INCLUDING RARE SHOTS OF THE WHBF STUDIO FROM 1959!

Predating the United States entry into World War II by mere months, First Evangelical Free Church of Moline, Illinois began a program on local Rock Island, Illinois radio station WHBF. The program was a venture of blind faith which resulted in an amazing 60 year run. It may not have been the direct precursor to local Christian radio station WDLM but it certainly prepared the way for the men and women who were involved at WDLM and many of those who remain working with the station even to this day. The program may have been the longest running in the history of Quad Cities broadcasting!

Incredibly, pictures have come to light which have not been seen by the general public in over six decades. These pictures include rare photographs of the inside studio of WHBF Radio. WHBF is now WKBF as of 2008 but at one time it was one of the leading powerhouse radio stations of the Illinois/Iowa bi-state area.

First Evangelical Free Church of Moline was known as the Evangelical Free Church of Moline in the 1940s. It was located at 19th Ave. & 12th Street in the heart of the city. Today First Free is located on 7th Street in Moline. The original building still stands and looks exactly as you see in the picture on this page.

The Evangelical Free Church has a heart for sharing and spreading the gospel of Christ to the ends of the earth. This is evident today as First Free was one of the founding churches of local Christian radio station WDLM and remains a staunch supporter to this day. Pre-dating WDLM's 24 hour a day Moody Bible Institute programming, Christian programming was periodically heard throughout the week both on local radio stations as well as television.

The church body at First Free in 1941 had the foresight, recognized the power of the airwaves and decided to provide a program which would air on Sunday mornings later known as The Free Church Hour. If you were driving to church during the past six decades and turned on WHBF/WKBF and heard a gospel program, this is exactly what you were listening to.

In this next incredible photograph, Pastor Ray Schulenburg presents the gospel message during the program. One reason this picture is very special is it gives a rare glimpse inside the old WHBF broadcast booth and its simplicity and a peek into the WHBF control room as well! Pastor Schulenburg's message from the bible was simply this... We are all sinners. The bad news is the wages of sin is death. The good news is Jesus Christ died for our sins and that it is by grace we have been saved through faith, it is a gift of God, not of works lest anyone should boast that they have saved themselves.

As mentioned above, music had an integral part in the program. The choir itself appeared in the WHBF studios and performed classic gospel music songs from the hymnal. Note that a member of the prominent Moline Strombeck family is mentioned. We are fortunate to be able to view pictures of the covers of the publications she was producing.

For any that heard Roscoe Wilson play the violin, it might be said that there was no sweeter instrument played. The reason for this is that Roscoe played from his heart and it showed. Roscoe played the violin during services at First Free for decades and his kind spirit is missed to this day.

Below, another amazing look inside the old WHBF studios. Notice in the second and third choir pictures it is interesting to see that the old microphone reads WHBF ABC. WHBF was an ABC Radio affiliate at the time.

Progress took hold through the years and eventually the choir and later the Pastor himself did not have to go to the WHBF studios. The sermons were taped at First Free and taken to the radio station. Eventually WHBF changed with the times and slowly started to fade. It became radio station WKBF and changed formats numerous times. With the advent of WDLM and the changes at the station, it was decided in 2007 that the time was right to end the program.

Glenn Rogerson started taping these programs forty years ago for the studio and was recently honored by First Evangelical Free Church's congregation for his faithful service along the way and to commemorate the incredible legacy that The Free Church Gospel had produced.

Below we see a picture of Glenn working the boards behind the scenes at the then new state of the art control room at First Evangelical Free Church on 7th Street in Moline, Illinois.

The tape machine that Glenn used to produce the program.

Carlan Bounds presenting to Glenn Rogerson a plaque commemorating his incredible 40 years producing the Free Church Radio Broadcast Ministry!

Special thanks to Carlan Bounds for the scans.

03/06/2008 .... Hello, Thank you for the article & pictures of the history of the Free Church Hour broadcast.

This brings back fond memories way back as a kid, of the Radio Choristers and going a few times to the WHBF studios with my dad, who sang in the choir every Sunday morning and for a short period they were on the air @ 1:00PM. I recall that I had to be really quiet, and be on my best behavior.

Usually kids would dream about being a policeman or a fireman, but I can remember dreaming about being the man back on the controls. Well I got my wish, plus more. Not only being the engineer and producer for taping the broadcast for WHBF/WKBF, I have served as Chief Engineer for WDLM for the last 39 1/2 years.

I installed the Recording equipment at our old church at 19th Avenue & 12th Street and started the first remote broadcast via tape on May 1, 1966 till last year 2007 on Easter Sunday, which was the final broadcast.

It has been a great joy to serve in that capacity, of which I hope that a few lives have been touched and perhaps changed by the Lord.

Thank you for this honor and trip down memory lane.

Glenn Rogerson

Chief Engineer

WDLM AM & FM

East Moline, IL

10/26/2008 ... I found this write-up about The Free Church Hour very interesting and it brought back many memories.When my dad was the pastor of the Moline Evangelical Free Church, I was the youngest of his three boys. However, I do remember going to the studio with my dad from time to time to sit in on the broadcasts. Reading about this in this Webpage was very interesting and I remember so many of the people shown in these photos.For all those who had a part in putting this together, I'd like to express my appreciation for the excellent work.God bless.

Richard Schulenburg

If you have any questions or anything to share, please click here to email me!