1954-1962
The Baptist Hour began in 1938 when Samuel Franklin Lowe urged the Southern Baptist Convention, meeting in Richmond, Virginia, to explore the possibilities of religious broadcasting. At that meeting, Lowe was appointed chairman of a seven-member committee charged with making the survey. In 1939, at Oklahoma City, the survey group recommended to the Convention that a committee be continued to make a study of the best methods of religious broadcasting and that the committee be empowered to raise money through private donations to promote Baptist broadcasts. With an operating fund of $12,000 from the Sunday School Board, the committee set in motion plans for a Baptist Hour program. The plans were approved at the 1940 convention in Baltimore.
The first 13-week Baptist Hour series began in January, 1941. Monroe Elmon Dodd delivered the first message on the half-hour evangelistic program. The series was carried by 17 stations in 11 states. Lowe was made director of the Radio Committee at the 1942 SBC Convention in San Antonio. The Baptist Hour came of age at the 1946 convention in Miami, Florida. The name “Radio Committee” was replaced by the name “Radio Commission,” and the commission was recognized as an agency of the Convention, receiving a direct and proportionate share of Cooperative Program receipts. October 2, 1949, the full-time Baptist Hour aired on over 120 stations of the American Broadcasting Company. However, the network schedule was terminated in June, 1950, for lack of funds.
The programs were offered transcribed to independent radio stations, and 180 stations scheduled the broadcasts. Time was purchased on 50 other stations. Associate director Dupree Jordan was made acting director following the death of S. F. Lowe on October 4, 1952. The Commission elected Paul M. Stevens director in August, 1953, and he served until his retirement in 1979. In 1958, Herschel H. Hobbs, pastor of First Baptist Church Oklahoma City, became the regular preacher for the program. When he retired in 1976, he was succeeded by Frank Pollard, pastor of First Baptist Church in San Antonio, Texas. By 1980, the Baptist Hour was broadcast from more than 400 radio stations. The Baptist Hour celebrated its 50th anniversary in January, 1991. In the mid-1990s, the Baptist Hour moved to television, as the Radio and Television Commission expanded it media reach. Frank Pollard became the primary speaker for the television version of the Baptist Hour. In 1995 the Southern Baptist Convention adopted the Covenant for a New Century proposal which called for the dissolution of the RTVC. All of the radio and television programs were transferred and assigned to the North American Mission Board which did not continue the Baptist Hour or other radio programing.
Most sermons in this presentation were scanned from texts published in the RTVC’s magazine The Beam. Other items were typescripts sent to the Historical Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention. The documents are any word searchable. The Baptist Hour Sermon Collection is located at the Southern Baptist Historical Library and Archives.
Audio recordings of the Baptist Hour, years 1941-1958, are available here.
