CBN: From $35 and a prayer to 50 years on the air

VIRGINIA BEACH

It would be, he promised, "a Christian station dedicated primarily to bring glory to Almighty God."

With just $35 on hand, Pat Robertson founded the Christian Broadcasting Network in January 1960. It took to the air in October 1961, operating out of a bare-bones studio in Portsmouth.

On a "700 Club" show earlier this year, his son Gordon, now the company's CEO, recalled a seat-of-the-pants family business in its early years: "Dad's running camera, Mom's on camera and there's nobody directing 'cause we couldn't afford a director."

The enterprise has gotten a little bigger and more businesslike in 50 years.

CBN has 2,200 employees - 900 in Virginia Beach - in more than 15 studios worldwide. It broadcasts 41 shows in 64 languages. "The 700 Club," its most popular program in English, gets 1 million viewers daily, the network estimates.

And its latest financial report shows that revenue and donations have continued to grow, even during the recession.

In the year that ended March 2009, the network's revenue increased 6 percent to a record $295.1 million - despite a $3 million loss in investment income - according to CBN's most recent tax statement.

Contributions and grants continue to account for more than 60 percent of revenue. They rose 6 percent, or $10.2 million, to $183.8 million.

For the subsequent 12-month period, unaudited statements show that revenue remained flat and large gifts grew scarcer, Gordon Robertson said.

Nevertheless, "in the category of 'all things working together for good' " - a reference to Romans 8:28 - "I can say right now that we're in a very good position," Gordon Robertson said in an interview last week on the "700 Club" set.

CBN's future prosperity, though, is far from assured.

Pat Robertson, who turned 80 last month, remains the network's public face, as the principal host of "The 700 Club." In an interview with The Virginian-Pilot this month, he dismissed the notion of retiring, saying, "Moses was just getting warmed up when he was 80."

Gordon substitutes for Pat on the show on Fridays, and both say he will succeed his father on air. But can Gordon maintain the draw of his charismatic yet controversial father?

"I think a lot of its popularity is due to Pat," said Alan Breznick, a media analyst with the research firm Heavy Reading outside Toronto. "Without Pat, it fades into the background a bit. I don't know if it has anything else that makes it stand out from the other religious networks."

And the competition, noted Tobe Berkovitz, an associate professor of communication at Boston University, is ballooning: More rivals, with the advent of "mega-churches," jostling for position in more venues, such as social networking outlets.

Gordon Robertson offered a sanguine response to the challenges of replacing his father and staying ahead in the Internet age.

It would be impossible, he said, to fill his father's shoes. Pat is a 13-1/2, Gordon's a size 9. His serious response struck a similar note: "I've come to some peace about it. If I try to be like him, it's a big mistake. Each one of us is uniquely made. You just have to be comfortable being yourself."

As for new media, Gordon Robertson noted that CBN last year launched three daily Internet newscasts and "The 700 Club Interactive," a separate TV show that incorporates

Skype calls, live chat, Facebook and Twitter.

"Sometimes I think we're keeping up," he said. "Sometimes I don't."

Breznick said: "They've gone pretty aggressively into the Web. They're a little late to the game, but they're trying real hard to make a push."

Gordon Robertson likes to point visitors to the plaque hanging outside the august Colonial-style studio headquarters: "This Gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations. Matthew 24:14."

"Dad wanted to make that our signature," he said, "a reminder of what our purpose was."

Back in the early '60s, the ambition was less lofty.

Sometimes, Gordon said, his dad walked to a grocery store down the block from the Portsmouth station to make sure it was still on TV. "One night, a rat crawled into the transmitter and blew us off the air," he said.

CBN launched "The 700 Club" in 1966. The one-hour show mixes news, conservative commentary, interviews, call-in prayer requests and donation appeals.

It's shown at 11 on weekday mornings on WAVY-TV. In that slot, its share - the percentage of households with TVs on that watch the show - has oscillated from 3 to 8 in the past five years, according to Nielsen data. Its rating - the percentage of households that own TVs and are tuned to the show - has ranged from 1.3 to 3.0.

"A 5-to-7 share is fairly respectable these days," said Breznick, the analyst.

The 1.3 rating, posted in February, "is a good number," Gordon Robertson said, though "we're working hard to improve that." Nationally, he said, the show's ratings fall between 0.7 and 0.9, which he said are slightly behind those of CNN talk show host Larry King.

In 1977, CBN was among the first networks to embrace cable, distributing its programs via satellite. Breznick called it "a big player in the early days of cable programming. It's not the biggest name anymore in religious programming. I don't know if there is one."

Even network supporters might not realize its global reach, Gordon Robertson said. "Ninety percent of what we do is done overseas," he said. CBN's most-watched show is not "The 700 Club," but an Indian variation, which he said draws 1.5 million viewers daily.

CBN also began Pat Robertson's humanitarian a-gen-cy, Operation Blessing International, in 1978. Operation Blessing became a separate entity, but it shares space, along with Regent University, on CBN's 700-acre campus in Virginia Beach.

"We work in tandem," Gordon Robertson said. CBN's board, he said, selects the members of Operation Blessing's board. The network donated $13.5 million to Operation Blessing in 2008-09, according to its tax filing.

Pat Robertson faced harsh criticism in the '90s after the disclosure that Operation Blessing planes were diverted for a diamond-mining venture in Africa. Robertson said he had planned to pour some mining profits back into the charity.

For one of his biographers, though, his actions involving another CBN offshoot proved far more scandalous.

The network's Family Channel, which promoted family-friendly entertainment, was spun off in 1990 to International Family Entertainment Inc., led by Pat Robertson and his son Tim. In 1997, that company was sold for $1.9 billion to Fox Kids Worldwide Inc., which later sold it to the Disney Co.

"He built this company by getting donations and then took this network and sold it for well over $1 billion," said David John Marley, who teaches history at Vanguard University of Southern California. "That's money that he and his sons got to keep.

"If it was a sex scandal, that would have destroyed his career," said Marley, the author of the 2007 book "Pat Robertson: An American Life."

"But nobody seemed to blink an eye."

In the recent interview with The Pilot, Pat Robertson noted that the sale resulted in a large endowment boost for Regent University, which held shares in International Family Entertainment.

"In retrospect, I'd say we sold it too cheap," he said.

Robertson, Marley said, "is very much a businessman. For him, it was all about making deals."

Jerry Horstmann, a former CBN employee, said Robertson has "a very keen business mind." But he offered a kinder assessment.

"He has a true heart for people to become Christian, to be healed and live a good life," said Horstmann, director of network operations and network programming at CBN from 1971 to 1981. "He's a man. We've all got our faults. But he's got incredible faith in God, and he has lived that faith, and that's why he's successful."

Robertson also has drawn ridicule for fiery statements he's made on "The 700 Club," most recently involving Haiti. After the devastating earthquake in January, he said Haitians centuries ago "swore a pact to the devil."

In the Pilot interview, Robertson said, "As for Haiti, the truth is that the country has given itself over to voodoo."

Marley said, "Some of it is because he's used to saying whatever he wants. In the environment of his empire, nobody questions him."

Though such comments have generated criticism, "the outrageous statements probably help with the core viewership," Breznick said.

And Robertson, Marley said, can transform the subsequent attacks against him into "a good fund raising tool."

History has shown, in fact, that CBN suffers far more when Robertson is away than when he lets loose.

When he left CBN for his unsuccessful run for president in 1988, donations plummeted and the network laid off hundreds of employees.

After he ended his campaign, he told The Pilot's editorial board: "I did not realize that my personal presence on 'The 700 Club' was as important as it is to the audience."

Correspondent Larry Bonko contributed to this report.

Philip Walzer, (757) 222-3864, phil.walzer@pilotonline.com