Family Radio
Family Radio is a non-profit Christian radio network based in Franklin, Tennessee, United States.
Established in 1959, Family Radio airs Calvinist teaching and Christian music. The network is most widely known for its false 2011 end times predictions. At one time the 19th largest broadcaster in the United States, with 216 radio stations, the number of stations in the network has dropped drastically following its false 2011 end times predictions.
Programming
One of Family Radio's oldest broadcasts was a telephone-talk program called Open Forum in which Harold Camping, the network's co-founder, president and general manager, responded to callers' questions and comments, as they relate to the Bible, and used the platform to promote his various end-time predictions. The program was finally cancelled not long after Camping's third failed "rapture-less" prediction and a stroke which he suffered in June 2011. Outside programming broadcast over the Family Radio network was limited as Camping considered the organized church apostate, and therefore devoid of God's Spirit and under Satan's control.History
Originally founded by Richard H. Palmquist, with the assistance of Harold Camping and Lloyd Lindquist as fellow members of the initial Board of Directors, Family Radio began obtaining FM broadcasting licenses on commercial frequencies in 1959, and by 2006, was ranked 19th among top broadcast companies in number of radio stations owned. Its first radio station, KEAR in San Francisco, California, then at 97.3 MHz, came on the air on Wednesday, February 4, 1959.In 1992, Family Radio began teaching that the Great Tribulation began in May 1988, and that the rapture would occur on September 6, 1994, later adjusting the predicted date to between September 15 and 27, 1994, and telling listeners not to make any long term plans. The network's promotion of these predictions caused some nations in Asia to prevent Family Radio from commencing operations in their countries.
Beginning in the late 1990s, Family Radio began gradually dropping outside ministries because of doctrinal changes in the network. As board members left the organization, they were not being replaced. Harold Camping's controversial teachings, as they were changing, became the focus of the entire network. Up until the late 1980s, Family Radio endorsed local church attendance but once Camping stated that the church age was over and that Satan had taken over the churches, he went on to say that people could no longer be saved within churches and that Christians should not be members or attend church services of any type. His actions led to mounting criticism from former supporters and led some Family Radio staff members to resign, as well as prompting some outside ministries to leave the network. The loss of these programs from the Family Radio schedule gave Camping more airtime to express his teachings. Around this time, former Family Radio employees, pastors, cult specialists, and others, began to publicly describe Family Radio as a cult.
Finances
By 1994, Family Radio owned 40 radio stations nationwide. Although listenership declined following its 1994 rapture prediction, the organization subsequently experienced a period of growth. By the start of its second major campaign, the network consisted of 216 AM and FM stations and two television channels.Family Radio reported a peak in financial assets of $135 million in 2007. During the second campaign, the organization's spending increased, resulting in a decline in net assets despite a steady rise in listener contributions. Total contributions exceeded $15 million in 2008. In 2009, the organization maintained an annual budget of $36.7 million, with $117 million in assets and $18.4 million in contributions. IRS records from that year indicate the network employed 348 people.
By 2010, assets decreased to $110 million while contributions rose to $18.7 million and staff levels remained stable at 346 employees. In 2011, contributions fell to $17.2 million and assets dropped to $87.6 million, accompanied by a reduction of 26 employees. By the conclusion of 2011, assets had further dropped to $29.2 million following a 70% drop in donations; the following year, the organization secured a $30 million loan.
2011 end times prediction
Leading up to May 2011, Family Radio spent in the vicinity of $100 million to advertise the now-discredited 2011 end times prediction. In the lead up to the predicted day of the rapture, many followers of Family Radio's teachings spent their life savings to donate to Family Radio or personally advertise the predicted rapture date. Others quit their jobs, sold their homes, and went into debt, relying on Camping's predictions. Several suicides were attributed to the station's apocalyptic teachings, and a woman in California tried to kill her two daughters and herself, believing that she was sparing them the tribulation that would occur following the rapture predicted by the station.The network's apocalyptic predictions, and its followers reactions to them, led to media descriptions of the network as a doomsday cult. Scholars of apocalyptic groups found the various responses among Family Radio's followers to be consistent with what they expected to see among members of a cult, with disillusioned followers concurring that Family Radio is a cult.
Two days after the forecast "Rapture" failed to happen, A Bible Answer, a Bible teaching ministry who had been tired of the "Rapture" predictions, offered to buy 66 full-powered radio stations from Family Radio founder Harold Camping in an effort to get him to resign from preaching this doctrine. The offer came with a catch – they were not to take possession of the stations until October 22, the day after Camping's revised set-date for the end of the world. A Bible Answer's website called for Camping to resign from the Family Radio board, citing "the self-proclaimed expert on the Bible has brought reproach upon Christ, the Bible, and the church," and added "After taking the money of his supporters, let Harold give up all he has, to show he believes what he is preaching. He does not or else he would sell. It is time to get new leadership at Family Radio."
Aftermath and network reorganization
On August 3, 2011, the radio industry website Radio-Info.com reported that Family Radio was putting two of its full-powered FM stations up for sale. These stations were: WKDN in Camden, New Jersey, and WFSI in Annapolis, Maryland. The article indicated that the network may have sold the stations to pay off "operating deficits accumulated over the last several years". WFSI would be purchased in November 2011 by CBS Radio, which converted the station to a Spanish language dance music format under the WLZL call sign. Merlin Media, LLC struck a deal in December 2011 to acquire WKDN, which was relaunched with a talk format under the WWIQ call sign. WWIQ was later sold to Educational Media Foundation in late 2013, and became WKVP, a K-Love affiliate station.In January 2012, Family Radio applied to the FCC to change the license of station WFME in Newark, New Jersey, near New York City, from non-commercial to commercial. The application quickly prompted conjecture from radio industry monitors that the station would soon be sold. The application was approved in February. Those rumors were confirmed on October 16, 2012, when it was announced that Family Stations would sell WFME to Atlanta-based Cumulus Media for an undisclosed price. A November message from Camping posted on the Family Radio website admitted, "Either we sell WFME or go off the air completely." The 94.7 signal would be relaunched as country-formatted station, WNSH. Concurrent with 94.7's sale to Cumulus, Family Radio purchased FM station WDVY in Mount Kisco, New York from Cumulus, which would soon after adopt Family Radio's programming and the WFME-FM callsign.
After 40 years on the air, WYFR, Family Radio's shortwave station located in Okeechobee, Florida, ceased operations on July 1, 2013. In December 2013, Radio Miami International, purchased the shortwave transmission complex and began broadcasting from there; the complex now operates under the WRMI call letters.
Harold Camping died from a fall on December 15, 2013, in his home in Alameda, California. His death was confirmed by an employee of the network. Following Camping's death, the network reaffirmed its commitment to his teachings, specifically the belief that all churches had become apostate, and that true Christians should not attend church.
On November 21, 2014, The Walt Disney Company announced it would sell WQEW in New York City to Family Radio for $12.95 million, part of Disney's decision to end terrestrial distribution of the Radio Disney format. The sale was approved on February 10, 2015, and the station returned on the air on February 27 as the new WFME, thus giving Family Radio full coverage of the New York City metropolitan area for the first time in two years. Concurrent with the sale, the FCC converted WFME's broadcasting status from commercial to non-commercial. WFME has since been taken off the air, following Family Radio's sale of its transmitter site.
During 2016, Family Radio moved its corporate offices and main studios from Oakland, where it had been based since the network's inception, to the adjacent East Bay city of Alameda.
In September 2018, Family Radio formally ceased airing all programs featuring the voice of Harold Camping and discontinued the distribution of his literature. This decision was a two-fold effort to move away from Camping's unorthodox theology and to reintroduce programming from outside Bible teaching ministries into the network's schedule. The shift included new programming from noted Calvinist teachers such as John MacArthur, John Piper, and R.C. Sproul.
In 2019, Family Radio announced that it would be moving its headquarters from Alameda, California, to Franklin, Tennessee. Following the move, in 2024, parent entity Family Stations was reorganized; its assets were transferred to a new Tennessee-based entity, Loam Media, with no change in ownership or management.