By Pat Centner, AFAJ staff writer
February 2003 – For a man who wanted to be a doctor and, later, a fighter pilot, Fred Jackson is an exceptionally fine radio station news director. And as he recalls seemingly unconnected life events that were subsequently linked, Jackson smiles at how God has accomplished His perfect will while leading him down the road to Christian news broadcasting.
Jackson has been news director for American Family Radio (AFR) in Tupelo, Mississippi, since June of 1997, when he moved from Vancouver, British Columbia, with his wife, Suzy, and daughters, Valerie and Megan. How he came to be at AFR is a story of God’s providence and perfect timing.
Born in North Sydney, Nova Scotia, Jackson was a farm boy who loved playing hockey and was grateful for growing up in a Christian home. After high school, he attended Gordon College near Boston, Massachusetts, and then earned a science degree from Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. “I had become a little interested in broadcasting on a summer job, but my real desire was to go to med school,” he explains.
But it was not to be. Even though he had excellent grades, he was rejected. “That was my first baptism into ‘life isn’t always fair,’” he observes. “At that point, I became angry at God and began running from Him. And what I ran to was the Canadian Armed Forces.”
However, after becoming solo-certified on a jet trainer, Jackson decided flying wasn’t for him. “People don’t believe this,” he chuckles, “but I was bored. And that was because I wasn’t where the Lord wanted me. Since I wasn’t fully signed on at that point, the Air Force reluctantly released me.”
Not knowing what to do next, Jackson headed back home. While waiting for car repairs in Toronto, he found himself at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) offices. He walked in and applied for a job. He was told, “We’ll call you.”
“I thought to myself, ‘Yeah, there’s a line,’” chuckles Jackson.
No word came, but while vacationing in Florida shortly afterward, he received a call that CBC had offered him a job in Sydney (Nova Scotia). That job began a series of CBC positions over the next 18 years.
But even at that time in his life, God had other things in mind for Jackson. For example, at a job in Toronto, he was a full-time ‘temporary’ employee; yet attempts to secure a permanent staff position proved unsuccessful.
Jackson later sensed the Lord leading him to attend Baptist Bible College in Springfield, Missouri, where his sister was a student. However, once he surrendered to do that, a permanent position became available with CBC in Moncton, New Brunswick.
“I had a tough decision to make,” says Jackson. “The devil went to work on me, but I really felt convicted that the Lord wanted me to attend Bible college.”
Obviously He did, because Jackson met Suzy (who is from Kosciusko, Mississippi) on the first day of classes. Four months later, they were married. They moved to Halifax in the spring of 1980 for a summer job with CBC.
“During that summer, a job came open in Moncton. So the job I had given up to go to Bible school, God gave back to me.”
Another position took him to Sydney, near his parents. While there, Jackson’s father suffered a heart attack. “I always look back and see that the only reason God moved me there was so I could be nearby when my dad was going through that,” he observes.
In 1987, Jackson became senior news editor for CBC in Vancouver. He was happy there until he saw a growing shift toward a liberal bias within the news organization. He tried to resist, but soon realized it was becoming a propaganda machine for liberal ideology.
“I came home one day in 1996 and told Suzy, ‘I can’t stay here. I wanfit my life to count for Christ,’” says Jackson.
Since there is very little Christian radio broadcasting in Canada, he called Kenneth Gilming, the pastor who had married him and Suzy in Springfield, and asked if he knew anyone connected with Christian radio. The answer was, “No, but there’s a Christian radio station here in Springfield called American Family Radio.”
As the old saying goes, “The rest is history.” Upon visiting Tupelo and meeting with AFA Chairman Don Wildmon, Jackson was hired as news director that same day. After waiting six months for a green card, he and his family came to Tupelo.
“If there’s one thing I’ve learned in my life, it’s that God’s timing is perfect,” he says. “I love my work here, and I have a great team of people. And on those rare occasions when I get discouraged, I walk out in my backyard in the early morning hours and look at the stars and realize that God is still in control.” 
