History
In
1925, a young pastor named Charles E. Fuller saw vast possibilities
in the new invention called “radio." He
soon resigned from his pastoral responsibilities to give his full
time to radio evangelism. By 1935, the voice of Dr. Fuller
had become a familiar sound in the Western states. On October
3, 1937 the Old Fashioned Revival Hour aired its first broadcast
over the 13 stations of the Mutual Network. Charles E. Fuller
soon established the Gospel Broadcasting Association to sponsor
his Old Fashioned Revival Hour (OFRH) program.
In 1941 Fuller’s
nationwide broadcast was moved from a Hollywood studio to the Long
Beach Municipal Auditorium where thousands of servicemen, enroute
to the Pacific during World War II, attended the broadcast. Dr.
Fuller and his OFRH musicians traveled throughout North America,
holding citywide rallies which were often broadcast live.
In 1943 the Fuller Evangelistic Foundation was organized and the
year 1947 marked the opening of the Fuller Theological seminary in
Pasadena, California, established to train evangelical Christian
pastors, missionaries and evangelists.
Fuller Evangelistic Foundation’s director of evangelism reported
1950 as “the most effective, in terms of number of souls saved.” As
the foundation expanded its outreach, the Old Fashioned Revival Hour
broadcast also increased its coverage.
By 1951 the OFRH was heard over the ABC radio network that circled
the globe through 650 radio stations. By 1955 one-million broadcast
transcriptions had been made.
Dr. Charles E. Fuller
and his associates of the Old Fashioned Revival Hour appeared in
the Long Beach Municipal Auditorium for the last time on January
12, 1958. Dr. Fuller then moved the program to a Hollywood recording
studio for a 30-minute broadcast. Dr. Fuller’s
last broadcast was December of 1968, and he went home to be with
the Lord that same year. While the Old Fashioned Revival Hour Broadcasts
have ended, their tremendous appeal continues to this day.
Click
here for a pictorial
history of the ministry of Charles Fuller |