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| KFSG LA The Legacy
Pioneer L. A. Christian Station Stops Broadcasting After 79 Years
by Jim Hilliker
THE DEPRESSION YEARS
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KFSG Towers 1920s
© Jim Hilliker Collection
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The hard times of the Great Depression
years put a strain on nearly everyone in the United States. There
are some writers who claim that the popularity of Aimee Semple
McPherson diminished during the 1930s, but that's not really
true. Yes, the curiosity and media frenzy that attracted many to
Angelus Temple and KFSG broadcasts early on from 1924-1928 had come to
an end. But Aimee's church services still drew large crowds of
her faithful believers and church membership continued to grow.
That was especially true for many from the South and Midwest who
settled in Los Angeles, as they tried to fit in with life in an urban
area.
There were still controversies in Aimee's
life in the '30s, including dozens of lawsuits and splits with her
mother and daughter Roberta over the operation of Angelus Temple and
the Foursquare Church ministry. Aimee and her mother, Minnie
Kennedy, apparently had a violent argument, ending when Aimee hit her
mother and broke her nose. Aimee also had a reported nervous
breakdown in 1930.
However, one bright spot at this time was
her extensive social ministry in Los Angeles, with as many as one out
of four people unemployed in 1933, during the darkest days of the
Depression. After the 1929 stock market crash and through the
1930s, Aimee set up a service of Angelus Temple, which provided hot
meals, clothing and other necessities to an estimated 1.5 million needy
people of Southern California---the sick, hungry unemployed and
homeless of those years. Aimee's soup kitchen reportedly fed some
80,000 people in its first month of operation. The clothing,
blankets, free medical clinic and homeless shelter all came about
through donations to Angelus Temple and volunteer labor. Angelus
Temple, through Aimee's leadership, also helped victims of the 1933
Long Beach earthquake and in March of 1938, when torrential rainstorms
caused extensive flooding in Southern California.
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Aimee Semple McPherson ca 1924
© Jim Hilliker Collection
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Despite shorter hours of operation and
possibly fewer listeners since late-1928, KFSG continued its broadcast
service as a radio ministry of Angelus Temple and the Foursquare Gospel
Church into the 1930s and '40s. Technical improvements were made to the
KFSG studio and control room, with newer microphones, transmitter and
other broadcast equipment. By the mid-1930s, KFSG along with
timeshare partner KRKD had increased their daytime transmitting power
to 2,500 watts, while night power remained at 500 watts.
The radio made Aimee's voice one of the
most recognizable of that era. Those who tuned to KFSG to listen
to her, became accustomed to the way this pioneer radio evangelist
began her broadcasts, with the words, "You thousands of people here,
you in the orchestra, you in the first balcony, you in the second
balcony, you crowds standing in the rear, you thousands listening in
over the radio!" Sister McPherson continued to keep busy, working
to help the lonely and ill, bring people to Christ and minister to
those who already were saved. Besides the KFSG broadcasts and the
illustrated dramatic sermons performed onstage at Angelus Temple, she
also syndicated some of her sermons, which were recorded and sent to
various radio stations across the nation.
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Aimee Semple McPherson and Kenneth G. Ormiston
© Jim Hilliker Collection
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Along with Sister Aimee's sermons on
Sundays and other days of the week, the station broadcast a Christian
action serial, "The Adventures of Jim Trask-Lone Evangelist."
This was probably brought on by the popularity of the radio action
serials then, such as "Little Orphan Annie", "The Lone Ranger",
"Superman", etc. By early 1935, the radio hobby magazine RADEX
indicated that KFSG was on the air only from 6:30 to 7:15 am and 7:30
pm until midnight, but I believe the Sunday hours were somewhat
expanded for the Sunday church services. Also, KFSG's engineering
staff conducted some special after-midnight DX program tests on
occasion, for radio hobbyists trying to hear the KFSG signal and
collect a verification card or letter. For example, in a postcard
from January 1935, KFSG station manager Charles Walkem informs a DXer
in Wisconsin who heard KFSG's signal, that KFSG was going to broadcast
a special DX program on Saturday night, Feb. 23, 1935 from 11 pm until
1 am Pacific time, and that he should tell his other DXer friends about
it. While Sister Aimee often referred to KFSG as "The
Cathedral of the Air" or "The Voice of Angelus Temple", the KFSG
letterhead in the late 1920s and early-'30s used the slogan "The
Angelus Temple Radio Beacon." By the late-1930s and early-'40s, a
special KFSG QSL card was sent to distant listeners, which had a
drawing of Aimee next to a microphone and the call letters in red.
1937 to 1944
During the earliest years of KFSG and
Angelus Temple, Aimee Semple McPherson's name had appeared on the front
page of Los Angeles newspapers an average of 3 times a week. A
similar amount of press coverage on Aimee had taken place in the New
York Times and other large newspapers, between 1926 and 1937.
Up until 1937, there had been roughly 45 lawsuits filed against Aimee
and/or Angelus Temple. Then, in 1937, Aimee obtained a new
business manager for Angelus Temple, Mr. Giles Knight. He kept
her name out of the press and got her to agree to a "no interview"
policy to make sure there were no unfavorable newspaper stories about
Mrs. McPherson or her church. Also, because of Giles Knight
taking charge, during the last 7 years of her life, the lawsuits
stopped and not much was heard from Sister Aimee, except over radio
KFSG and inside Angelus Temple. She also did some occasional traveling
and made public appearances in many cities, much in the way Billy
Graham traveled and preached around the U.S. later.
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KFSG Letterhead
© Jim Hilliker Collection
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McPherson had received much favorable press
coverage for her work in helping the needy of L.A. during the
Depression. When World War II began in December of 1941, again,
Aimee pitched in to help. She appeared around Los Angeles making
patriotic speeches and selling war bonds. She made good use of
the KFSG airwaves during this time, too. During 1942, Sister Aimee used
KFSG to teach her listeners about rationing and the other sacrifices
America had to undergo during the war. KFSG was also used to
teach the public about air raid blackouts, war bond sales, etc.
In return, for her fund-raising efforts and outstanding use of KFSG
radio during the war, the U.S. Treasury and Office of War Information
issued her special citations for her "patriotic endeavors."
SISTER AIMEE'S DEATH
With all the pressure of running Angelus
Temple and its many branches, a Bible college for missionaries, writing
religious songs and operas, editing a magazine for her followers and
conducting weekly church services, Aimee's health began to suffer by
the late-1930s. She began to take tranquilizers to get the sleep she so
badly needed. On September 27, 1944, Aimee was in Oakland, CA to
speak at a revival service. The night before, she had taken an
overdose of her prescribed medication, classified as a "hypnotic
sedative". She never woke up and died that morning. The
coroner's report said it was an overdose of barbiturates that caused
Aimee Semple McPherson to die, prior to what would have been her 54th
birthday. Her funeral service drew many thousands of people to Angelus
Temple who lined up for hours. As they passed her open casket,
many were heard to whisper to others, "That's the woman who led me to
Jesus." For years, critics accused her of diverting funds from
the Temple for her personal gain. However, at the end, she left behind
a personal estate worth only $10,000. It's been written that at
the time of her death, Aimee had been thinking about applying for a
television station license in 1944. With the war on, it's likely
that would not have been a possibility until 1945 or later.
Still, it would have been interesting to see how she handled the new
world of TV as one of its early televangelists, but it was not to
be.
THE LEGACY OF KFSG
Aimee Semple McPherson passed away during
the 20th anniversary year of the radio station she founded,
KFSG. In 2003, KFSG radio passed away into the airwaves of time,
just a few weeks after the station's 79th anniversary and
during the 80th anniversary of Angelus Temple. The
landmark church, which she opened in 1923, was made a National Historic
Landmark on April 27, 1992. It still holds services and remains
very much a part of the ICFG.
After Aimee's death, her son, Rolf
McPherson, took over as head of Angelus Temple and the Foursquare
Church. He continued in that position, until he stepped down in
1988. At 90, he's President Emeritus of the International Church
of the Foursquare Gospel. The ICFG continued to grow and prosper
over the years. It now serves more than 2 million members in 83
countries around the world.
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KFSG QSL card ca 1940
© Jim Hilliker Collection
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KFSG radio continued to grow and prosper
and change through the decades after Sister Aimee died. After
being a non-profit station for many years, it became a successful
commercial operation, but continued its mission as a Christian station
spreading the word of Jesus, until it left the air the night of
February 28, 2003.
While KFSG wasn't the first religious
station in the country, it didn't miss by much. The station was a
true pioneer broadcaster, like the other L.A. radio stations that first
went on the air in the tumultuous 1920s, radio's first big
decade. It soon passed other Christian stations in Los Angeles in
popularity (and probably some secular stations too, at times) during
its early years. It likely even drew people who may never have
thought of listening to a religious radio station before, until the
word was spreading around town about Aimee Semple McPherson's church
and the exciting way she could preach. But times change and Los
Angeles grew. So did the number of radio stations. KFSG
changed with the times, but was a success on its own terms, even if the
fanatical popularity of the roaring '20s wasn't there anymore and most
people in Southern California were not familiar with the station, the
call letters or its heritage.
During those "pioneering" days of radio,
KFSG set a standard for future Christian broadcasting, and cleared a
path for the nearly 2000 religious radio stations on the air in the
U.S. today to follow. Whether or not another station with the
KFSG call letters returns to the L.A. airwaves, it won't be quite the
same. The string of continuous years on the air for KFSG has been
broken. But, it's still a proud achievement for the ICFG, which
had owned the station since its inception. As for me, I can only
wonder what it was really like between 1924 and 1944, when the founder
of KFSG preached before the microphone in her own unique entertaining
style and had the Southland talking about her as she worked to bring
people to Christ. All I know is, it was long ago and it really
happened. I think that's a pretty good legacy for KFSG to have
left behind for other broadcasters.
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Jim Hilliker
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Jim Hilliker is a radio historian and former broadcaster. He has
written a number of articles on the history of broadcasting in Los
Angeles. He currently lives in Monterey, California.
This article is © 2003 - Jim Hilliker
Interested in reading more about LA Radio personalities? Buy Don Barrett's Los Angeles Radio People available through The Emporium Radio Heritage Store © and support the Radio Heritage Foundation.
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