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May, 1931. Station becomes VONA- -Voice of the North Atlantic. The International
Radio Convention assigned "VO" to all amateur and commercial radio in
Newfoundland. In 1932, as the commercial station was losing money and the
founder Pastor Harold Williams was transferred to pastor in the American
Mid-West. VONA was sold to local radio engineer and businessman, Oscar Hierlihy
(Author of the Radio Book of Newfoundland). The purchase agreement included a
contract to broadcast several hours of Seventh-day Adventist programs each
week. Though Religious broadcasts by Adventists are maintained, station
operates commercially.
Spring, 1933. Adventists re-initiate non-commercial religious broadcasting from
studios in the Church on Cookstown Road, St. John's as VOAC--Voice of the
Adventist Church. Broadcasts are limited to Saturday morning and Sunday
afternoons. The main programs include Bible lessons, music, health programs,
children's programs and the Church service. The home-made 25-watt transmitter
is located in the Church attic.
1938. The Newfoundland Government assigns new call letters VOAR. No change in
equipment or programming.
June 1946. A car knocks a transmission pole down, and Station Engineer/Director
Fred Bell is almost electrocuted by a power surge through the microphone he is
speaking into. The Mission decides to update safety features and replace the
homemade transmitter.
Spring, 1948. A new Gates transmitter is purchased and installed with new
studio equipment. Station Engineer /Director Fred Bell oversees studio
relocation to 106 Freshwater Road, St. John's, in the St. John’s Seventh-day
Adventist Academy building top floor. The new Newfoundland Government
Broadcasting License limits VOAR broadcasting to 11-hours/week.
Summer, 1948. The Newfoundland Referendum brings a majority vote for
Confederation with Canada.
1949. The former Dominion of Newfoundland becomes a Canadian Province on March
31st. VOAR applies to the Board of Broadcast Governors in Ottawa for a Canadian
Broadcast License. The license arrives in 1951 limiting VOAR power to
100-watts, but allowing unlimited broadcast hours. Broadcasts continue Sunday,
Wednesday and Saturday; 16-hours/week.
1966. New studio equipment is installed. No Station Manager is available so
area school teacher, Dick Kaiser assumes management of VOAR and oversees a
refitting of studios and new equipment upgrade in new location on the ground
floor of the Church. Kaiser operates the station for one year, then accepts a
position with Christian Record Braille Foundation in the United States.
Broadcasting is expanded to weekday 6:00 a.m. - 11:00 p.m., and Saturday a.m.
and Sunday p.m. broadcasts. New equipment with the transmitter eliminates need
for a full-time radio engineer on staff.
1973. CRTC license renewed. Limitations on broadcast hours removed. VOAR
initiates 16-hour daily broadcasts.
1982. ice storm destroys the steel antenna tower standing in the Seventh-day
Adventist Academy school yard on Merrymeeting Road. VOCM allows VOAR to use
their tower on Kenmount Road, although transmission is weak.
1991. VOAR relocates to new studios in Mount Pearl. VOAR builds its own
transmission tower. 10Kw service initiated from new tower facilities.
October 1995. SHARATHON '95 begins Operation Overnight to raise funds to
implement 24-hour service. Initial tests of overnight service using automated
tapes and satellite services begin November 11th, 1995.
October 1996. SHARATHON '96 Operation Overnight wraps up with enough support
from listeners to maintain regular 24-hour service at the One-Year Anniversary
of non-stop 24-hour Christian broadcasting. Using satellite feeds, automated
tapes, and syndicated programming VOAR turns on 24-hour service which continues
to the present time.
2001. VOAR has it’s own website, and listeners throughout the world can listen
on the Internet at www.voar.org
November 28, 2002. VOAR begins broadcasting Canada-wide on the home satellite
provider, Bell Express Vu (channel 988), reaching over 3 million homes nation
wide.
December 16, 2002. VOAR begins operating in Bay Roberts, NL on 95.9 FM
2003. VOAR begins transmitting in Marystown on 99.5 FM, Gander on 89.7 FM,
Botwood on 101.1 FM, Grand Falls/Windsor on 98.3 FM, Port Aux Basque on 99.9
FM, Corner Brook on 105.7 FM, Deer Lake on 102.1 FM, Lewisporte on 91.7 FM,
Happy Valley - Goose Bay on 101.9 FM, Springdale on 103.3 FM and in
Wabush/Labrador City on 102.5 FM.
"I think it was November, 1929 that Station B.S.L. 'Bible Study League' went on
the air in St. John’s. I had gone to Auburn, New York and helped build the
station. The Newfoundland Government would have charged us $10,000.00 Import
Duty but after a personal visit with the Minister of Import he said he would
let it come in free as ‘So much wire, this and that’ instead of a radio
station. It came in by ship one day and I had it put together and on the air
that night. We had the radio towers up and all such things ready before it got
there. We put on a program unannounced just to try the station out. People in
Bay Roberts heard it clearly. 125 People called me on the telephone during and
right after the broadcast. Beginning with the Governor, Premier, every member
of Parliament and other officials, they kept the line ‘hot’."--Harold N.
Williams, aged 89, in a letter dated June 7, 1979.
"We started in the fall of 1929. I had come to St. John’s
from Port Aux Basques to finish school, I’d been away at Oshawa the year
before. Pastor Williams had the idea for a radio station, and he’d been in
touch with George Stevens, a radio engineer in New York. George Stevens sent
him a set of plans for a transmitter, and he was looking for volunteers to
build it. I think that all the boys in Grade 10 and 11 at the [Seventh-day
Adventist] Academy volunteered.
We started it in the living room of the manse (ed.note: the
was a house at 106 Freshwater Rd.) He couldn’t find some of the parts locally,
so he cabled Mr. Stevens, and he suggested substitutes. It was some time in the
fall that we first went on the air, but the transmitter kept breaking down, and
there was a lot of static.
Pastor Williams’ idea was to start a commercial station that
would pay for itself with advertizing. There wasn’t a commercial station in
Newfoundland at that time, but we couldn’t sell advertising until we could put
it on the air on schedule, every day, so that winter George Stevens came up on
the boat to help us out. He stayed three years.
Mr. Stevens rented a house on Pennywell Road, near Linscott
Street, and we took the transmitter over there in Pastor Williams’ car. Stevens
and I took it apart in a bedroom and put it back together again, properly. He
really knew his stuff. He brought some parts with him, but good radio parts
were scarce that year, [1930] even in New York, so he designed new circuits,
and I must have wound about five miles of copper wire into coils of various
kinds." --William Moyst in a VOAR interview, 1977.
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