March Herald.indd - Lake Union Conference

Stanley Hill and Betty Ahnberg were “Uncle Dan” and
“Aunt Sue” to an entire generation of baby boomers
whose grandchildren now enjoy some of the original
programs on tape, CD, and the Web.
Spanish hosts, “Tio Daniel,” Thony Escotto, and “Tia Elena,”
Ileana Freeman-Gutierrez, reach millions of children in the
Latin world with “Tu Historia Preferida,” which began in
1985 and is aired on over 600 radio stations.
Russian Hosts, Richard Bayley, and
Tanya Belov, began broadcasting to
Russia in 1992. They quickly received
over 75,000 Bible lesson requests.
Chet Damron and Carole Pezet are “Uncle Dan” and
“Aunt Carole” to English-speaking children all over
the world. Your Story Hour has continuously aired
since 1949 and is heard on over 3,000 radio stations.
Most radio was live at that time.
Tape technology was still in its
infancy. There were other stations
in Southwestern Michigan that
wanted the program as well, but the
cast couldn’t repeat the program
at each station. So they made five
records of the live broadcast and
distributed them to the stations.
Soon it became evident that the
ministry team needed the ability to
go into production so they could
distribute recordings to stations
across the country. To do that they
needed a Magnacorder, a newly
developed tape machine. They were
expensive and scarce. So the team
prayed.
Virgil, who was also interested
in electronics, found a dealer in
Chicago and ordered a machine.
When he went to get it, he was told,
“I’m sorry, it’s not available.” Virgil
began a search of every dealer in
Chicago, but no Magnacorder could
be found.
Knowing that God didn’t make
mistakes, he didn’t give up. He
returned to the first dealer and
asked if they could search the
warehouse again. After a fruitless
search, they returned to the office
to find the very machine Virgil had
ordered. “You should have seen
the surprise on that man’s face,”
Virgil said. “He had no idea where
it came from, but I knew. God had
answered our prayers.”
David Applegate, son of Stan Applegate who engineered the
broadcasts for many years, is being coached on his lines at the
studio in Medina, Ohio.
They began to record the program
in Virgil’s basement with blankets
and mattresses hung around the
room for soundproofing. Next, they
moved to the back of the barber shop
with a drycleaners on one side and a
newspaper office on the other. They
were able to record at night until
the drycleaners started a night shift.
What they needed was a quiet place
of their own where they could record.
Again they prayed and
discovered an unused garage away
from the traffic and stores that they
could convert to a studio. Everyone
connected with the ministry
went to work. Some wrote
letters to friends. Marjorie
Hamp, office manager and
secretary-treasurer, sold her
collection of Life magazines for $50.
Others contributed, too, until the
little group could make the first
payment of $350. They now had a
studio of their own.
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