New Life Radio-Moscow is a satellite radio network, based in Moscow, Russia. The network broadcasts Christian programming throughout Russia, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East via Hot Bird and ABS-1 satellites; by Internet radio at www.NLRadio.net, and from two FM radio affiliates in the Northern Russian cities of Norilsk and Dudinka. New Life Radio was configured as Russia's first satellite radio station, designed to transmit in a direct to home satellite broadcast mode to individual homes equipped with free to air satellite receivers.
History
New Life Radio (NLR) began as Russia's first Christian FM radio station, transmitting on 102.5 MHz in the city of Magadan, Russia (1996). Sensing the need to make Christian programming available in every community throughout the former Soviet Union, the station's management entered into a partnership with the Evangelical Covenant Church denomination (based in Chicago, Illinois) and HCJB World Radio (noted for developing the world's first Christian shortwave radio station in the early 1930s from Quito, Ecuador). The partnership goal was to develop a satellite broadcast operation in Moscow, as made possible by the launch of the LMI satellite, a cooperative satellite venture between Lockheed Martin (a US aerospace company) and Intersputnik, a Russian government controlled satellite organization that allowed for first time transmission of direct to home satellite broadcast signals throughout the territory of Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus. LMI was launched on September 27, 1999 from a Russian proton rocket from the Baikonour Space launch facility in Kazakhstan.
During 1999, Dr. Daniel Johnson was assigned to coordinate the initiation of the radio service, and in that year, set up radio studios inside a restricted access government communication facility located on Nikolskaya Street, directly across from the Kremlin on Red Square in Moscow. As soon as LMI's testing period was completed, the satellite radio service, now known as the New Life Radio Satellite Network, commenced operations over LMI in January 2001. LMI was renamed ABS, after its sale to a telecom company based in Hong Kong.
In 2012, New Life Radio Moscow delivered Christian programming in a non-denominational, non-commercial format to a global Russian-speaking audience on a variety of broadcast media platforms, including the Hot Bird satellite at 13 degrees east, the Tricolor TV Network, using the Eutelsat W4 satellite, and on multiple streaming formats at www.NLRadio.net. The radio network is registered as a non-commercial partnership organization in Moscow and is licensed as a mass media organization under the laws of the Russian Federation. Its US-based radio partner is Christian Radio For Russia, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization registered in the State of Illinois, with offices in Jamestown, New York (www.CRFR.org).