The Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) is an American conservative evangelical religious television network and production company. Founded by televangelist Pat Robertson, its headquarters and main studios are based in Virginia Beach, Virginia, United States. CBN has been described as having been "at the forefront of the culture wars since the network's inception in the early 1960s."
Video Christian Broadcasting Network
Background
CBN was founded in 1960 in Portsmouth, Virginia by Pat Robertson, who had recently become a born-again Christian. In late 1961, he began broadcasting religious content, funded by small donations from individuals and local churches. One of the company's mainstays is The 700 Club, which uses a religious variety program that mixes sermons, interviews, and religious music (such as hymns and gospel). The name refers to a fundraising drive where Robertson successfully sought 700 viewers willing to contribute $10 a month to sustain the station. The 700 Club is the longest-running program in the variety format, which has been successfully used in religious broadcasting ever since. Initially focused on devotional content, The 700 Club became increasingly political in the late 1970s, adding news segments.
Today, the network's journalistic branch, CBN News, provides news updates to The 700 Club and produces religious news programs such as CBN NewsWatch and Christian World News; it also produces a special hour-long block of prime time election coverage hosted by Robertson during American presidential and mid-term elections, airing on Freeform, which also carries The 700 Club and the half-hour talk show 700 Club Interactive. CBN also operates online channels on its website, such as the CBN News Channel.
CBN Asia manages Operation Blessing International Relief and Development Corporation (OBI), an international relief and missionary effort, and has international programming, producing local programs including Solusi in Indonesia and From Heart to Heart in Thailand; CBN India produces three shows, a daily Hindi program Ek Nayee Zindagi, a bi-weekly Telugu program Nireekshana and an award-winning weekly Bengali program Samadhan. The company also produces versions of The 700 Club aimed at Latin American (Club 700 Hoy) and British audiences (The 700 Club With Paul and Fiona). CBN has broadcast programs in over 70 languages.
On April 29, 1977, CBN launched a religious cable network, the CBN Satellite Service. The channel was later revamped as the CBN Cable Network in 1981, and began incorporating secular programming alongside religious content. In August 1988, it rebranded as The CBN Family Channel (later dropping the "CBN" name outright in September 1990), before selling it to International Family Entertainment (owned by Robertson's son, Timothy) two years later as the network became too profitable for CBN to maintain its nonprofit status. In September 1990, it rebranded as The Family Channel. IFE later sold it to News Corporation in 1997 (rebranding it as the Fox Family Channel in August 1998), which later sold it to The Walt Disney Company in 2001 (and rebranding it as ABC Family, now known as Freeform). The terms of the sale to International Family Entertainment stipulated that the channel continue carrying two CBN programs, including The 700 Club. It is often thought the deal stipulated that the channel maintain the word "Family" in its name in perpetuity, however this was later dismissed by network executives as an urban legend.
CBN now serves mainly as a production company for The 700 Club, and four other syndicated shows: CBN NewsWatch , Christian World News, 700 Club Interactive and The Brody File, a news-analysis program hosted by political journalist David Brody. CBN and Regent University jointly produced the film First Landing.
Some of CBN's programs also air on Sky Angel, the Trinity Broadcasting Network, Cornerstone Television, FamilyNet, LeSEA, TCT and Middle East Television (which was founded and owned by CBN, until it was sold to LeSEA in the early 2000s), all of which are Evangelical Christian networks. The secular commercial stations that continue to air The 700 Club in syndication (along with Freeform) air CBN's annual telethon during the last week of January.
Maps Christian Broadcasting Network
Broadcast stations
CBN entered into the broadcasting industry in 1960, when Robertson founded WYAH-TV (channel 27) in Portsmouth, Virginia - the group's flagship station - which signed on in October 1961. The organization's broadcasting unit, the Continental Broadcasting Corporation, ran it as a family-oriented independent station - featuring a mix of religious programming (which took up most of its stations' Sunday schedules) and secular acquired programs, including westerns, sitcoms, drama series and children's programming - a format that would be later adopted by the LeSEA Broadcasting Corporation when it began launching its own television stations in the 1970s.
CBN later signed on WHAE-TV (channel 46) in Atlanta, Georgia in June 1971. In January 1973, CBN purchased KBFI-TV (channel 33) in Dallas, Texas and changed its callsign to KXTX-TV; that April, CBN and Doubleday Broadcasting became involved in a license swap in which Doubleday swapped KDTV (channel 39) to CBN in exchange for the channel 33 license, shutting down that station; while the KXTX-TV calls, existing programs and programming donated to CBN by Doubleday moved to channel 39. Finally, it signed on WXNE-TV (channel 25) in Boston in October 1977.
CBN gradually sold its stations during the late 1980s and 1990s. Continental Broadcasting sold what at the time became WANX-TV in 1984 to the Tribune Company, which converted it into general entertainment independent station WGNX; WXNE was sold to the News Corporation in January 1987, becoming a Fox owned-and-operated station; and WYAH was sold to the TVX Broadcast Group five years later in 1989. It retained ownership of KXTX until 2000, when it sold the station to NBC, which converted it into a Telemundo owned-and-operated station.
From 1969 to 1982, CBN also owned a simulcast network of five FM radio stations in upstate New York (WBIV in Wethersfield, WEIV in Ithaca, WJIV in Cherry Valley, WMIV in South Bristol and WOIV in DeRuyter), known as CBN Northeast; the stations originally signed on in 1948 by a farming cooperative as the Rural Radio Network. This station group was split up after CBN sold the licenses to separate owners.
Former television stations
In addition, CBN planned to build a television station in Richmond, Virginia, WRNX on UHF channel 63. However, CBN sold the construction permit for that station to National Capitol Christian Television in 1982, which signed on the station as WTLL in 1984. That station was eventually sold and in 1986, converted into secular independent station WVRN-TV, which shut down in 1988.
Former radio stations
Programs
Current
- The 700 Club - a daily newsmagazine that debuted in 1966, one of the longest runs of any program within that genre; the program is hosted by Pat Robertson, Terry Meeuwsen and Gordon Robertson. The 700 Club features a daily news segment with commentary on certain stories, as well as interviews; it is distributed to an average daily audience of one million viewers, both on cable and through syndication.
- Club 700 Hoy - a half-hour weekly Spanish-language version of The 700 Club that is syndicated throughout Latin America, and previously aired in the United States on Azteca America. The magazine-style formatted morning program features opinions on current issues; interviews; informative features; stories about people, places and music; and life advice.
- CBN NewsWatch - produced by CBN News, it is a half-hour daily news program featuring reports on national and international news stories from a conservative, Christian perspective. It is broadcast nationally on several Christian-oriented cable and satellite networks.
- Christian World News - produced by CBN News, it is a half-hour weekly conservative news program, that is broadcast nationally on the Trinity Broadcasting Network.
- One Cubed USA and One Cubed International - aimed at teenagers and young adults between the ages of 13 and 24 years of age, the two programs focus on youth culture, action sports and music videos. It claims a mission statement "to reach this generation to express the unconditional love and salvation that God freely offered to everyone in this world. In everything that is One Cubed, we want to bring glory to God, never compromising and never settling, and always striving to be used by Him to the best of our abilities".
Notable personalities
Current
- Pat Robertson - co-host of The 700 Club
- David Brody - host of The Brody File
- Terry Meeuwsen - co-host of The 700 Club and 700 Club Interactive
- Chuck Holton - military correspondent
Former
- Ben Kinchlow
- Lee Webb - anchor of The 700 Club and CBN NewsWatch (now at Ligonier Ministries)
References
External links
- Official website
Source of article : Wikipedia
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