‘Message’ Translated Into 20 Languages for Low-Power AM Radio
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Reverend Billy Graham’s nightly sermon, which he calls his message, was simultaneously translated into 20 languages and then broadcast via low-powered AM radio to listeners who were seated in special areas around the transmitters at the World’s Fair Grounds in Flushing Meadows Corona Park. The Graham crusade provided anyone interested with a small loaner radio.
The coordinator for translation, Ira Schipper, has worked for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association for almost 40 years.
“I’m the only one who sees the message in advance,” he said, flashing a script of Rev. Graham’s sermon. “My wife makes an outline of it.”
Mr. Schipper, who said the crusade has worked with as many as 24 languages at once, then provided translators with a cue sheet so they would be prepared with the correct biblical passages during critical moments.
Translators, two for each language, sat in four cramped trailers not far from the stage. One translator covered the preliminaries, and the second translated Rev. Graham’s remarks.
The languages available were Arabic, Armenian, Cantonese, Haitian Creole, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, Polish, Portuguese, Punjabi, Russian, Spanish, Taiwanese, Tamil, Thai, Urdu, and Vietnamese.
