FEBA Radio at 53!

As FEBA turns 53, we celebrate all that has been achieved for the Kingdom of God – and recognize how God used us over the years to touch millions of lives.

In the beginning...

At the close of World War II, Robert Bowman, Bill Roberts and John Broger were burdened to communicate the Gospel of Jesus Christ at the ends of the earth. They prayed and sought the direction from the Lord, for to reach millions of people most effectively, they needed guidance on how to do this most cost effectively. It is not surprising that they turned to radio as a reliable platform to take the Gospel to the least reached communities of the world. With very little resources in hand, they established a non-profit and non-commercial organization, the Far East Broadcasting Company (FEBC) on 20 December 1945. The first broadcasts were designated ‘KZAS’ and later ‘DZAS’ with the first official broadcasts reaching China, in June 1948.

One of FEBC’s primary focal points was India. The work originated in the 1950’s in collaboration with the Evangelical Radio Fellowship of India [ERFI] and the Far East Broadcasting Company (FEBC) Manila. In 1956, the first broadcast in two languages were beamed to India from FEBC Manila.

In 1959, a small British group of supporters of the Far East Broadcasting Company, took up the  challenge  of fund-raising for broadcasts to India from the Seychelles. Taking on the project as FEBA (Far East Broadcasting Associates), Douglas Malton, (now President of FEBA in the UK), John Wheatley and Malcolm Fidge led the funding and construction of a new radio station on a mountain-side at Anse Etoile. A distinct feature of the station were the antenna masts and aerials constructed around a coral reef, 4,000ft into the waters on ocean floor! At first tapes of evangelical messages were sent by sea from the UK, Australia and the USA, for broadcasting by FEBA’s  first missionary radio station on the Seychelles.

Due to land reclamation by the government, FEBA Radio was asked to vacate the transmittion station to a different location. The FEBA Task Group in the U.K. worked hard   to find suitable locations from which to broadcast our programmes through high power transmitters. This dream  was realized when on 30th March 2003 FEBA moved from the shortwave transmission site in the, Seychelles to the various agencies taking FEBA’s broadcasts in 60 langauges (in addition to those already broadcast by FEBC) to listeners   in the Far East, Asia, Middle East and Africa.

 Read More about FEBA History