Radio station HCJB started as the vision of Clarence Wesley Jones,[3] a musician, graduate of Moody Bible Institute, and the son of a Salvation Army minister.
As a result, Jones traveled to Venezuela, Colombia, Panama and Cuba on a seven-week trip in 1928 looking for a suitable location for his envisioned radio station, but was unable to obtain the necessary government permits.
In Spanish (one of the original broadcast languages of the South American station) the call letters represent Hoy Cristo Jesús Bendice.
[4]: 77 Jones incorporated the World Radio Missionary Fellowship, Inc. (WRMF) on March 9, 1931, as a non-profit entity and overseeing organization over HCJB.
The corporation's first officers were Adam Welty as treasurer, Ruth Churchill, secretary, and Lance Latham and his wife, Virginia, along with Howard Jones and Reuben Larson serving on the board of directors.
Programs in languages such as Arabic, Italian and Hebrew were recorded elsewhere and sent to Quito on large acetate coated aluminium transcription discs.
Since a popular practice in the hobby of shortwave radio listening was to request a QSL card, HCJB started creating its own QSLs in 1932.
As requests for QSLs became more frequent, HCJB missionary and radio engineer Clayton Howard suggested a shortwave listeners' club be created.
Some of the most popular HCJB-produced programs over the years have been "Morning in the Mountains," "Musica del Ecuador", "Musical Mailbag," "Happiness Is" and "DX-Partyline."
The program was heard for more than 40 years, twice a week, and included the reading of letters from shortwave listeners around the world as well as DX and reception reports sent to the station.
", the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association's Hour of Decision, the Salvation Army's "Wonderful Words of Life" and Moody Bible Institute radio station WMBI-FM's "Nightsounds" with Bill Pearce,[10] among many others.
In December 1995, Radio Netherlands the Media Network programme visited the transmitter site at Pifo with two members of the HCJB production team.
The Media Network Vintage Vault 2023-2024: MN.07.12.1995 - BBC World Service Cuts announced and visit to HCJB Quito Ecuador HCJB Global Technology staff members are involved in research, development, training and technical support for AM, FM and shortwave radio stations as well as satellite distribution and satellite-based Internet services.