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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 their failed end times predictions.
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." Christian Radio Host Says to Abandon Church", Los Angeles Times. January 25, 2003. Retrieved August 30, 2024. 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.
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. "A year after the non-apocalypse: where are they now?". Religion Dispatches. May 18, 2012. Retrieved August 15, 2024.
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." Family Radio gets a $1 million offer to sell their 66 stations – Radio-Info.com (released May 30, 2011) Goodbye Harold – A Bible Answer (released May 23, 2011)
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 music station, WXBK. 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 WYMK 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, WRMI, purchased the shortwave transmission complex and began broadcasting from there; the complex now operates under the WRMI call letters.McLane, Paul. " WRMI Beefs Up, Big Time", Radio World. January 3, 2014. Retrieved August 28, 2024.
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 (AM), 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 announced it would no longer air programs featuring the voice of Harold Camping, and would no longer distribute literature of Camping's teachings. The decision was made as part of an effort to both move away from Camping's theology, and to reintroduce programs from outside ministries into the network's schedule. The changes went into effect on October 8, 2018.
In 2019, Family Radio announced that it would be moving its headquarters from Alameda, California, to Franklin, Tennessee. Family Radio Building New Headquarters (via hisair.net) 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.
Financial strength hit a peak in 2007 when Family Radio reported $135 million in assets. As net assets declined from that point forward, listener contributions steadily increased. Upon the outset of the second campaign, the organizations assets dropped while contributions simultaneously rose indicating an increased level of spending by the organization, far surpassing the increase in income. In 2008, total contributions were well over $15 million.Gary Cook, "Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax," ed. IRS (Washington DC2009). 2009 saw an annual budget of $36.7 million with $117 million in assets and $18.4 million in contributions. IRS records also indicate that Family Radio employed 348 persons in 2009.Cook, "Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax." In 2010 assets were down to $110 million while contributions rose to $18.7 million while the station maintained 346 employees."Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax," ed. IRS (Washington DC2010). In 2011 contributions fell to $17.2 million and assets dropped to $87.6 million, while the organization also lost 26 employees."Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax," ed. IRS (Washington DC2011). By the end of 2011 the organizations assets had dropped to $29.2 million, and the next year was forced to take out a $30 million loan.
As a result of spending millions of dollars to promote his "end of the world" theory, many people sold everything they owned and donated it to Family Radio, sometimes even hundreds of thousands of dollars. The California Attorney General's office has been asked by the Freedom from Religion Foundation to investigate Camping and Family Stations, Inc. for "Fraud and Deceit".
After leaving the Christian Reformed Church in 1987, Camping taught doctrines that largely conflicted with traditional Christian teaching. The principles of Biblical hermeneutics upon which Camping framed his present teachings are:
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. For several years after Camping's death in 2013, Family Radio continued to air some of his past broadcasts and distribute his literature. But in October 2018, Family Radio discontinued using any of Camping's commentary and content, after outside ministries expressed a reluctance to allow their shows on the network while Camping's programs aired, stating "so much of it still contains elements that are very difficult."
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Notes:
In addition to its full-powered stations, Family Radio is relayed by an additional 20 FM translators:
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