Percy Crawford

Preparing to enter the University of California at Los Angeles, he was converted to Christianity on September 23, 1923, at Reuben Torrey's Church of the Open Door, under the preaching of itinerant evangelist W. P.

[4] In 1931, while a seminarian at Westminster Theological Seminary he started his own youth-oriented radio program on a single station in Philadelphia, calling it the "Young People’s Church of the Air."

"[6] In 1931, he met and, two years later, married a very young but gifted pianist and arranger from Collingswood, New Jersey, Ruth Duvall, who became his lifelong partner in evangelism.

In October 1931, he started his own radio ministry called the Young People's Church of the Air, and within a decade the program was broadcast on four hundred stations.

[10] Crawford and his wife often traveled 40 to 50,000 miles a year with a quartet, and later their five children, conducting meetings and rallies mainly in the northeast but also on cross-country tours to the west coast.

[12] The Crawfords typically used upbeat, easy-to-learn choruses in their services, and the Young People's Church of the Air eventually published thirteen books of gospel songs.

[13] Although Crawford remained a staunch foe of religious Modernism and the social gospel, he also increased his audience appeal by avoiding controversy in his preaching and rarely making personal attacks.

The program emphasized large-scale musical productions with chorus and orchestra, humorous skits, and high-profile youth-oriented guest speakers who gave Christian testimonies before Crawford closed the meeting with an invitation and altar call.