Family Radio, also known by its licensee name Family Stations Inc., is a Christian radio network based in Oakland, California, USA, founded by Lloyd Lindquist, Richard H. Palmquist and Harold Camping.[1] 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 two television stations, plus WYFR shortwave in Okeechobee, Florida. The network produces programming in more than 40 languages.[2][3]
Family Radio is best known for the false predictions made on the air by Harold Camping. He has predicted that that the Rapture would occur on four different occasions; first he said it would happen in September 1994, then he revised the date to March 1995. More recently on May 21, 2011, his third prediction attracted worldwide media interest. Following the failure of that prediction, the Family Radio website was updated to a new design that falls back to the date of October 21, 2011 for the end of the world, which originally was the end of the "five months of torment" including:
"We always look at the word 'earthquake' to mean the earth, or ground, is quaking or shaking violently. However, in the Bible the word 'earth' can include people as well as ground.
"In Genesis 2:7 we read:
'And Jehovah God formed man of the dust of the ground…' Thus the word 'earthquake' can also be understood to teach that mankind shakes from the cold. Therefore we have learned from our experience of last May 21 what actually happened. All of mankind was shaken with fear. Indeed the earth (or mankind) did quake in a way it had never before been shaken."[4]
To see earlier versions of the Family Radio site one may go to the Internet Archive Wayback Machine.[5]
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Family Radio's music programming consists mainly of early American hymns and avoids other genres generally, including Contemporary Christian Music and southern gospel.
One of Family Radio's oldest broadcasts was a call-in program called "Open Forum" in which Harold Camping, the station's president, responded to callers' questions and comments as they relate to the Bible and he 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. Other programs include "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.[6]
Family Radio relies solely on listener-supported funding and donations, and is unaffiliated with any other religious denomination.[7] Outside programming broadcast over the Family Radio network is limited as Camping considers the organized church "apostate", and therefore devoid of God's Spirit and under Satan's control.
Family Radio had net assets of approximately $122 million in 2007[8] and received $18.3 million in donations in 2009.[9]
Family Radio spent over US$100 million on the information campaign for Camping's 2011 end times prediction, financed by sales and swap of broadcast outlets.[10]
Family Radio does not discuss politics directly, campaign for political candidates, or endorse candidates or issues. Family Radio attempts to distance itself from political and social issues. Nevertheless, Family Radio has presented programs that may have political and social ramifications, such as those that advocate creationism.[11]
Family Radio began obtaining FM broadcasting licenses on commercial frequencies early in FM's history, and by 2006, was ranked 19th among top broadcast companies in number of radio stations owned.[12] Currently, 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 [13]
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) .[14] 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.[15]
With the sale of KEAR-FM to CBS Radio in 2005, broadcasts from San Francisco moved to an AM radio frequency.[16] 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 distributed to each local Family Radio station for broadcast on the specified date. 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. Popular network announcers and the programs they hosted included Jon Arthur (The Quiet Hours, Big Jon & Sparky, Radio Reading Circle); Omar Andeel (The Morning Clock); Harold Hall (The Christian Home); Ken Boone (Music to Live By); Bob Swenson (Transition); and Jerry Edinger (Nightwatch). Each local Family Radio station had local board operators providing world, national, and local news and weather at various intervals throughout the day; regular public service announcements and daily public affairs programming; and local traffic reports via phone call-in during morning and afternoon weekdays. Outside ministry programs included "Focus on the Family", "Freedom Under Fire", "Unshackled", "Back to the Bible", "Family News in Focus", "Beyond Intelligent Design", and "Walk with the King" with Dr. Robert A. Cook. This last program still airs today, although now often edited in places deemed incompatible with Camping's odd end-times and "apostate church" doctrinal stands.
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 all but a few local announcements are produced at their Oakland, California facilities.[3]
Beginning in the late 1990s, Family Radio began gradually dropping outside ministries because of doctrinal changes in the ministry. As board members left the ministry, they were not being replaced. Harold Camping's views as they were changing became the focus of the entire ministry. Up until the late 1980s, Family Radio endorsed local church attendance but once Camping stated the church age was over, they now claim that Christians should NOT be members or attend church services of any type. Today Family Radio produces 95 % of their programming and runs very few outside ministries. Most teaching programs were hosted by Harold Camping himself up until June 2011; after Camping suffered a stroke, his programs were gradually phased out.
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 a mainly traditional music format composed of choir hymns, various Gospel singing groups such as the Bill Gaither Trio, Christian college choirs, instrumental orchestral hymn renditions from conductors such as Paul Mickelson and Ralph Carmichael, vocalists such as George Beverly Shea, Frank Boggs, Doug Oldham, Mahalia Jackson, John McGill, Dave Boyer, and others, and softer urban contemporary gospel songs. From the 1970s onward, Family Radio included a few selected tracks from some lighter contemporary Christian artists such as Maranatha, Pam Mark Hall, Cynthia Clawson, the New Creation Singers, Ken Medema, Michael Card, Steve Green and others, but largely abandoned this direction by the early 2000s, although this genre is still occasionally heard.
In the mid to late 1970s there began a policy of not announcing the names of artists behind the music aired. Listeners had to write in for information about music heard that they were interested in.
Family Radio's text publications, continue to be based on the text of the authorized King James Bible.[17][18] Prerecorded Bible readings broadcast over satellite, shortwave, radio frequencies and the internet are generally based on the Modern King James Bible.[19]
Leading up to May 2011, Family Radio spent millions of dollars to advertise the incorrect 2011 end times prediction.[20]
Two days after the supposed rapture didn't happen, A Bible Answer (a Bible teaching ministry) has offered to buy 66 full-powered radio stations from Family Radio founder Harold Camping in an effort to get him to resign from preaching such false doctrine. The offer comes with a catch though - they will not take possession of the stations until October 22, the day after Camping's new set-date for the end of the world. A Bible Answer's website calls 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 adds "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."[21][22]
On August 3, 2011, the radio industry website Radio-Info.com reported that Family Radio was putting two of its stations up for sale: WKDN in Philadephia and WFSI in Annapolis, Maryland (covering the Washington, DC and Baltimore areas); the article indicated that the ministry may have sold the stations to pay off "operating deficits accumulated over the last several years".[23] WFSI would be purchased in November 2011 by CBS Radio, which converted the station to a Spanish language dance music format under the WBGR call sign. Merlin Media, LLC struck a deal in December 2011 to acquire WKDN, which it will likely convert to an all-news format if the sale is approved.[24]
Central to Family Radio's and Camping's teaching is the belief that the Bible is the Word of God and completely true. However, he emphasizes, this does not mean that each sentence in the Bible is to be understood only literally. Rather, the meaning of individual Biblical passages needs to be interpreted in the light of two factors. The first is the context of the Bible as a whole. The second is its spiritual meaning: in Camping's words, "the Bible is an earthly story with a Heavenly meaning." In Camping's latest publication, "We are Almost There!",[25] he stated that certain Biblical passages pointed unquestionably to May 21, 2011 as the date of "Rapture", and pointed to October 21, 2011 as the end of the world. This event did not occur on 21 May or 21 October. No acknowledgement of false teaching has yet been offered concerning the 21 October event.[26] The organization's website became inaccessible early that day, and wasn't reachable until the early morning of May 22.
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. One of the documented attempted suicides is of a woman who even went so far as to slit her children's throats before she tried to kill herself, in order to "save them from having to live through the tribulation". All three survived.[27]
The California Atty. General's office has been asked by the Freedom from Religion Foundation to investigate Camping and Family Stations, Inc. for "Fraud and Deceit".[28]
Since leaving the Reformed Church in 1988, Camping has taught doctrines that largely conflict with doctrines of the Reformed Church and traditional Christian teaching. The principles of Biblical hermeneutics upon which Camping frames his present teachings are:
Examples of how Camping's teachings depart from mainstream doctrines are:
Eutelsat Hotbird 6 - 13 degrees east, Transponder # 89, Vertical LNB polarization; Satellite frequency: 12.597 GHz
Astra 2B - 28.2° east, Transponder # 36, Vertical LNB polarization, Satellite frequency: 12.4024 GHz
Family Radio can be heard in English from the following local international stations:
Family Radio also offered international coverage via Short Wave Radio in several languages.
In addition to its full-powered stations, Family Radio is relayed by an additional 54 low-powered translators:
East Coast translators
| Call sign | MHz | City of license | Additional Information |
|---|---|---|---|
| W212AP | 90.3 | Notasulga, AL | FCC |
| W203AT | 88.5 | Albany, GA | FCC |
| W220AN | 91.9 | La Grange, GA | FCC |
| W220BD | 91.9 | Roanoke, VA | FCC |
| W203AL | 88.5 | Duluth, MN | FCC |
| W209BC | 89.7 | Wakelee, MI | FCC |
| W205AP | 88.9 | Pascagoula, MS | FCC |
| W212AG | 90.3 | Berwick, PA | FCC |
| W204AC | 88.7 | Emmaus, PA | FCC |
| W207AG | 89.3 | Freeland, PA | FCC |
| W215AF | 90.9 | Muncy, PA | FCC |
| W208AF | 89.5 | Nanticoke, PA | FCC |
| W280CV | 103.9 | Scranton, PA | FCC |
| W207AE | 89.3 | Reading, PA | FCC |
| W207AX | 89.3 | Burlington, VT | FCC |
| W206AH | 89.1 | Eau Claire, WI | FCC |
West Coast Translators
| Call sign | MHz | City of license | Additional Information |
|---|---|---|---|
| K202CG | 90.3 | Jonesboro, AR | FCC |
| K205CI | 90.3 | Phoenix, AZ | FCC |
| K201CQ | 88.1 | Prescott, AZ | FCC |
| K217BJ | 91.3 | Banning, CA | FCC |
| K219AO | 91.7 | Fairmont, CA | FCC |
| K268AH | 101.5 | Palm Springs, CA | FCC |
| K241AJ | 96.1 | Palmdale, CA | FCC |
| K220EY | 91.9 | Porterville, CA | FCC |
| K227AH | 93.3 | River Pines, CA | FCC |
| K213BZ | 90.5 | Richvale, CA | FCC |
| K213CH | 90.5 | Ridgecrest, CA | FCC |
| K238AC | 95.5 | Salida, CA | FCC |
| K209CE | 89.7 | San Luis Obispo, CA | FCC |
| K204CL | 88.7 | Smith River, CA | FCC |
| K223AL | 92.5 | South Lake Tahoe, CA | FCC |
| K290AG | 105.9 | Stockton, CA | FCC |
| K214CA | 90.7 | Grand Junction, CO | FCC |
| K209BQ | 89.7 | Amana, IA | FCC |
| K236AA | 95.1 | Cedar Rapids, IA | FCC |
| K206BF | 89.1 | Fort Dodge, IA | FCC |
| K205CA | 88.9 | Ottumwa, IA | FCC |
| K206DU | 89.1 | Lafayette, LA | FCC |
| K272DU | 102.3 | Black Eagle, MT | FCC |
| K217CD | 91.3 | Great Falls, MT | FCC |
| K259AN | 99.7 | Billings, MT | FCC |
| K203EP | 88.5 | Shepherd, MT | FCC |
| K214CQ | 90.7 | Grand Island, NE | FCC |
| K220GM | 91.9 | Placitas, NM | FCC |
| K206BI | 89.1 | Carson City, NV | FCC |
| K254AK | 98.7 | Reno, NV | FCC |
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