What’s that preacher smoking?

I used to work at a Christian AM radio station, way back when. As a board operator, I ran sermon tapes, played 45's of pop Gospel music, and read the weather report out of the newspaper. The equipment was ancient and the budget for upgrades was zero. I think there was an old KJV Bible propping up one corner of the Gates transmitter. Talk about standing on the rock.

I cued up a sermon tape that a preacher had brought in just a few minutes prior to air time. We had a monophonic Ampex tape machine (pictured), meaning it played the whole 1/4" tape at once. But the tape was recorded in stereo, with this week's sermon on one half of the tape, and last week's sermon on the other half. I did not know this prior to hitting PLAY.

When I played the tape on the air, man, it sounded weird! You could hear the preacher yelling this week's hellfire and brimstone message as usual, but in the background you could hear him yelling another message, backwards! The hymns were amazing!

Remember the hype in the 70's about satanic messages being woven backwards into Beatles and Led Zeppelin songs? Backward masking? Well, this tape was being broadcast at 10,000 watts with the backwards Gospel!

I hope no one lost their salvation.

I sat there and listened, flabbergasted, deciding what to do. Play an hour of Gospel music? Replay last week's sermon? Nah. Let it run, baby.

I was waiting for the phone to ring. A listener. The yelling pastor. The station manager. Not a peep!

Nobody noticed!

— Hank