Trinity Broadcasting Network

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Trinity Broadcasting Network
Typereligious broadcasting
radio network
Country
United States of America
AvailabilityNational; broadcast worldwide
Official website
www.tbn.org

The Trinity Broadcasting Network, or TBN, is the largest Christian (and largest religious) television network in the world. Founded by Paul Crouch, Jan Crouch, Jim Bakker, and Tammy Bakker in 1973, the network now has a larger U.S. viewership than its three main competitor networks combined. It owns twenty-three U.S. full-power television stations and 252 low-power rural stations, and boasts five million viewer households per week in the U.S. TBN is carried on over six thousand television stations in the U.S., and on thousands of cable television systems in seventy-five countries around the world, where its programs are translated into eleven languages.

History

TBN began in 1973 when the elder Crouches, along with Jim and Tammy Bakker (formerly affiliated with Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network), rented air time on a local UHF channel in Santa Ana, California. TBN, then known as the Trinity Broadcasting Systems, spread from UHF stations to cable outlets and then to satellite distribution. After a falling-out between the Crouches, Jim and Tammy left to start the PTL 'Praise The Lord' network.

Recently, TBN has been purchasing independent television stations to gain cable carriage, due to FCC must-carry rules. As a result, TBN is available to 95% of American households, as of early 2005. [1]

According to the TBN website, TBN has several hundred affiliate stations, although just 61 of these stations are regular UHF or VHF stations. The rest are low-powered stations, requiring a viewer to be within several miles of the transmitter. The network has grown to 47 satellites and 12,500 affiliates, reaching nearly 100,000,000 households globally.

Today, Paul Crouch is TBN's president and chairman, Jan Crouch is its vice-president and director of programming, and their son Paul Jr. is its vice president of administration. The network maintains production deals with their other son, Matthew. TBN is currently is largest and most influential Christian cable network in the country (followed by Daystar Television Network and INSP Networks), and is the ninth largest broadcaster in the United States.

TBN's worldwide networks

In addition to their flagship network, TBN also offers other cable/satellite channels in the United States. They include:

In Europe TBN offers a mix of American and European Christian programming via "TBN Europe", "TBN Italy" (Italian language) and "TBN Russia" (Russian language).

In the Middle East, TBN operates an Arabic language channel called "Kanat al-Shefaa", which translated means "The Healing Channel".

In Africa, TBN broadcasts their programming via TBN South Africa and TBN Family Media in Kenya.

In Central and South America, TBN broadcasts via TBN Enlace which consists of Spanish language programming. Enlace Juvenil is their Spanish youth-oriented network.

Asia is reached by TBN Philippines, and TBN South Pacific covers Australia, New Zealand and the surrounding islands.

As of 2005 TBN's broadcast signals are carried by 48 satellites and cover every inhabited continent.

Revenue & Assets

TBN generates nearly $190 million in revenue annually. It does not air commercials; rather, two-thirds of its revenue comes from viewer contributions and one-third from other televangelists' payments for running their programming. Its $120 million donation revenue is larger than any other television ministry. It has posted average annual surpluses since 1997 of about $60 million. It holds two week-long fundraising telethons per year, as well as numerous other solicitation drives. It maintains a direct mail database of 1.2 million names.

As of 2002, it boasted $583 million in assets, including $238 million in government-backed securities and $31 million in cash. Also among its assets are a $7.2 million Canadair Turbojet and thirty houses in California, Texas and Ohio with values ranging up to $8 million.

The elder Crouches and their son Paul Jr. earn an estimated combined annual income of $850,000. In September 2004, the Los Angeles Times characterized their personal lifestyle as a "life of luxury." The network reports that during the first twenty years of the network's operation, Paul and Jan were paid roughly one-tenth their current income, with the amounts rising in the past ten years as they approached retirement.

Criticism

The network has attracted criticism for its continuous fundraising activities, including the frequent promotion of the "prosperity gospel," an offshoot of the Word of Faith doctrine that appears to promise donors, including impecunious ones, that God will make them rich as long as they have faith and give to TBN. Paul Crouch has made statements to his viewers such as, "Have you got something that you have been praying about ten, fifteen, twenty years? You have been praying for it and haven't gotten it...," and that people haven't received it because they haven't given their ten percent. During a 1997 program, he conversely said, "If you have been healed or saved or blessed through TBN and have not contributed...you are robbing God and will lose your reward in heaven." The network reports that seventy percent of its donations are in amounts under fifty dollars.

According to a September 12 2004 Los Angeles Times story, Paul Crouch Sr. paid Enoch Lonnie Ford $425,000 in 1998 as a settlement over what Ford argued was an unjust dismissal from working at TBN. The settlement contained several other points, among them an agreement for Ford to be silent about an alleged homosexual encounter they had had in 1996 at a TBN-owned cabin near Lake Arrowhead, California.

In a statement released on September 22 2004, TBN denied Crouch had a homosexual affair with Ford, but confirmed the payment of the $425,000 settlement.[2]

The Associated Press also cited the recent newspaper reports about the Crouches' "lavish lifestyle" as well as ongoing rumors of marital strife between Paul Sr. and Jan. Paul Crouch staunchly maintains that these accusations are completely false, and has voiced regret that he listened to his lawyers' advice to settle out of court. The former employee, who violated the terms of the settlement, has a criminal past.

The network canceled its November 2004 Praise-A-Thon fundraising telethon in favor of showing forty hours of reruns from past telethons. Network officials blamed the cancellation mostly on health concerns for both Paul and Jan Crouch, the latter of whom had gall bladder surgery at the time. They also said the cancellation would take pressure off other religious figures who would have appeared on the live telethon.

Paul Crouch Jr. voiced his belief that other ministries were concerned that "they are going to be next on the hit list." R. Marie Griffith, a Princeton University scholar studying evangelical Christianity and the media, said that "to take the live broadcasting off...suggests...the chaos" at TBN.

Radio

An audio relay of the station is available on:

  • KTBN Superpower Radio
  • 7505 kHz
  • 15590 kHz

Studios

Trinity Christian City International in Costa Mesa, California

TBN broadcasts from its International Production Center in Irving, Texas near Dallas and from its Trinity Christian City International facility in Costa Mesa, California. It also operates Trinity Music City USA (the former estate of country music player Conway Twitty) in Nashville, Tennessee. The complex attracts thousands of visitors every week, and includes the 2000-seat Trinity Music City Church Auditorium, which hosts TBN-produced concerts, dramas, seminars and special events.

Movies

TBN has produced a number of major Christian movies. They include "The Revolutionary" and "The Revolutionary II," based on the life of Jesus; "The Emissary," a film on the life of the apostle Paul, "The Omega Code", "Carman: The Champion", "Megiddo", "Time Changer", "Six: The Mark Unleashed", and "One Night with the King."

Programming

Adult programming

TBN is an ecumenical Christian network, showing mostly ministers from the charismatic and Pentecostal movements, plus secular celebrities sharing their religious faith to the public. Its cornerstone program is Praise the Lord, a two-hour nightly program featuring talk, music, and prayer. As of 2005, programs on the network include:

Children's Programming

On Christmas Eve of 2005, TBN started an all-Christian, all-children's network titled Smile of a Child. TBN also airs children's programming on Saturday morning starting at 4:30 A.M central time. Many of these shows can be used by local affiliates to fulfill Federal educational "E/I" requirements.

See Also

External links

Official

Critical

and Infamous"] Capitalizing on Christianity has proved to be far more lucrative than starting a new religion

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