Adventist World Radio (AWR) began shortwave broadcasts from leased facilities in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, on August 1.  The super station provides AWR with better signal coverage to central and southern Asia than has yet been achieved from its other stations in Europe, Russia, or Guam.  In addition, the station allows AWR to send a strong signal into the countries of the horn of Africa, such as Ethiopia.

“The key to effective radio ministry is reaching as many people as possible with the best signal possible as efficiently as possible,” says Don Jacobsen, president of AWR.  “AWR programs from the Abu Dhabi site have the potential to carry the message of hope in Jesus to hundreds of millions of people in India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Ethiopia, and many other countries in the 10/40 window.*  Such unequaled access and reach is what makes AWR a vital ministry of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.”

Perhaps the most remarkable fact is that AWR has gained the rights to broadcast from the region at all, adds Jacobsen.  The United Arab Emirates is a small confederation of oil-rich sheikdoms on the Persian Gulf side of the Saudi Arabian peninsula.  The country is culturally Arabic and strictly Islamic, making it an unlikely place from which to broadcast Christian programming. 

AWR’s broadcast opportunity came earlier this year when Merlin Communications, the technology side of the British Broadcasting Company, acquired operating rights to the Abu Dhabi site.  Merlin sought out AWR, a recognized leader in international shortwave broadcasting, to offer broadcast time.  Merlin’s contract with Emirate’s Media, the owners of the site, took effect August 1, and on the same day, AWR began broadcasting.

Established in 1971, AWR is the international broadcasting arm of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Each week it broadcasts some 1,200 hours of programming in more than 50 languages.

(*The 10/40 Window is an imaginary rectangle on the world map between 10 degrees and 40 degrees north of the equator stretching from West Africa through Asia. Sixty percent of the world’s population lives in this area.)