The Word of Truth
Dr. Bob Jones Sr., Program Speaker
Dr. Bob Jones Sr. (1883-1968) is not only one of the principal figures of American religious life
during the 20th century–and the founder, in 1927, of Bob Jones University–but is also among
the most important figures in the history of religious broadcasting.
Born in 1883, Jones was licensed to the ministry in 1898 and began his career as a circuit preacher and evangelist a year later. By 1903 he began to travel throughout the South as a crusade speaker and, in the 1910s, expanded his ministry to the North. By the 1920s, Bob Jones was a household name around the nation, second in prominence perhaps only to Billy Sunday.
During the early 1920s when radio was in its infancy, Jones was among the leaders in using the new medium for the gospel. The 1925 Bob Jones Crusade in Pittsburgh is attributed as the world's first remote-controlled religious broadcast, as well as the first broadcast to originate from an evangelistic crusade.
In 1927, the same year that network radio was launched in the United States, Bob Jones again was a pioneer in religious broadcasting by starting both a daily and weekly network program heard from New York to Alabama. Despite his responsibilities as a traveling evangelist and college administrator, Jones maintained his broadcast work uninterrupted for 35 years until 1962, when his health waned.
This calculates to more than 10,000 broadcasts, of which some 3,000 still survive and are still syndicated nationally to this day. These programs were not simply edited recordings of his sermons, but were recorded by him especially for radio. As such, they convey the folksy warmth and practicality that made Bob Jones Sr. beloved as the greatest 20th century evangelist of the American South.
In 1944, Bob Jones's stature in radio was such that he became a founder of National Religious Broadcasters. During the time Jones served as a director, NRB drafted a code of ethics which, in principle, remains in effect today.
What was then known as Bob Jones College added its first course in broadcasting in 1932. When the school moved in 1947 to Greenville, South Carolina, Bob Jones University became one of the first religious institutions to offer a degree in broadcasting. The institution launched its own radio station in 1949–which is still going strong today–and, during the 1950s, emerged as a pioneer in religious television by producing programs for NBC and ABC networks.
Over the past half-century, literally hundreds of Bob Jones University graduates have entered service, not only in religious broadcasting, but at radio and television stations and networks throughout the nation.