I worked at Gospel Recordings, in Los Angeles, California in the summer of 1978. During the school year at RBC (fall 1977 – spring 1978), my classmate Dan Adema — whose parents worked at Gospel Recordings — told me it would be an interesting summer internship. Indeed it was.
How did I get to Los Angeles? I rode along with my parents to a family reunion in Pella, Iowa. After the family reunion, my uncle and aunt, Melvin and Leona Pothoven drove me to the Greyhound bus station in Des Moines, Iowa. From there I rode the bus for a couple days and nights until we reached Los Angeles.
Marjorie Johnson picked me up at the bus station in downtown Los Angeles and drove me to the Gospel Recordings facility.
Joy Ridderhof – Founder of Gospel Recordings
Gospel Recordings was founded by Joy Ridderhof in 1937 — who had to come home from the mission field in Honduras, after contracting malaria. Joy founded the ministry to provide audio recordings of gospel messages and scripture portions in the Spanish and Navajo languages. Joy’s illness redirected her life to a greater calling. Soon a dozen more languages were added: Arabic, Chinese (Mandarin), French, German, Italian, Swahili, and more obscure languages like Dioula or Jula-Kong… But that was just a start. As of 2024 the Gospel Recordings Network provides audio recordings of scripture portions and gospel messages — in over 6500 languages.
Joy Ridderhof was still living in her home in Los Angeles, next door to the production facilities during the summer that I worked there.
Below is an example audio recording, explaining the Gospel through the parable of The Prodigal Son — in the Diola Jula-Kong language spoken in countries like Burkina Faso and Mali, in West Africa.
Pressing Vinyl Records and Assembling ‘Cardtalk’ Record Players
One of my first jobs that summer was working in the record pressing room. It was a hot job, and my fingers developed calluses from handling the freshly pressed hot vinyl records. Fans were always running in the press room so the workers would not get overheated.
The process involved quickly placing paper labels on the metal plates, and then closing the press for a short time, while the molten vinyl was injected and squished between the plates. The temperature and timing was very important, and if the vinyl stayed in the press too long, it could burn, and those records would be rejected.
Another thing I worked on was assembling cardboard record players – known as a ‘Cardtalk’. This was an easy job. It involved attaching a grommet (spindle) to the cardboard base – via a clear plastic square that had adhesive on one side. The next step was to crimp the stainless steel needle to the third section of corrugated cardboard. The Cardtalk record players worked best at 78rpm (revolutions per minute). For some reason it’s easier to keep a steady hand at that speed. The tri-fold design of the cardboard made manufacturing and assembly very easy and inexpensive. Not only that, but the amazing sound quality was possible because the corrugated cardboard ‘tent’ increased the vibration and volume of sound.
The simple Cardtalk cardboard player was developed to play phonograph records without electricity. It’s ingenious design allowed the sound to be played through a needle on the cardboard sleeve, which doubled as an amplifier. The Cardtalk was small, inexpensive and easy to operate. Hundreds of thousands were sent to the remotest places in the world. I probably assembled 500 to 1000 Cardtalks that summer.
Duplicating Cassette Tapes at Gospel Recordings
The staff at G.R. rotated me through a variety of tasks that summer, perhaps so that I would get a taste of the many skills the organization needed to keep “going and growing”. Another responsibility I had that summer was running the high-speed audio cassette duplicators. This involved filling orders for small batches of audio cassettes that were ordered from all over the globe. I would pull a master cassette from the audio library, insert blank cassettes in the machine, and produce a batch of audio cassettes that could be mailed out.
The Great Commission Song
Before the summer was over, I wrote a song about the Great Commission, and recorded it with the help of my friend Tom. I played my old Gibson guitar, and sang harmony with myself. Tom played the flute. The words of the song are based on Jesus words in Matthew 28:18-20.
Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
In the summer of 2024 I was able to recover the original sound track for my song from an old audio cassette (created in 1978) and transfer it to MP3 format. You can listen to my song (or download a copy) using the MP3 audio player below.
Related Links and Resources
- Joy Ridderhof Interview in 1974 – on YouTube
- Introduction to the Gospel Recordings Network – on YouTube
- globalrecordings.net
Doug: it’s been amazing to see how God led you in your work and ministry over the years. To God be the glory, great things He has done!
Good work! Thou art a good and faithful servant!
Cool stuff Doug. Really neat that you had the foresight to record some high quality images of your time at Gospel Recordings. You are one diverse and faithful character!
Marty: I was fortunate that a few of my photos turned out. I probably shot 3 rolls of 35mm film that summer, and was fortunate to have maybe a dozen photos that came out OK. Not like today when we click dozens per day on vacation with a phone camera.