nineteen hundred and forty-six - Amazon Web Services

PROCEEDINGS 11
f. Our pastors, many of whom serve small quarter-time churches are
strengthened and encouraged for their tasks by the renewed sense of fellowship
with our great Baptist hosts and with our God, as they often write us.
III. THE SOUTHERN RELIGIOUS RADIO CONFERENCE
When Southern Baptists asked the stations to carry the Baptist Hour for
six months in 1945, station management, though expressing appreciation of
the program, advised us that they cannot afford to carry so large amount of
broadcasting by one denomination when no other denominations are on the
stations in such broadcasts. They insisted that if it could be arranged for
other leading denominations of the South to alternate with Baptists there
would be no embarrassment to the stations for Baptists to broadcast the Baptist
Hour for six months in the year. For this reason, the Baptist Radio Committee
has entered into the Southern Religious Radio Conference which is composed
of the radio committees of the Presbyterian Church in the United States
and of a special committee of the Methodist groups in the South. Other Southern
religious groups may be admitted to membership.
1. Constitution and By-Laws
In the Constitution and By-Laws of the Southern Religious Radio Conference
the interests of the Radio Committee and of Southern Baptists are
protected, as follows:
(1) The purpose of the Conference is limited to the task of arranging for
the various members of the religious groups in the conference to be on a southwide
network as is set forth in Article I of the Constitution, which reads:
"The objective shall be to attempt to solve the traffic problem in
evangelical broadcasting over Southern independent networks in
such a manner as to avoid embarrassment to radio management"
by two or more denominational groups which we represent requesting
the same broadcasting time, and further to seek by way
of cooperation to present the best possible independent religious
network program."
(2) Baptists in connection with the Conference are not limiting the amount
of time they will have on the air as is specified in Article IV of the Constitution,
which reads:
"If and when -the total network broadcasting time by all cooperating
groups becomes greater than one independent Southern
network can provide, the Conference may seek to arrange for
another such independent Southern network, and thus supply the
total radio demands of the cooperating groups."
(3) The Baptist program on such network shall remain distinctively the
Baptist Hour, as is set forth in Article V of the Constitution, which reads, as
follows:
"Each cooperating group shall be free to present Bible Truths
positively and constructively as interpreted by its own group in
accordance with the ethics of good broadcasting."
It is a fact that increasingly radio networks of the nation and local stations
are dealing only with cooperating religious groups in the matter of allotting
time for religious broadcasts on the stations and networks. For this reason,
it is of tremendous advantage that Southern Baptists are in such a Southern
conference both from the standpoint of the stations and also from the
standpoint of Southern Baptist broadcasting.
(4) It is also true that Southern Baptists can honorably withdraw from
the Southern Religious Radio Conference, as is stipulated in Article III of the
Constitution, which reads:
"Any denomination may withdraw from the Conference at any
time, provided it has satisfied all commitments for the programs
to the cooperating stations in the network."
Our Baptist people can rest assured that the Radio Committee has not and
will not enter into any commitment in connection with the Southern Religious
Radio Conference which will not protect and advance the interests of Southern
Baptists in the field of broadcasting. It appears now that such cooperation
offers distinctive advantages to all the cooperating groups.