During the war, HCJB eagerly sought people in Ecuador and from around the world to come to the station to produce programs in new languages.
For some languages, however, the immediate and most viable solution was sending programs recorded on transcription discs—acetate-coated aluminum discs that were much larger than normal records.
By the end of 1945, Radio Station HCJB was airing live and recorded programs in 14 languages.
1931 Spanish, English
1941 Swedish, Russian, Quichua
1942 Dutch, French
1944 Arabic, Czech, Greek, Italian, Portuguese, Yiddish
1945 German
Followed by:
1948 Bohemian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Urdu
By 1950, the mission decided to refocus efforts on major languages and began recruiting additional staff to come to Quito to produce more hours per language, increase the quality of the programs, and engage in better listener follow-up.
Reaching Regions Beyond
Clarence Jones firmly believed that radio program producers should be located as close to the audience as possible. Even though people around the world could hear HCJB's shortwave broadcasts from Ecuador, the airways would only get more crowded—making it harder for people to receive a clear signal.
The mission remained determined to start missionary radio stations in all parts of the world. HCJB looked to expand into Europe, Africa, Asia and other parts of Latin America with radio. But God often had other plans.
One of the first projects pursued was a "Voice of Europe" broadcast site—to reach the continent with a stronger signal.
In 1944, Clarence Jones proposed a partnership with the Sudan Interior Mission (SIM) for the "Voice of Africa." HCJB offered to send Clarence Jones and engineer Clarence Moore for two years to help develop a station in Ethiopia or Liberia. HCJB only had 15 missionaries at that time.
In 1945, the mission pursued the "Voice of Iberia"—a station in Spain (or Morocco) to reach the Iberian Peninsula and North Africa.
Jones would later propose doing a radio survey of Asia. However after some consideration, Clarence spent 5 months traveling to 21 Latin American countries, identifying potential partners and possible locations for new stations. The survey led HCJB to create the Panamerican Christian Network to share radio programs throughout Latin America.
Next: 1949 - The Bible Institute of the Air.