The Baptist Hour combines Christian Music with thoughtful teachings by Dr. Bob Reccord for a captivating half-hour of life-changing programming.

In January 1941, just before World War II began, M.E. Dodd stepped up to a microphone at First Baptist Church in Shreveport, Louisiana and delivered a sermon entitled "Christ and the Human Crises." The broadcast was "live" and it stands as the first broadcast of The Baptist Hour radio program.

The beginning was much earlier, in 1938, when a group of far-sighted persons (led by Dr. Samuel F. Lowe of Atlanta, Georgia) attending the Southern Baptist Convention made a resolution that the denomination study the use of radio to spread the gospel. Two years later, Dodd's message on radio station KWKH AM was the first of the original series of thirteen The Baptist Hour programs. This series was "networked" to seventeen radio stations in eleven states.

No air time was purchased in 1941, and there has been no air time purchased to broadcast The Baptist Hour to this date.

The networking of the live broadcasts continued until 1949 when the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) was persuaded to carry the program on its radio network of 132 stations in 21 States. This arrangement ended in 1951. At that time the program became "syndicated," and remains so to this day.

Since January 1951 The Baptist Hour has been aired continuously on radio 52 weeks every year.

Lowe died in 1953 and was succeeded as director of the Baptist Radio Commission ("TV" had not been included in the title at that time) by Dr. Paul M. Stevens, a young and aggressive pastor. In January 1954 The Baptist Hour was being aired weekly on 395 stations in 28 states.

The Baptist Hour preachers have included pulpit giants, and some prominent Southern Baptist laymen, from across the nation. After Dodd came such men as George W. Truett, Ellis A. Fuller, John J. Buchanan, John Leonard Hill and Thomas Luther Holcomb. Later in the program's history came Robert G. Lee, Charles Wellborn, Baker James Cauthen, W. A. Criswell, J.D. Grey, Duke K. McCall, and Roy O. McClain. For nearly 20 years the honored position of The Baptist Hour speaker was held by Dr. Herschel H. Hobbs, pastor emeritus of First Baptist Church in Oklahoma City. Laymen have included Pat M. Neff, former Texas Governor and president of Baylor University, North Carolina Gov. J.M. Broughton, Georgia Sen. Walter F. George, Oklahoma Sen. Josh Lee, Georgia Gov. Ellis Arnall, Arkansas Cong. Brooks Hays, Oklahoma Sen. Robert S. Kerr, along with many businessmen including Howard Butt. In all, some 123 men have preached on The Baptist Hour during its illustrious history.

In the earliest days of The Baptist Hour, there was a choir that performed for the live broadcasts that were originated in churches and later in the RTVC studios. Although The Baptist Hour was a worship service, it was recorded and broadcast as a "modified" worship service especially for a radio audience. In the mid 1950's, when tape recordings became acceptable to radio stations, the program began circulation on reels of magnetic tape instead of the electrical transcriptions. The music and voice quality was much better and the cost much lower. In the mid '60s, for the sake of expeditious production and economy, the choir was discontinued and commercial recordings of religious music were used until 1975. At that time the "Centurymen", a vocal group composed of 100 Southern Baptist ministers of music, began recording specially arranged music for the program.

In 1976 Herschel Hobbs retired and for about a year various ministers filled the electronic pulpit. In early 1977 Frank Pollard, pastor of First Baptist in Jackson, Miss. was selected to be the new speaker for The Baptist Hour. A new producer was also selected to update and make the program more interesting and current. For the first time the program went "on location". Fifty-two sermons were recorded in 52 "on site" locations in Israel in the spring of 1977.

The programs are now mailed to stations on compact discs providing excellent air quality reproduction.. While most churches and denominations are paying for their air time, The Baptist Hour is aired 408 times weekly in the United States and 9 foreign outlets. The Baptist Hour covers 20 of the top 50 radio markets in the US.