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Robertson McQuilkin,
the Broadcaster
Robertson McQuilkin was instrumental in CIU’s establishment of two Christian radio stations. The first broadcast of
WMHK in Columbia was in 1976, and in the 1980s under McQuilkin, the application process for WRCM in Charlotte,
North Carolina began.
Robertson McQuilkin never wanted a radio station at Columbia International University. He thought it was not central to
the school’s core purpose of education.
A fly on the wall of the CIU Board Room may have overheard alternative views we’ll never know about. Four board
members were already involved in radio broadcasting.
Whether it was this CIU group or the Columbia Christian businessmen who asked McQuilkin to start the station, he
agreed WMHK could be a good idea — provided it would in some measure be evangelistic.
McQuilkin initially resisted a suggested proposal to increase from an 18- to a 24-hour broadcast schedule. “Christians
should be asleep at such times,” he said. I responded with anecdotes about truck drivers, emergency first responders,
nursing mothers and elderly insomniacs but also with a 27-page study showing dramatic statistical advantages for 24-
hour schedules regarding audience growth and listener loyalty. McQuilkin finally decided, “I can see you really want this;
I don’t need to read all 27 pages!”
Perhaps in heaven it will be revealed as to whether McQuilkin’s evangelistic wishes were especially fulfilled because of
those overnight hours which he permitted.
Upon his resignation from CIU, McQuilkin was asked about highlights during his 22 years as president. He told
“Columbia Quarterly” magazine: “I never would have predicted the impact of WMHK and it has been a very pleasant
surprise.”
On Dec. 19, 2014 the CIU board affirmed that in some measure McQuilkin had been right: broadcasting is not CIU’s
core mission. In the increasingly competitive media environment it would be better for CIU to hand off the broadcasting
properties to another Christian broadcaster, the K-LOVE radio network. But not before CIU had ministered to the greater
Columbia area for 38 years and in Charlotte for 21 years, through radio.
—David Morrison, founding general manager of WMHK
David Morrison (left) with Robertson
McQuilkin just seconds away from
WMHK going on the air for the first time.
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CIU Today
Fall 2016