A 1936 truck was outfitted with a portable transmitter, generator and loudspeakers to "broadcast" the gospel to all within range.

Concerned for safety, Clarence Jones managed to get a permit signed by the president of Ecuador, giving them permission to broadcast freely for any public place throughout the country.

Form the beginning, Ecuadorian pastor played an Integral role in the sound truck ministry. C&MA missionaries D.S. Clark and Reuben Larson mentored many of these leaders on evangelism.

Few people along that route had ever seen a radio. A specially-built transmitter broadcast musical records played on a Victrola or the live trombone music of Clarence Jones. Crowds gathered around HCJB's boxcar and missionaries handed out tracts and portions of Scripture.

As D.S. Clark demonstrated the marvel of radio, he shared the marvelous story of Jesus to thousands of curious people..

Engineer Victoriano Salvador designed a 250-watt transmitter using parts of the original transmitter. However, as a devout Catholic, Victoriano refused to actually build it since HCJB was an evangelical radio station.

Clarence became actively involved in building the redesigned transmitter, which they nicknamed “the Voice of Quito.”

Clarence’s wife Katherine was due to give birth to their third child in December. So, Katherine and their two daughters remained in Chicago until the spring of 1932.

This letter written from Clarence to his family at the end of 1931 contains the only known original account of the first broadcast.

Francisco Cruz was one of the first Ecuadorians to join the staff. Cruz was station manager for many years. Announcers Raul Cedeño and Luis Fernando Ayora became familiar voices to listeners. Local musicians and singers were an integral part of radio programming. And Victoriano Salvador had the essential task of keeping the station on the air.

In Quito all the missionary families came to "La Quinta Corston" to celebrate Christmas together.

That evening a smaller group gathered in the Jones’ sitting room radio studio: Pablo Williams, Edna Figg, Eric and Ann Williams, Stuart and Erma Clark, Reuben and Grace Larson, and Clarence Jones. Together these people gave birth to the first program on Radio Station HCJB.

Listen to the complete story for this episode.

Clarence had a deep appreciation for classical music. He had studied music at the Chicago Conservatory and also played first chair trombone in the prestigious Chicago Symphony.

Clarence realized that the radio station needed to provide a wide variety of musical programming. Local groups were invited to the station to perform traditional Ecuadorian music. In later years, HCJB recorded many of these sessions, creating an extensive archive of Ecuador’s musical heritage.

The formal sitting room was used as the original HCJB radio studio. The adjoining enclosed porch was converted into the control "room". Jones cut an opening through the thick adobe wall between the two rooms and installed a single pane of glass to make it more soundproof.

The studio controls consisted initially of two simple switches, one for the record player and the Other for the single microphone.

The experimental transmitter however was rather temperamental. The day before HCJB’s first scheduled broadcast, a mercury vapor rectifier tube burnt out and they had no more spares left.

Listen to the complete story for this episode.

Clarence also opened the Quito Radio Agency to sell and repair radios. Jones had planned on building radios that could be sold to the public at a more attractive price. However HCJB would not actually design and build those inexpensive radios until 1949.

The 85 ft. eucalyptus poles soon arrived at Quinta Corston. Two holes for the poles were dug 200 feet apart. They attached pulleys to the tops of the poles and quickly hoisted them up into place.

In their haste however, they found themselves left with a greater problem. How were they now going to get the antenna to the top of these   85 ft. poles?

Pedro, the gardener’s son offered them a solution. For one sucre, he placed a rope between his teeth and shimmied up to the top of each pole. Pedro threaded the rope through the pulley, allowing the simple wire antenna to be hoisted up into the air.

On the Quinta Corston property was an old sheep shed that was essentially just two mud walls and a roof. Jones and a helper closed in the open sides, added windows, poured a concrete floor and whitewashed the whole building.

Clarence told of a time when he was looking around the sheep shed. He thought about the successful ministry he had left in Chicago and was discouraged by the humbleness of the whole station. Clarence cried out to God asking, "why?" The answer that came was, "Can you think of a better place to broadcast about the Lamb of God than from a sheep shed?"

As the Larsons reputation for honesty grew, they distributed salt, delivered mail and bought gold for the Ecuadorian government. Reuben also oversaw the maintenance of local schools and trails in the area.

In 1930 Clarence Jones traveled out to Dos Ríos where he filmed D.S. Clark trading firearms and ammunition for gold. This difficult journey into the jungle (nine days) gave Clarence the inspiration to purchase an airplane for missionary aviation.

The movie introduced the people and country of Ecuador to audiences across the United States. The film also introduced to many the letters HCJB - Heralding Christ Jesus’  Blessings.

But HCJB was not the first to broadcast via radio in Ecuador. In 1925, Carlos Cordovéz, an electrical engineer and inventor, made the very first experimental radio broadcast in Ecuador. From his amateur station “ el Prado” in Riobamba, Cordovéz made a two-hour broadcast each Thursday night from 1929 until 1939

The Larson’s were actively involved the founding of HCJB and gave many early HCJB gospel radio programs in Spanish.

The jungle climate was hard on Grace’s health and she was moved to Quito. For Several years Reuben split time between the jungle station and Quito. In 1938, Reuben and Grace joined HCJB full time. Reuben was on the board of trustees, co-director of the radio station for many years and also served briefly as president of the organization.

The Chicago Gospel Tabernacle was closed after little more than a decade of ministry. But Paul Rader inspired and mentored many young people, leaving an eternal legacy of ministry.

Missionaries from many different missions joined in construction of Hospital Vozandes del Oriente, which was completed in 1958. The radio ministry "Back to the Bible" raised much of the funds to build the hospital.

Nurse Luz María Cardenas checks vital signs of a patient at the hospital. Jungle patients can require unique medical care, from snakebites to injuries caused by using explosives to catch fish in rivers.

In 1961, a polio epidemic occured among the Waoroni, resulting in immediate action by HCJB doctors and nurses, and thus saving many lives.

Nate shared his vision for a clinic or hospital in Shell with Dr. Ev Fuller in early 1950. Dr. Fuller immediately realized that this was what God wanted him to do. Before long he and Nate had built a small clinic and Jim Elliot did the electrical wiring.

Throughout the hospital, chaplains like Pastor Gustavo Molina visit and pray with patients. Gustavo began ministering at the hospital in 1958. He prays each morning that God would show him whom he should help lead to the Lord. As a result, Gustavo has helped bring eternal spiritual healing to thousands of patients and their families.

Clarence and Katherine Jones experienced the same sorrow when their daughter Elizabeth Pearl died just two days after birth.

These personal losses prompted Clarence and Reuben to seek medical staff for a clinic to better care for the medical needs of HCJB’s missionaries and Ecuadorian staff.

A nursing school was opened at the hospital in 1956. Ecuadorian doctors and surgeons were given practical medical training as well.

In 1978, Hospital Vozandes-Quito began formally training medical students from the Catholic University in Cuenca. Three other universities now send students to the hospital’s medical residency program.

Dr. Carlos Andrade Marín (at left) had been the doctor to the Jones family many years earlier. Dr. Marín served on the advisory board of the hospital and was also the Mayor of Quito.

The hospital was built largely with funds given by listeners to the “Morning Cheer” radio program hosted by George Palmer (at center). George asked that it be named “Rimmer Memorial Hospital” to honor Harry Rimmer who had raised funds to establish the indigenous clinic.

Land for the hospital was purchased in 1953. Materials for it came from countries around the world. The hospital was officially opened in 1955. During the first year around 1,000 inpatients and 10,000 outpatients were treated, and there were 255 births.

The hospital began extensive renovation in 1987 and was greatly expanded. In 1996, Hospital Vozandes-Quito was rededicated “To the glory of God and to the service of Ecuador.”

Hospital Vozandes-Quito now serves around 160,000 patients a year.

This first patient came to the clinic suffering from severe amoebic dysentery.

Dr. Paul Roberts was quickly burdened with the need for a modern fully-equipped hospital. That dream became Hospital Vozandes-Quito.

His wife Barbara, with help from other missionary women, started a Saturday kids' Bible club at the clinic. A small church was also started at the clinic. These two ministries were the beginnings of the lñaquito Evangelical Church.

The second medical clinic was part of HCJB’s indigenous hostel on the Pan American Highway at 10 de Agosto y Carondolet. For one sucre, indigenous guests at the hostel had a place to spend the night, hot water and soap.

At that time, Ecuador’s indigenous people had very little access to quality healthcare. HCJB’s medical staff treated their illnesses and attended to their injuries.

HCJB’s personnel also regularly traveled to rural villages with mobile medical caravans.

Well-known evangelists like Hermano Pablo, Billy Graham and Luis Palau appeared on HCJB-TV. Opportunities were given for viewers to call in by telephone during TV programs to ask questions or request prayer.

Many people came to know the Lord through the television ministry. Some of those people attended the Sunday afternoon church services held at the HCJB-TV studios. This group of believers became the "Tabernacle of Faith" church.

Shortly after Giff gave his life to Christ, he felt led to build a missionary television station. Over several years, he invested some 2,000 hours assembling a complete television station in his garage, mostly from scrapped parts. Giff and his wife, Ginny, gave the equipment to HCJB and then joined the mission to help get the television station started.

Many in Quito were eagerly awaiting the arrival of television. More than 250 TV sets had been sold before the first broadcast.

People crowded around televisions in homes or wherever they could find one. Some restaurants even advertised that their customers could watch HCJB-TV while enjoying dinner.

Bob Wittig found a used hydroelectric generator in the U.S. for a near scrap metal price. Staff constructed a dam and a large pipe to send water 440 feet down to the turbine-generator. The 1.8 megawatt project at Papallacta was completed in 1965.

The original hydro project (and later ones) had an enormous impact on HCJB’s ministries. By providing inexpensive electricity, it allowed HCJB to expand its broadcasts for more hours, in more languages, and at a higher power to more countries around the world.

Twenty-six years later, as Mayor of Quito, Dr. Carlos Andrade Marín helped inaugurate HCJB’s new 50,000-watt transmitter. Former President of Ecuador, Galo Plaza Lasso, also took part in the celebration.

To raise the towers, engineers adapted a technique that used a second smaller tower as a lever. This new method was much safer since it raised an entire tower at once, rather than in sections. Using a single four-wheel-drive military surplus truck, they pulled up two 240 ft. towers at the same time!

Clarence Jones challenged the Mennonite Brethren Missions/Services to supply staff for the German Department. David and Anna Nachtigal were the first to arrive in 1953. Others were sent as the ministry grew, including Sally Schroeder.

By the 1970s, the Ozakis were discouraged by the number of letters they got from listeners.

1972 - 4,301 letters.

Kazuo cried out to God asking. "Why don’t we get more letters?"

The letters began to arrive.

Listen to the complete story for this episode.

In later years, engineers at the mission’s engineering center in Elkhart, Indiana, would design and build a 500,000-watt shortwave transmitter as well as numerous 100,000-watt transmitters.

I was told later that both of us began to climb down the tower as fast as we could. The next thing l remember is trying to get out of the tower and being rushed to a medical clinic.

Listen to the complete story for this episode.

HCJB’s radio towers consisted of simple wooden poles bolted together.

Before long, Enrique began operating the controls during some radio programs. He also became an announcer on the radio.

Enrique graduated from a local seminary, helped pastor a church and made regular programs on HCJB Radio and HCJB-TV.

HCJB also aired English programs made by other well-known radio ministries. These programs were sent to HCJB on acetate-coated aluminum disks until the development of the magnetic reel-to-reel tape.

HCJB has always made it a policy to only report the news, not try to sway people’s opinions. This has earned HCJB widespread respect for truthful, un-biased reporting of the news.

Mrs. Cabrera was born in Madrid and Mr. Cabrera in Cuba... Many thousands have heard their messages in Spanish and English over HCJB…”

Clarence Jones 1945

The Jansons produced two programs daily. Martin wrote, “It is more than natural that such a challenging opportunity to reach so many millions through the wonderful means of radio with the centuries-old but ever-reviving gospel message would impress with a sense of continuous responsibility...”

“As the responsibility weighs on our shoulders, our hearts become more on fire and our minds ever so eager to interpret the true meaning of the gospel, to serve our just and merciful God and to help this suffering and lost humanity of ours.”

Some time later, Carmela heard that HCJB was seeking someone to make programs in the Quichua language. As a child, Carmela had learned to speak Quichua from workers on her parents' hacienda.

In 1901, nearly a decade after first hearing the gospel on HCJB, Carmela began sharing her new faith during her weekly Quichua programs on HCJB.

The first regular Russian broadcast using these recordings took place on June 22, 1941. This was the very same day that Adolf Hitler’s armies invaded the Soviet Union.

Elizabeth Zernov came to Quito from the SGA in 1943. She prepared programs with Constantine Lewshenia, a SGA broadcaster at HCJB who she later married. Their  broadcasts had lasting impact on people in the Soviet Union. “You were our bread” said one long-time listener who cried when she met Elizabeth.

In 1952, King Gustaf VI Adolf of Sweden awarded Ellen a medal of the Vasa Order for her service to Swedish speaking people around the world. Ellen de Campaña was the first woman to be granted a medal of that order.

HCJB Swedish programmer Sonja Persson came to Quito in 1959. She made Swedish programs for 37 years.

The Stearns came to Quito in 1942. They used HCJB to send God’s message of eternal hope and His peace to French-speaking people surrounded by war.

After WW II was over the Stearns returned to Europe where they continued to record and send French programs for broadcast over HCJB.

In addition to listing HCJB’s radio programs, the pamphlet promoted recordings made by local artists, including “Lady, Buy Me a Rooster” by Haro and Ortiz.

Ecuadorian Technician Néstor Zamora tunes one of HCJB's transmitters broadcasting on the 31, 73 and 308 meter bands.

Meredith realized that God must have wanted Moore to look at a used 5,000-watt transmitter that he was helping arrange for HCJB to purchase. Moore and Bill Hamilton, another radio enthusiast, inspected the used transmitter and discovered that it was an obsolete "piece of junk."

Listen to the complete story for this episode.

In the foreground is the back of the transmitter building. A second story was added around 1953 when it became the business office.

At the back right is the Jones' home. A radio studio was attached to the right side of their house. The studio controls were actually located in their dining room.

Income from HCJB's affiliation with NBC helped build the new radio studio and office building in 1943, as seen at the left.

HCJB broadcast NBC programs and news about the war. HCJB also sent news items and certain Ecuadorian presidential speeches for broadcast on the NBC Latin America news network.

President Dr. Carlos Alberto Arroyo del Río gave a radio address from HCJB in 1942.

HCJB has always allotted radio time for the Ecuadorian government to share information, including live broadcasts of Ecuador's congressional sessions for nearly 60 years.

HCJB bought property north of the city in Iñaquito in 1938 and soon moved the entire station there. The first thing to be built was the transmitter building.

Operators used the code “QSL” to confirm that they had received the message. Eventually, radio operators began making QSL cards to mail to people around the world after they had “talked” to them.

At HCJB, QSL cards are offered to encourage radio listeners to write the station, building a personal relationship through correspondence and providing another opportunity to share Christ.

But God had other plans.  Manuel Garrido came to Radio HCJB in 1937 and was the station’s first Spanish evangelist. Listeners loved his Spanish accent. He also had an amazing ability to explain complex biblical truths.

Victoriano was a religious man who worked diligently at the station for many years. Yet at the same time, he was reluctant to embrace the very gospel message of Jesus being shared by the evangelical staff and missionaries at HCJB.

Many years later, his heart was softened and he realized that he too needed to receive God’s gift of grace. With great joy, Abe Van Der Puy and Ben Cummings baptized 80 year-old Victoriano at the HCJB compound.

So in 1933, HCJB opened a second radio studio near the Presidential Palace in downtown Quito. This studio provided easy access for government officials, special guests and local musicians.

The centralized studio location also gave HCJB’s news staff the ability to quickly report things as they happened.