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Trinity Broadcasting's family feud

R

Rollo-Smokes

Last Friday (May 4) the New York Times published an article on the internal battle being waged within Trinity Broadcasting Network, the world's largest Christian broadcaster.

While TBN has been under scrutiny for years, this latest episode features a Cain vs. Abel-like battle between two brothers and a member of the third generation being charged with stealing from the coffers, only to fight back with accusations of her own.

Read on: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/05/us/tbn-fight-offers-glimpse-inside-lavish-tv-ministry.htm
 
...and yet the flock keep giving generously. It totally boggles the mind.

I seem to remember something about what happens to a fool and his money.


Former Dodger owner Frank McCourt buys six expensive homes out in the open, gets grilled, and gets tarred and feathered out of town.

Anyone remember another televangelist couple named Jim & Tammy Bakker? Former TBN employees, BTW. When they got exposed, there was outrage and ridicule.

Where are the brickbats for the Crouches?
 
The problem is, it's religious television. To most of the viewing audience who has long moved on from when Swaggart was in the headlines, it's no longer the oddball choice on the end of the dial in select markets that they have to tolerate; it's now among 400 more channels and usually stuck in a tier nobody usually goes to, and because they've decided to sell most of their translators and outside of LA and southern markets, have their full-powers in the middle of nowhere where cable companies can usually find multiple reasons (like distance) to deny them must-carry coverage.

There are more moderate and sane choices out there now like BYUTV and (despite their secularization process) Gospel Music Channel, and even EWTN at least has seem to stuck with their process of running good Catholic programming without going insane on the balance sheet or building gold cathedrals in Birmingham, then there are local stations that just do what they do quietly and without having financial issues. Meanwhile TBN chugs along with their audience who is still willing to tithe their money each month for prosperity and is willing to ignore the problems it's facing behind the scenes. As long as a UFC-like fight doesn't suddenly occur on the Praise the Lord set between the Crouches, the viewers don't care.
 
RicoGregg said:
Anyone remember another televangelist couple named Jim & Tammy Bakker? Former TBN employees, BTW. When they got exposed, there was outrage and ridicule.

Where are the brickbats for the Crouches?
Click to expand...
...actually, IIRC, the Bakkers and the Crouches were partners in TBN, rather than the Bakkers being employees; TBN had started out airing on KHOF-TV/30, until they ticked off Dr. Gene Scott, whose Glendale church owned KHOF, and TBN then bought time on then Spanish-language KLXA-TV/40. When the Bakkers left for Charlotte, part of the agreement in the split was that the Crouches could hang onto the full title Praise The Lord and the Bakkers could use the initials PTL. As I recall, Jim and Tammy Faye moved their video works in the Los Angeles market from KLXA to an early morning slot on KTLA/5...
 
Looks like a confounding rebuke from on high, but who am I to judge? They've been losing quite a few of the legitimate real deals who keep their eyes on Christ.
 
Ultimajock said:
...actually, IIRC, the Bakkers and the Crouches were partners in TBN, rather than the Bakkers being employees; TBN had started out airing on KHOF-TV/30, until they ticked off Dr. Gene Scott, whose Glendale church owned KHOF, and TBN then bought time on then Spanish-language KLXA-TV/40. When the Bakkers left for Charlotte, part of the agreement in the split was that the Crouches could hang onto the full title Praise The Lord and the Bakkers could use the initials PTL. As I recall, Jim and Tammy Faye moved their video works in the Los Angeles market from KLXA to an early morning slot on KTLA/5...
Click to expand...

Actually, Crouch bought time on then-KBSA (channel 46) in the Los Angeles market, until that station was sold. At that point TBN purchased time on channel 40, then known as KLXA-TV; eventually the owners of that station agreed to sell the station to the Crouches. This was around 1973-74; KLXA-TV became KTBN in 1977.

As for the Dr. Gene Scott connection, Paul Crouch did work for a time at Faith Center for Dr. Scott before striking out on his own with Jan and the Bakkers.
 
I'm suprised TBN don't have money problems given the current state of the economy. What is their Average ratings lower than even the CW?.
 
TVCOOL said:
I'm suprised TBN don't have money problems given the current state of the economy.
Click to expand...

Then again, TBN did close down many of its low-powered repeaters due to economic problems, with many of those sold either to Daystar or the Minority Media and Telecommunications Council, who would sell these translators to other parties, including Luken for their expansion plans, and New Moon Communications for new NBC affiliates in Jonesboro AR, Jackson TN, Ottumwa IA and Dothan AL.
 
Several years ago they sold their LPTV station Channel 67 in Springfield, Mass to Merideth Broadcasting who used it to launch a CBS affiliate for the Springfield market based out of their WFSB Channel 3 in Hartford. CBS 3 Springfield (as it is called based on its Cable Position) is WSHM-LD now on DTV channel 21 I believe along with WFSB Channel 3.2 in Hartford.
 
TVCOOL said:
I'm suprised TBN don't have money problems given the current state of the economy. What is their Average ratings lower than even the CW?.
Click to expand...

They don't usually bother with Nielsen ratings (most religious networks don't or can't because they only run in-house advertising and holding non-com licensees), so you couldn't go by those numbers. Even then there are probably a few cases where TBN does outdraw a poorly-run CW affiliate, though I'm not willing to fathom a guess in which markets.
 
Can't wait to see what happens to TBN maybe they go out of business or downgrade to just a cable network and/or Digital Sub-net on most stations .2 or .3 subchannel(IMO they're more comical than Family Guy or The Simpsons). I'm suprised Family Guy didn't make fun of TBN yet?. All New on TBN this fall : A christian version of "American Idol" ,A religious version of The Sopranos ,The Bible Belt Shore (get it a Christian version of The Jersey Shore) and a religious version of Beavis and Butthead that will bring high ratings for TBN beating out the CW ,MyNetwork TV & Ion.
 
Rollo-Smokes said:
Ultimajock said:
...actually, IIRC, the Bakkers and the Crouches were partners in TBN, rather than the Bakkers being employees; TBN had started out airing on KHOF-TV/30, until they ticked off Dr. Gene Scott, whose Glendale church owned KHOF, and TBN then bought time on then Spanish-language KLXA-TV/40. When the Bakkers left for Charlotte, part of the agreement in the split was that the Crouches could hang onto the full title Praise The Lord and the Bakkers could use the initials PTL. As I recall, Jim and Tammy Faye moved their video works in the Los Angeles market from KLXA to an early morning slot on KTLA/5...
Click to expand...

Actually, Crouch bought time on then-KBSA (channel 46) in the Los Angeles market, until that station was sold. At that point TBN purchased time on channel 40, then known as KLXA-TV; eventually the owners of that station agreed to sell the station to the Crouches. This was around 1973-74; KLXA-TV became KTBN in 1977.

As for the Dr. Gene Scott connection, Paul Crouch did work for a time at Faith Center for Dr. Scott before striking out on his own with Jan and the Bakkers.
Click to expand...
...the account I posted was Dr. Scott's repeated claim on several of his 1980s broadcasts, except for the piece about KTLA, which was from advertising I saw in both the Times and Herald Examiner at the time. When the PTL scandal broke, Scott claimed he personally fired both Paul Crouch and Jim Bakker from KHOF...
 
Ultimajock said:
...the account I posted was Dr. Scott's repeated claim on several of his 1980s broadcasts, except for the piece about KTLA, which was from advertising I saw in both the Times and Herald Examiner at the time. When the PTL scandal broke, Scott claimed he personally fired both Paul Crouch and Jim Bakker from KHOF...
Click to expand...

I had no idea that Jim Bakker worked for Faith Center, if that is indeed true. But let's remember that these televangelist types tend to practice revisionist history. Whatever Gene Scott said, I'll take it with a grain of salt. "Pat" Robertson pretty much excised Jim and Tammy from CBN's history after he fired them, and especially after the PTL scandal. Paul and Jan did the very same thing until Paul Crouch Jr. (a key figure in the current infighting) managed to bring his mother and Tammy back together in Tammy's dying days.

The info I got on the stations was from TBN's 35th anniversary special, which I recorded when it aired in 2008. I'm sure Paul Sr. mentions this in his autobiography as well. On the special I believe Paul mentioned working at KHOF-TV, but does not mention Gene Scott by name.
 
azumanga said:
TVCOOL said:
I'm suprised TBN don't have money problems given the current state of the economy.
Click to expand...
Then again, TBN did close down many of its low-powered repeaters due to economic problems, with many of those sold either to Daystar or the Minority Media and Telecommunications Council
Click to expand...

I can only find two stations sold by TBN to Daystar in the past 10 years. I'm surprised there were any, given the networks' frosty relationship with each other, especially since TBN sided with Orange County's Coast Community College in 2006, working against Daystar's effort to buy KOCE.

As for the stations transferred to MMTC, they were donated, not sold.
 
TVCOOL said:
I'm suprised TBN don't have money problems given the current state of the economy. What is their Average ratings lower than even the CW?.
Click to expand...

their tithers are dying off though, and they can't find a new generation to replace them
 
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