This is the only donation like this we've heard of, but Family Radio has been on around the world and in all those US markets for about 50-years. This is the kind of end of life donation on which organizations like this build their perpetual war chests. This size bequest in the hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars is probably fairly routine. There have been a lot of elderly people who have found a lot of hope and faith thanks to the electronic friends at Family Radio. Its been there for them at their bedside 24/7, they appreciate that, and remember Family Radio in their wills, for when they don't need money any more.
As a legitimate non-profit, Family Radio pays no taxes. It has owned most of the stations for years, and bought or built the big ones when FM licenses were dirt cheap, and has probably long since payed them off. It may have enough in capital to run its stations just from interest or investment income on its war chest.
It has a very efficient operating structure with only a few, probably, low paid employees at each station, with most of the programming coming out of the Oakland headquarters.
And the guy at the top, Camping, reportedly doesn't even take a salary, or any money from the operation and there are probably a lot of other volunteers involved too. Camping reportedly made a good living as a licensed civil engineer.
To the organization's credit, it spends quite a bit on broadcasting to people and places where it can't expect to get much money back in donations. It has that large shortwave facility in Florida that broadcasts to the world, and it buys time on international radio stations all over the world.
I have never been a believer in much of what Camping says, but you have the give the guy credit for building an efficient organization that will likely last over the long term long after he is gone. It is organized well, and it seems the only time he has sold stations was when he was able to make money by selling a local commercial license and buying or starting an equivalent signal on a non-commercial frequency.
It's been a very smart and seemingly legitimate operation all along. What's happened in the last two decades is that Camping has taken his undeniable success and his own skills and importance way too seriously. This end of the world mess is a classic illustration of the value of retirement, at some point after 70 years of age. Over the years, Camping has gotten more and more delusional, and it may just be a medical problem like age related dementia slowly kicking in. He should have long since taken an emeritus status and passed management of the operation over to younger successors.
No matter what, we shouldn't be too delusional ourselves in thinking Family Radio is going to sell off any licenses or have them taken away because his prediction was wrong. Things are probably set up so that WFME and the other licenses stay with a well financed family radio well into the future, and long after Harold Camping reaches his own inevitable "end of the world."
