The Hebrew Christian Hour

This radio program is much more obscure than it probably should be.  The first information I found was in the form of a promotional postcard or flyer. The back is stamped "Gospel Crusaders, P.O. Box 845, Allentown, PA" Below that is a second stamp for the Bethlehem Revival Center on West Broad Street in Bethlehem, PA. The card is undated. That postcard, whatever it's vintage, lists only 6 radio stations. 

CALLS	FREQ	CITY	State
WVCH	740	Chester	PA
WIBG	990	Philadelphia	PA
WKAP	1320	Allentown	PA
WPIT	730	Pittsburgh	PA
WGCB	1440	Red Lion	PA
WWVA	1170	Wheeling	WV

There were many singing groups who were named Gospel Crusaders. Notably the Nyack Gospel Crusaders which were formed in 1944. There was one in Rhode Island founded by W. Robert Garlock around 1938. Yet another Gospel Crusaders played at 1550 WRHC-AM in Jacksonville, FL in 1957. In the late 1960s Brother John Phillips organized a Gospel Crusaders with a spot on 1580 KDAY-AM. 

None of those groups fit the time and place. I even found a Gospel Crusaders of Chester PA, but active in the 1990s. Right place, wrong time. The closest I found was a reference in the Gospel Herald [SOURCE] of 1950. It mentions The  Wayside Gospel Crusaders  of  Lancaster, PA. It's a possibility in a stack of wrong answers. In another section it puts them less specifically in Eastern, PA. This appears to have been a short-lived group, only peripherally related to Michelson. The Bethlehem Revival Center was also not much of a clue. It appears in newspapers into the 1970s. Google Maps images go back to 2008 and that year the signage read W.N. Serfass & Co, public accountants. It is no more. 

1948 Radio Annual

All of this is ancillary to the question of Dr. Arthur Urrah Michelson. At the bottom it gives his address at P.O. Box 707 Los Angeles, 53, CA. That "53" is a big hint. Five digit zip codes debuted in 1963. But starting in 1943 some cities began using two digit local zone numbers. This is our first bracket for dates. Also from that address I found a February 1952 issue [SOURCE] of The Jewish Hope linking the address to Dr. Arthur U. Michelson, editor of that very monthly publication. Michelson published an autobiography in 1943 which tells us he was born Kronach, Germany in 1886 and died in 1968. 

His autobiography is heavy on the theology and short on actual biographical facts but newspaper clippings put him at US revival events as early as 1932. His references to the 1922 German currency crisis give us a 10 year window for immigration. The book Studies in Contemporary Jewry: Volume XIV by Peter Y. Medding confirmed this general date but Jewish Social Studies Vol. 10 (1938) gave his arrival as 1931 in LA coming from Chicago, so late 1920s fits. His page on ancestry.com differs slightly, it cites Krone, Germany and his death in 1969... but it has other errors as well.  (Note, Krone was part of Prussia from 1772 to 1945, it's been part of Poland since 1945.) 

From My Life Story from 1943. A. Michelson (R)

That 1952 issue of the Jewish Hope does have references to radio. "I am grateful to the Lord that he has
revealed himself to me and has given me the privilege of proclaiming the Gospel over the radio, which is the best method of reaching the Jews. Our radio broadcasts reach a potential audience of many millions every day." Most of it reads like that. It's all ministry and very little radio outside of his schedule.

Similarly, most print references to him are in sermons where he might be called "gallant soul" without telling us anything about the man's life. A newspaper will record that he spoke 3 churches in Sarasota FL in 1959, but not if he had a family. The one article I found that mentioned his wife did not even mention her name, only that she was Catholic. The Rocky Mountain News of August 31st, 1938 reported that he was formerly a judge in imperial German courts and attended the University of Berlin.  But back to that radio schedule in Jewish Hope. This one was from 1952. [SOURCE] A surprising number of affiliates are Canadian. A newspaper account reported that it was sold through a regular ad agency, apparently Tom Westwood. (see above)

CALLS	FREQ	CITY	State
CKPC	1380	Brantford	ON
CFCN	1060	Calgary	AB
WLXW	1380	Carlisle	PA
WVCH	740	Chester	PA
CHWK	1270	Chilliwack	BC
WDOK	1260	Cleveland	OH
KXXX	790	Colby	KS
KJSK	900	Columbus	NE
KROX	1260	Crookston	MN
KWDM	1150	Des Moines	IA
KGDE	1230	Fergus Falls	MN
WMRP	1510	Flint	MI
KWBC	970	Fort Worth	TX
KMMJ	750	Grand Island	NE
WFUR	1570	Grand Rapids	MI
CJCH	920	Halifax	NS
KGRI	1000	Henderson	TX
KLEE	610	Houston	TX
CFJC	910	Kamloops	BC
CKWS	960	Kingston	ON
CKCR	1490	Kitchener	ON
KCVR	1570	Lodi	CA
KGER	1390	Los Angeles	CA
WMBW	800	Miami Beach	FL
KEYD	1440	Minneapolis	MN
WKBZ	850	Muskegon	MI
CHVC	1600	Niagara Falls	ON
CJNB	1240	North Battleford	SK
WIBG	990	Philadelphia	PA
WPGH	1080	Pittsburgh	PA
KXL	750	Portland	OR
WSAY	1370	Rochester	NY
CKTB	620	St. Catherines	ON
KXA	770	Seattle	WA
KFNF	920	Shenandoa	IA
KSPO	1230	Spokane	WA
CKFH	1400	Toronto	ON
CKMO	1410	Vancouver	BC
CJVI	900	Victoria	BC
KBOK	1090	Waterloo	IA

I even eventually discovered that there are transcriptions of his sermons from radio broadcasts in the early 1950s, like this one recorded in December of 1952. (below) That card which gave his PO Box as in Los Angeles seems to predate his move to Minnesota. 

It appears he started making 1440 KEYD-AM his primary home in radioland after 1945 and before 1952. Multiple weekly issues of Radio Life list him on different stations; sometimes as the Hebrew Christian Hour and sometimes just by his name Dr. A.U. Michelson. [SOURCE] But I also found him on a KEYD schedule in October of 1954 in the St. Paul Pioneer Press. Issues of Radio Life from 1941 into 1944 of Radio Life puts his program on 570 KMTR-AM and no other listed stations. I believe that L.A. station was his original home base starting before February of 1942. Some 1941 issues list him as splitting his 60 minute spot with music from 7-7:15 then Clifford E. Clinton until 7:30 and Michelson taking the balance of the hour. January and September 1945 issues puts him on KFOX. More here and here. I have not resolved a time gap between 1945 and 1952, but he remained on air until at least 1958. [SOURCE]

Eventually I discovered a possible reason that Michelson dissapeared from radioland. He was doing crime, though it's unclear if he went to prison. The book The Social History of Crime and Punishment in America by Wilber R. Miller spells out that he committed multiple felonies as the head of Jewish Hope. His crimes include false representations, mail fraud and embezzling. The book is a hefty five volume set so you'll have to settle for the cliff notes. He was investigated by the Federal Post office and the Better Business Bureau and his operation was found to be unsatisfactory. The language is academic and gentle but the charges were felonies.

Michelson was the executive head of Jewish Hope and received funds from his radio broadcasts, and through the mail with the Jewish Hope magazine, circulars and evangelistic trips. His salary was $17,418 per year which is $403k in today's dollars. Above that salary he and/or his family collected another $9,023, or another $209k in 2026 dollars which were all excluded from the books of Jewish Hope. Miller cites FBI Memorandum as his source and I corroborated this in the Jewish Social Studies journal where they describe the doings of Arthur Michelson as "nefarious" and "unethical." In 1949 the Indianapolis Jewish Post reported that Michelson took 2 out of every 3 dollars in donations and took home a million dollars a year.