A couple of articles about the situation at Family Radio HQ in Oakland
as the organization's leaders prepare for the Rapture tomorrow:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/20/us/20bcjames.html

http://www.salon.com/news/politics/w...end/index.html

Here's a shorter version of the Salon link: http://salon.com/a/sazYfAA

The Salon article has a link to an image of a memo that Harold Camping
sent out saying that all employees would have a paid day off today, but
the station (KEAR 610KHz here in the Bay Area) is still on the air, so
clearly someone is there today. Unless they just set everything to run
automatically until 6:00 p.m. on Saturday...

BTW, I thought I saw another article that said the headquarters were in
Alameda, but both of those articles say Oakland. Whatever.

Tempting as it may be (and believe me, I'm biting my typing fingers
myself to keep from saying more about this situation!), please restrict
follow-ups to the subject of Family Radio network itself, as that's the
only on-topic aspect for BABM and RRB.


Patty

* Patty Winter wrote, On 5/20/2011 11:19 AM:

The Salon article has a link to an image of a memo that Harold Camping
sent out saying that all employees would have a paid day off today, but
the station (KEAR 610KHz here in the Bay Area) is still on the air, so
clearly someone is there today. Unless they just set everything to run
automatically until 6:00 p.m. on Saturday...


_Firsthand Account From Family Radio_

My Facebook status last night began:
"I forgot to wear my big floppy shoes and honking rubber nose for the
circus at work today."

The whole day was circus-like, and uncomfortable. It was nearly
impossible to get any real work done, and most of the "faithful"
present had no intention of working anyway. The number of people
entering and leaving our building (not the main headquarters across
the parking lot) was greater than at any time since we moved there.
Headquarters itself was a virtual ghost town.

The crowd mentality was like a class of kindergartners doing a pee-pee
dance from excitement- a veritable going away party. Our own TV staff,
none of whom are Campingites, refused to accept food or drink from any
of the celebrants. We have not forgotten November 1978 and *that*
group of committed faithful. (We did, however, bring our own pizza and
cupcakes!)

About a half hour before Open Forum, Camping came into the studio by a
different route than usual, avoiding a gathering crowd. Non-staff were
banned from the building with the exception of a couple of L.A. Times
reporters who were told that they could take notes and record, but
Camping would not answer any questions. He wouldn't have anything new
to say anyway. Camping said that he had answered all the questions
from reporters that he was going to, and that they were all out to get
him anyway- he claimed to be "a man under siege." "This is absolutely
going to happen!" he declared to the reporters, revealing the level of
stress that he was visibly under.

The crowd of listeners and fan(atic)s had gathered in expectation of
being able to sit in the Open forum studio as they had been allowed to
do for several nights previous. There was great disappointment and
anger at being told to exit the building and having the doors locked
against them. We stood guard throughout the broadcast to prevent a
rush when employees entered and left the building.

Eventually someone produced a boom-box on which they monitored the
live broadcast going on inside. There was a lot of cooing and hugging
among them as they comforted one another over this, the last ever (one
can only hope) live Open Forum, and awaited Camping's exit from the
building so they could . . . adore(?) him. He left by an alternate
exit not staked out by the faithful, and again there was
disappointment and anger as they were not allowed to make their final
farewells to the Leader.

As I left the building half an hour after Open Forum had ended, the
crowd had not dissipated at all, and there were several reporters
still interviewing people in the parking lot. I had to get into my
vehicle, start the engine and release the brake (rolling a couple of
inches) before people would move out of the way so I could leave, they
were so caught up in their circus.

I don't know what will be the state of affairs come Monday morning as
far as our jobs with Family Stations, Inc. are concerned. As I've
previously posted, my inner predictor swings wildly between total
collapse and attempting business as usual. I'm going with the latter
until I can't. I'm old enough that I really have no desire to be
looking for a job that I'd be unlikely to find anyway, in the current
economic climate.

I can say that the great, anguished "Noooooo!" you hear on Sunday
morning will be Camping's adoring followers waking up to an unchanged
world. Hell on earth will have begun indeed for many of them.

JT
--

On May 20, 5:30*pm, John T wrote:
* Patty Winter wrote, On 5/20/2011 11:19 AM:


The crowd mentality was like a class of kindergartners doing a pee-pee
dance from excitement- a veritable going away party. Our own TV staff,
none of whom are Campingites, refused to accept food or drink from any
of the celebrants. We have not forgotten November 1978 and *that*
group of committed faithful. (We did, however, bring our own pizza and
cupcakes!)

Does John T mean 1994? Or was there an earlier end of the world?


About a half hour before Open Forum, Camping came into the studio by a
different route than usual, avoiding a gathering crowd.

Man, I wanted to hear that. I tuned in KEAR during the day, but all I
heard was a health program followed by rather apocalyptic tunes.


I don't know what will be the state of affairs come Monday morning as
far as our jobs with Family Stations, Inc. are concerned. As I've
previously posted, my inner predictor swings wildly between total
collapse and attempting business as usual. I'm going with the latter
until I can't. I'm old enough that I really have no desire to be
looking for a job that I'd be unlikely to find anyway, in the current
economic climate.

I can say that the great, anguished "Noooooo!" you hear on Sunday
morning will be Camping's adoring followers waking up to an unchanged
world. Hell on earth will have begun indeed for many of them.


John T worked there in 1994, I believe. I would expect a repeat of
whatever happened then. As far as jobs, there is no shortage of
Jesuscasters -- maybe JT could get picked up by K-Love, or Air One.

In article ,
John T wrote:

_Firsthand Account From Family Radio_

The whole day was circus-like, and uncomfortable. It was nearly
impossible to get any real work done, and most of the "faithful"
present had no intention of working anyway. The number of people
entering and leaving our building (not the main headquarters across
the parking lot) was greater than at any time since we moved there.
Headquarters itself was a virtual ghost town.

How many people work at FR? And about how many of those do you think
do or don't expect to come back to work on Monday?


Our own TV staff, none of whom are Campingites,

TV staff? FR has TV shows, too? I don't see any TV stations listed
on their "Stations" page.


I don't know what will be the state of affairs come Monday morning as
far as our jobs with Family Stations, Inc. are concerned.

I think it's safe to say that the facilities will still be there. The
question will be whether any of the leaders will want to show their
faces again to keep their programming` on the air...

So who's feeding the network now? The same staff that's always on
duty on weekends?

Thank you very much for the first-hand report, John.


Patty

Netter Desk haste bestimmt mit Samurize gemacht.Ich bin irgendwie zu blöd für das Programm brauche ewig um damit was hinzubekommen

On May 20, 10:28*pm, Patty Winter wrote:
In article ,
John T wrote:

Our own TV staff, none of whom are Campingites,

TV staff? FR has TV shows, too? I don't see any TV stations listed
on their "Stations" page.


KFTL Channel 28
Also has Home Shopping Network, and a KEAR simulcast.

"John T" wrote


_Firsthand Account From Family Radio_

Thank you so much for a compelling eye-witness account. I hope that you
don't lose your job over this.

While I think Family Radio's programming is quite bogus for the most part, I
will say that they do try to do public affairs programming to relate to
their audience -- and who does pubaffairs anymore? I've heard them do
programs on diabetes, heart disease, keeping families together -- all
laudable things that hopefully help people.

"Patty Winter" wrote

I think it's safe to say that the facilities will still be there. The
question will be whether any of the leaders will want to show their
faces again to keep their programming` on the air...

I've never met Harold Camping, though in the past I knew a couple people who
did radio production there. From what I remember them saying, I'd surmise
that he'll just do business as usual and talk about a miscalculation or
perhaps that God decided not to rush to judgment or something. There aren't
many ways to save face on something like this, but most people have already
dismissed him a a kook, so he doesn't have to appease them anyway.

On Sat, 21 May 2011 01:28:36 EDT, Patty Winter
wrote:
TV staff? FR has TV shows, too? I don't see any TV stations listed
on their "Stations" page.

FR owns some stations, including the now-low power version of KFTL
(once on 64/Stockton).

"Patty Winter" wrote in message
...

TV staff? FR has TV shows, too? I don't see any TV stations listed
on their "Stations" page.

Apparently they have some sort of cable TV operation, according to a news
report I saw last night.

Mark Howell