Founded in 1939 by Theodore H. Epp on radio station KFOR (AM) in Lincoln, Nebraska, Back to the Bible expanded by supporting missionaries and broadcasting via shortwave radio to other countries. By the mid-1950s, it was being broadcast somewhere in the world in any given minute, and in 1954 the organization's first international Bible teaching ministry office opened in Canada. By the time of Epp's retirement in 1981, the "Back to the Bible" program was syndicated as a daily 30-minute broadcast on more than 800 radio stations worldwide.