Family Radio
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Family Radio (Family Stations Inc.) is a non-commercial, traditional, 24-hour, listener-supported, Christian radio religious broadcasting network in the United States, founded in 1959 by Harold Camping, also known as "Brother Camping" and is based in Oakland, California. The network consists mainly of FM radio stations with non-commercial licenses (and a few commercial licenses used as non-commercial) and relays, with some AM stations and a television station, plus WYFR shortwave in Okeechobee, Florida. The network produces programming in more than 30 languages.[1] [2]
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[edit] Programming
Family Radio's music programming consists mainly of early American hymnals and avoids other genres generally, Contemporary Christian Music and southern gospel specifically.
One of Family Radio's most enduring broadcasts is a call-in broadcast called "Open Forum" in which Mr. Camping responds to callers' questions and comments as they relate to the Bible. "Family Bible Reading Fellowship", "Family Bible Study", "Sunday Preaching", "Beyond Intelligent Design", "Christian Home", and "Family Radio World Wide" are examples of other programming offered[3].
[edit] Support
Family Radio relies solely on listener-supported funding and donations, and is unaffiliated with any religious denomination[4]. Outside programming broadcasted over the Family Radio network is always aired free of charge and Family Radio does not sell programming time to ministries. Unlike other non-commercial stations, Family Radio stations do not get a percentage of donations coming from ministries in Family Radio listening areas. Few outside ministry programs are aired over Family Radio presently.
[edit] Politics
Family Radio has neither discussed politics directly, campaigned for political candidates nor recommended to their listeners candidates, or issues, for whom they should vote. Family Radio attempts to distance itself from political social issues -- one reason the "Focus on the Family" progam was removed in the early 1980s. Nevertheless, Family Radio has presented programs that may have political and social ramifications, such as advocating creationism [5].
[edit] History
Family Radio (aka Family Stations Inc.) began obtaining FM broadcasting licenses on commercial frequencies earlier in FM radio's history, and by 2006, was ranked 19th among top broadcast companies in number of radio stations owned [6]. Presently, Family Radio's affiliates in New York City, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, and San Francisco are on prime commercial frequencies and the licenses of these stations alone may be worth hundreds of millions of dollars if sold today.
In 1958, a Family Radio founder,Harold Camping, joined with other individuals of Christian Reformed, Bible Baptist, and Conservative Christian Presbyterian to purchase an FM radio station in San Francisco, California, KEAR, then at 97.3 MHz, to broadcast traditional Christian Gospel to the conservative Protestant community and minister to the general public. With the primary purpose of broadcasting doctrines of Christianity reflective of the teachings of the Holy Bible, Family Radio remained independent, never merging with any particular church organization or church denominations [7]
Through the 1960s, as a ministry, both non-profit organization and non-commercial, Family Radio acquired 6 additional FM stations and 7 other AM stations under guidelines established by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) [8]. The flagship station for the network of both full-power and low-power translator stations is KEAR in San Francisco (now at 610 kHz, since 2005 at 106.9 MHz).Due to FCC rules regarding translator stations, the legal primary station for the translators was changed to KEAR-FM in Sacramento, after the former primary FM station in San Francisco was sold to CBS Radio[9].
With the sale of KEAR-FM to CBS Radio in 2005, broadcasts from San Francisco moved to an AM radio frequency[10]. Family Radio continues to own other large market FM commercial band stations, including WFME 94.7 MHz Newark, NJ in the New York City radio market.
Many program productions broadcast throughout the Family Radio station network were produced in the Oakland, California facilities. The production process involved pre-recording two weeks of broadcast programming on reel-to-reel tapes to be distributed to each Local Family Radio station. Free broadcast time was provided by Family Radio to national fundamentalist and evangelical ministries -- outside ministries' programs were sent in cassette and reel-to-reel tape formats to respective Family Radio stations for local broadcast. Each local Family Radio station had local board operators providing local news, announcements, local traffic reports via phone call-in, and weather reports broadcast during morning and afternoon weekdays. Outside ministry programs included "Focus on the Family" (which was pulled in 1985), "Freedom Under Fire", "Unshackled", "Back to the Bible", "Family News in Focus", and Beyond intelligent design. Local Family Radio stations broadcast church services from local community fundamentalism churches, and a remainder of Family Radio's broadcast time was allocated to traditional Christian music.
By the late 1980s, programming was delivered via satellite, local news was taken off the stations in favor of a various national news from a Christian news source, and presently, all but a few local announcements are produced at their Oakland, California facilities [2].
Music broadcast by Family Radio in the 1960s and 1970s was typical of religious stations, commercial and non-commercial. Some commercial stations played Contemporary Christian Music (CCM) for a few hours a week, but in the 1980s, as commercial and some non-commercial Christian stations evolved to Contemporary formats, Family Radio remained with traditional music formats such as choir hymns, various Gospel singing groups, vocalists of the 1950s, and softer urban contemporary gospel songs. In the 1990s, Family Radio included some lighter contemporary Christian artists but abandoned this direction by 2002.
Family Radio's text publications, and their telephone call-in program, "Open Forum," have continued to be based on the text of the authorized King James Bible[11][12]. Prerecorded Bible readings broadcast over satellite, shortwave, radio frequencies and the internet are generally based on the Modern King James Bible[13].
[edit] Translators
In addition to the main station, KEAR-FM is relayed by an additional 54 translators to widen it's broadcast area.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
[edit] References
- ^ Family Radio Worldwide. Family Radio. 21 January 2008 <http://www.familyradio.com/index.htm>
- ^ a b Family Stations, Inc., Goliath Business Knowledge on Demand, <http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/product-compint-0001274570-page.html>
- ^ Family Radio broadcast programs, Family Stations, Inc., <http://209.10.202.163/english/connect/broadcast/zone_sched/>
- ^ Family Radio General Information, Family Stations, Inc., <http://www.familyradio.com/english/admin/>
- ^ Family Radio Monday/Friday Program Schedule, Family Stations, Inc., <http://www.familyradio.com/english/connect/broadcast/zone_sched/cst.html>
- ^ State of the News Media 2006., Journalism.org, <http://www.stateofthenewsmedia.org/2006/printable_radio_ownership.asp?>
- ^ Who or What is Family Radio?, Family Stations, Inc., <http://www.familyradio.com/english/connect/bio/haroldcamping_bio.html>
- ^ Multiple Ownership;Radio Broadcast Stations, Small Business Administration, <http://www.sba.gov/advo/laws/comments/dfcc02_0313.txt>. Retrieved on 22 May 2008
- ^ Infinity Broadcasting, CBS RADIO pressroom, <http://www.cbsradio.com/press_center/releases/pressrelease124011-04-18-2005.html>. Retrieved on 22 May 2008
- ^ Family Stations, KEAR 610 AM, Radiotime your guide to radio, <http://radiotime.com/station/s_44534/Family_Radio_Network_610.aspx>. Retrieved on 22 May 2008
- ^ Family Stations text Bible. FamilyStations, Inc..
- ^ Harold Camping. Open forum/text, authorized King James. FamilyStations, Inc.. Retrieved on 2008-05-30.
- ^ Family Stations audio Bible. Family Stations, Inc..
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