nonprofit’s staff, including Kevin Chambers, vice president of engineering and the architect of Madagascar World Voice. Chambers’ “brilliance, perseverance, relationship building and hard, hard work have all been needed as the construction continued for those 10 years,” Caudill said.

WEBSITE:  www.worldchristian.org