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Prime time shortwave entertainment: this week, WWRB

Posted at 12:16PM on Monday, January 24, 2005 in entertainment and hf and kooks.

On occasion, I will visit the website run by shortwave broadcaster WWRB, "world wide religious broadcasting," run by Dave Franz and others in Tennessee, to see what's new. This station has been known by several other call letters in the past, including WWFV ("world wide freedom voice" or something like that) and WGTG ("with glory to God"). I believe WWRB used to stand for "world wide radio broadcasting" in an attempt to broaden the station's scope. It doesn't matter, however; there is a lot of entertaining, crazy, and just plain offensive programming on WWRB that is not in any way religious. More on this thought shortly.

WWRB operates several shortwave services with ever changing names. One recalls World Harvest's various numbered "Angel" transmitters. I find the service naming awfully confusing, especially since WWRB always lists a couple of services that are either under development, are backup units, or are "reserved for use by the guvvmint" or something to that effect. To get through this somewhat confusing situation, let's summarize WWRB's transmitters as of this writing.

  • North America Service #1 runs daily from 0000 to 0600 UTC on 5085.
  • North America Service #2 runs daily from 0000 to 0600 UTC on 3185. This oddball frequency has been in use for several months now, replacing 6890, as the winter propagation is favoring lower frequencies.
  • North America Service #3 runs daily from 0000 to 0600 UTC on 5745. Note that this frequency was swiped from WHRI after that station moved several services to those of the former WSHB.
  • South and Central American and the Caribbean Service runs daily from 0000 to 0600 UTC on 5050.
  • Middle-East/Africa/European Service runs daily from 1700 to 2400 UTC on 12172.
  • There also exists "Southeast Asia" and "Australia/New Zealand/Western Pacific Islands" services, but there is no programming on any of these now. They're planned to operate from 1000 to "TBA" UTC if and wherever they're started.

All of the operational shortwave services on WWRB can be received reliably here in Maryland, but as HF radio goes, your mileage may vary. The latest HFCC data shows WWRB is authorized to run up to 100 KW on 5745 and 65 KW on the remaining services. The HFCC data shows 6890 instead of 3185 and there is an additional authorization for 9320, a presently unused daytime frequency. They're officially authorized for 12170, but as long as I can recall, they've been running this daytime service a couple of kilohertz upwards of that to escape interference from WWCR's flamethrower on 12160.

Now that we've addressed the technical stuff, let's move on to the programming. This station's evolved a bit over the past few years, beginning with its humble beginnings as WGTG, to abandoning some of it's quasi-religious programming, to embracing it once again. Mr. Franz himself would sometimes get on the air and rant for a while in the classic shortwave kook style about whatever was on his mind. Usually this would be a rant about a deadbeat programmer or some diatribe on "pay-triots" or something similar. Now the most we usually hear is Mr. Franz giving top-of-the-hour IDs using an old mic that sounds like it was new when Dick Nixon was using it to record stuff on his dictaphone.

Here's a sampling of some of the offerings on WWRB.

  • The Full Gospel Hour: Monday at 0000 on 5085, Sunday at 0030 on 5745, Thursday at 0300 on 5050, Saturday at 0400 on 5050, and Sunday at 1800 on 12172. If you've ever heard this program, you will never forget it. The speaker delivers true fire-and-brimstones-style preaching in a very loud, shreiking and incomprehensible voice, separated by long immeasurable pauses. For the longest time, Allan and crew would fire up WBCQ's 17495 service on Saturday afternoon just to air an hour from this programmer (and perhaps a World of Radio too). The Full Gospel Hour remains on Saturday on WBCQ, but is unfortunately running on 9330 at the same time as the Lumpy Gravy Radio Show (2300 UTC) so I am otherwise occupied and unable to listen at this time.

    As an aside, on January 15, WBCQ dropped Lumpy Gravy's internet feed for a few seconds in the middle of a Captain Beefheart song, and while I was listening to WBCQ's webcast recording of this event, I heard the distinctive sounds of the Full Gospel Hour bleeding through the wires in the background of the dead air. You've got to take notice of a programmer who can project straight through the electronics at the station like that.

  • The Divided Kingdom: Tuesday through Saturday at 0400 on 5085 and Saturday at 0300 on 5085. Elizabeth Border, this show's host, has assumed the highest levels of shortwave kookery with her paranoid conspiracy rantings about the New World Order. Especially entertaining is her sock puppet skit featuring dialog between a falsetto-voiced "Barbie" and a low-voiced "Fatherland Security" accompanied by downright scary solemn music. This is clearly the most entertaining program on WWRB, and there's something in it for conspiracy theorists as well as kookologists.

  • American Dissident Voices: Saturday at 2300 on 5085 and Sunday at 0400 on 5085. Ah, yes, the white supremacists. Also known as the Nazis. These poor old hatemongers hate everyone. Yes, "world wide religious broadcasting" takes on a whole different meaning after hearing a few minutes of the dreck shoveled out by these tiny-brained racist scumbags.

  • Herald of Truth: Saturday at 2330 on 5085 and Sunday at 0430 on 5085. Well, these guys aren't quite as overt as American Dissident Voices, but be forewarned: their religious themes are thinly veiled promotions of the so-called Christian Identity movement, also known as the Nazis. How clever that WWRB packages these two programs back to back for their special Racist Hour.

  • Mike Gibson Blue Grass Music: Sunday at 0300 on 5085, and,
  • Mike Gibson Gospel Music: Saturday at 0200 on 5050. Mr. Gibson provides some relief to all of the seemingly non-stop demagoguery on WWRB. His bluegrass music show provides a good cross-section of gospel-oriented country music, and is well worth a listen if conditions are favorable.

  • Faith Holiness Church: Saturday at 0000 UTC on 5745, Thursday at 0300 on 5050, and Saturday at 0400 on 5050. Pastor Larry Cain provides us with a religious message that starts out slow and collected, but gradually builds steam until boiling over in full froth as the broadcast goes on. This program is also heard Monday at 2330 on WBCQ 7415.

  • Amos and Andy/Uncle Ed's Musical Memories: Tuesday through Saturday at 0230 on 3185. Ah yes, Uncle Ed's masterful re-creations of the lost episodes of Amos and Andy, meticulously re-created from the original scripts in Ed's own voice. An outside observer may be immediately tempted to ponder the racist and stereotypical overtones of Amos and Andy, but we're not going to get into that here. This is a very entertaining show. You can also catch Amos and Andy Monday through Saturday at 0500 on WBCQ 7415. Uncle Ed's Musical Memories is a well produced music show that showcases popular music from the thirties and forties. This show is also heard on WBCQ 7415 Thursdays at 2330.

  • A Voice Crying In The Wilderness: Sunday at 0200 on 5050. We had the pleasure of leading in to Brother Joe's show on 7415 when we were in the Saturday 2100 time slot. Brother Joe's still there on 7415 Saturdays at 2200, "heading on the highway, the highway of Lord Jesus." Interestingly enough, his show is not "crying" on WBCQ. We'll have to check it out in greater detail on WWRB and see what's up with that.

Now, taking a look at the rest of WWRB's schedule, we note that there is an awful lot of programming slots marked as "available time slot for your program." Sometimes we will hear simulcasts from one of the other frequencies, the spoken King James Bible, and other fill programming. Recent reports indicate that Dave Franz himself hosted a classical music show in one of the available time slots (On Thursday 1/13/05 at 0000 on 3185, per Daniel L. Srebnick in DXLD 5013. WWRB also mentions that they run "tithe programming" in some of these slots, so there may be a chance to hear random weirdness on the station. With four frequencies running simultaneously every evening here in North America, the chance of hearing random kookiness are great.

Now, please don't get me wrong. If Mr. Franz and company want to offer a low cost programming outlet to the masses via shortwave, I certainly applaud their efforts and wish them the best. However I take great offense at the overtly "religious" tilt of the station and their ownership, in light of the repugnant programming such as that which is offered by the Nazis and hatemongers. And whereas one can certainly be entertained to the point of tears by the wackiness of Elizabeth Border and her paranoid sock puppets, this type of programming can hardly be called "religious." WWRB and it's "evangelist" ownership and staff would increase their credibility greatly, at least in my eyes, if they dropped the religious angle completely and admitted that they are simply a business who will put enyone on the air if they've got the 60 bucks an hour. Of course, it goes without saying that the station's owner must agree with your programming or else you won't have a chance of ever hearing your show on WWRB. Concluding thus, it is obvious, regardless of their better programs, that WWRB's owners and management are a bunch of paranoid conspiracy racist hatemongers hiding under the comfy blanket of "evangelism" and "religious" broadcasting in order to attract a revenue stream to their business.