Giving evidence to increased financial stability, the Seventh-Day Adventist Church’s Adventist World Radio ministry’s board of directors approved a 2013 budget increase that allocates more airtime for shortwave radio and expands the number of languages in which programs are broadcast to 80.
AWR will broadcast for 32,377 hours in 2013, a 20 percent increase that will cost the organization over $500,000.
“We are able to make this welcome change thanks to several years of solid financial stability,” AWR President Dowell Chow said according to a statement on the organization’s website.
“In years past, we were forced to reduce the frequency of programs for some languages, due to financial constraints,” he said. “We are very, very pleased that now we will be able not only to restore some of those programs, but also add new languages for some key territories.”
The 2013 programming will be broadcast in 80 languages, 21 of which will utilize the increased broadcast time. The languages were selected in conjunction with the organization’s regional directors to better serve targeted audiences in Africa and Asia and include Amharic, Somali, Punjabi and Urdu.
“Delivering as many programs as possible to listeners every day is the core purpose of AWR,” Chow said.
