Paul E. Freed was the founder of Trans World Radio (TWR). Growing up in Palestine as the son of missionaries, Freed graduated from Wheaton (Illinois) and Nyack (New York) Colleges and earned a Ph.D. in mass communications from New York University. As a Youth for Christ staff worker, he noted that Spain was neglected by evangelical missions and became convinced that radio was the ideal entrée. He established the first small studio in Tangier, Morocco, and began broadcasting in 1954, with his father serving as on-site director. After they had gained more powerful facilities in Monaco in 1960, Freed began developing regional offices in Europe to provide national leadership and programming, with the result that by 1965 more than half of the support was coming from Europe. Freed continued to press for increased coverage, ultimately making TWR programs available to 80 percent of the world’s population, with broadcasts in 120 languages from nine primary locations: Monte Carlo, Netherlands Antilles, Sri Lanka, eswatini, Cyprus, Guam, Uruguay, Albania and Siberia. In 1993 Freed retired fro the presidency but continued as chairman of the board of TWR. He was honored that year by the National Religious Broadcasters as the broadcaster who “has done the most to promote and extend the reach of international Christian broadcasting.”

Robert T. Coote

Bibliography

Paul E. Freed, Towers to Eternity (rev, 1994). E. Brandt Gustavson, “Paul E. Freed,” in John D. Woodbridge, ed., Ambassadors for Christ (1994). The fortieth anniversary issues of TWRadio magazine features a historical summary of TWR.

This article is reproduced, with permission, from Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions, copyright © 1998, by Gerald H. Anderson, W. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, Michigan. All rights reserved.