Journalists visit Family Radio HQ (while they can)
 

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

Journalists visit Family Radio HQ (while they can)
 

* 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
--

Journalists visit Family Radio HQ (while they can)
 

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.

Journalists visit Family Radio HQ (while they can)
 

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

Journalists visit Family Radio HQ (while they can)
 

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.

Journalists visit Family Radio HQ (while they can)
 

"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.

Journalists visit Family Radio HQ (while they can)
 

"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.

Journalists visit Family Radio HQ (while they can)
 

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).

Journalists visit Family Radio HQ (while they can)
 

"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

Journalists visit Family Radio HQ (while they can)
 

* David Kaye wrote, On 5/21/2011 10:23 AM:
I've heard them do
programs on diabetes, heart disease, keeping families together -- all
laudable things that hopefully help people.



Some of the people in the trenches do try to be legitimate broadcasters.

JT
--

Journalists visit Family Radio HQ (while they can)
 

* Mark Howell wrote, On 5/21/2011 10:23 AM:
Apparently they have some sort of cable TV operation, according to a
news report I saw last night.

Well, leave it to ABC to get it wrong. They could have bothered asking
any of us who were there during their interview session.

Currently we have four LPTVs (three of which are Class-A) and two
translators in Northern California covering the SF Bay area from San
Bruno Mtn., Chico & Sacramento from the Sutter Buttes, Chico &
environs from Cohassett, Redding & region from South Fork and Red
Bluff, etc. from the Tuscan Buttes. Oh, and our remaining analog
translator covering the valley north of Stockton to Fresno and from
Mt. Bullion.

We also have a full power non-com that serves northern NJ/NYC, and has
cable/satellite carriage in NYC and the region.

Then there are the Boise and Twin Falls LPTVs that may or may not be
on the air ATM. (Winter construction delays, y'know?)

As Mike Ward pointed out, we used to own ch. 64, Stockton, which was
sold to Univision/Telefutura in 2003 at which time we bought ch. 28 in
SF and moved the KFTL callsign. Being a Class-A LPTV doesn't get us
cable/satellite carriage, so only those with antennas can receive us.

JT
--

Journalists visit Family Radio HQ (while they can)
 

* Patty Winter wrote, On 5/20/2011 10:28 PM:

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?



There's probably a hundred or so in Oakland, and maybe another hundred
or so nationwide. I'm sure some will hide out for a while until they
realize they're not getting paid for time off.

A few will arrive with stunned looks on their faces Monday morning-
whispering their speculative disappointment in the corners, looking
furtively around, wondering how this could have happened.

Many of us will simply arrive to work as usual and hope that we can
survive with an intact paycheck.


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


Heh. We've always been the odd-man-out/black sheep of Family Stations.
KFTL-CD, Channel 28, San Francisco from San Bruno Mountain. Studios in
Oakland next to Family Radio headquarters.

Any video of Family Bible Study and Open Forum that have been on the
FR web site originated in our studio. Open Forum has originated from
the TV studio since 1988.


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...


One of the board members has been hiding in Ohio this week, another
hasn't been seen at Family Radio for several weeks and the third is
Harold's daughter who doesn't appear to have a mind of her own. (But
that could be said of the other board members too. How does one get to
be as old as they are with neither testicles nor spine?)

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


I don't know what our Network Control manager told his staff- and I'm
pretty sure radio programming will be something of a mess for a while.
Our programming people had their creativity amputated and cauterized
long ago.

I look after my own spheres of influence. I am operations manager of
KFTL-CD (Meaning that some days I manage to operate!). I am also the
default external Internet connectivity guy for FRHQ and look after the
mp3 stream encoders that function as STLs for direct-to-home satellite
uplinking in the U.K. There's a few other hats I wear from time to
time. It all sounds much more important that it really is.

JT
--

Journalists visit Family Radio HQ (while they can)
 

On Sat, 21 May 2011 00:48:26 EDT, spamtrap1888
wrote:

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?

November 1978. Jonestown, Guyana. Peoples' Temple. James Jones,
laced Kool-Aid.

One operation that I can't forget.

Journalists visit Family Radio HQ (while they can)
 

John T had written:
|
| As Mike Ward pointed out, we used to own ch. 64, Stockton, which was
| sold to Univision/Telefutura in 2003 at which time we bought ch. 28 in
| SF and moved the KFTL callsign. Being a Class-A LPTV doesn't get us
| cable/satellite carriage, so only those with antennas can receive us.

I'm surprised FR hasn't been able to negotiate something with
Kabletown ... er, I mean Comcast.

I guess we should check tomorrow to see if the HSN feed on 28.2 has
been turned off, as it normally is on Sundays on the station.

In any event, KFTL comes in at my house better than KNTV does
(both sited at Mt. San Bruno).

--
Mark Roberts - E-Mail address is valid but I don't use Google Groups
If you quote, please quote only relevant passages and not the whole article.

Journalists visit Family Radio HQ (while they can)
 

* Mark Roberts wrote, On 5/21/2011 6:45 PM:

I guess we should check tomorrow to see if the HSN feed on 28.2 has
been turned off, as it normally is on Sundays on the station.


No change there yet. In the absence of direction we'll maintain that
pattern. No need to go out of our way to offend the powers that remain
(if they return).

Programming on 28.1 will not include any Harold or his people, mainly
due to the fact that *everything* has been about Judgment Day for a
couple of years. If you have ever been a fan of the old _This Is The
Life_ dramas, we'll be airing a lot of that along with _The Joy of
Music_ and Bible reading starting today, as a matter of fact.

We may air some of our public domain shows and movies after Sunday,
but I don't think anything is set yet.

In any event, KFTL comes in at my house better than KNTV does
(both sited at Mt. San Bruno).


We're on the same tower as KKPX (ch. 65) and the last remaining analog
station in SF, MTV Tr3s, ch. 40. KNTV is on the southern-most tower
where KCSM's analog used to be.

JT
--

Journalists visit Family Radio HQ (while they can)
 

"John T" wrote

I don't know what our Network Control manager told his staff- and I'm
pretty sure radio programming will be something of a mess for a while.

I've been listening off and on throughout the day and it's been largely
music with some Bible reading here and there. Either I'm interpreting
something that isn't there or a couple of the guys who are doing the
readings are picking out passages that dig at Hal. One read something about
false prophets. Another guy later said something about not knowing what is
in God's mind, etc. Could be pretaped coincidences or who knows...

Journalists visit Family Radio HQ (while they can)
 

"John T" wrote

If you have ever been a fan of the old _This Is The Life_ dramas, we'll be
airing a lot of that along with _The Joy of Music_ and Bible reading
starting today, as a matter of fact.

"This Is The Life" is actually very well done. I haven't seen it in years.
I remember occasionallly seeing it on various stations back in the day when
stations ran pubaffairs and inspirational stuff on Sundays.

This must be very hard for you folks to figure out what to do at this
juncture. Good luck.

Journalists visit Family Radio HQ (while they can)
 

David Kaye wrote:

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.

Back around 1980 or so, WYFR broadcasts in the 40M combined ham/shortwave
broadcast band had a substantial second harmonic that was falling into the
20M ham band. I wrote the station engineer a nice letter describing what
was happening, and I received back a QSL card and a letter asking for money.

Over the course of the next decade or so, I continued receiving begging
letters from Family radio on and off, and as the decade went on, the quality
of the letters improved from something printed on a misaligned chain printer
on newsprint, on up to personalized letters printed with a nice daisywheel
printer on good paper, on up to letters laser printed (and this was the age
before laser printers became quite so cheap) on linen rag.

So all I can think is that SOMEONE must have been sending them money. But
it wasn't me. And the second harmonic interference continued for some time,
though not anywhere near as long as the letters.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

Journalists visit Family Radio HQ (while they can)
 

David Kaye wrote:

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.

The Jehovah's Witnesses predicted the apocalypse in 1928, and when it did not
happen, they revised it to some time in the 40s. It didn't happen then
either. After the second false alarm, they adopted the (reasonable) doctrine
that nobody could know when it was going to happen. They are still around
today, which is a sign that bad predictions like this won't completely kill
your credibility among deluded followers.
--scott

--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

Journalists visit Family Radio HQ (while they can)
 

In article ,
John T wrote:
Patty Winter wrote, On 5/20/2011 10:28 PM:

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

Heh. We've always been the odd-man-out/black sheep of Family Stations.
KFTL-CD, Channel 28, San Francisco from San Bruno Mountain. Studios in
Oakland next to Family Radio headquarters.

Ah, okay. Guess I don't get it. I just looked at my OTA list and that
one isn't on it. I just rescanned a few weeks ago, so my list is up
to date.


Any video of Family Bible Study and Open Forum that have been on the
FR web site originated in our studio. Open Forum has originated from
the TV studio since 1988.

I didn't notice any video links on the FR website, but maybe I missed
them. I'm still waiting for the May 19th Open Forum MP3 to be uploaded.


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

I don't know what our Network Control manager told his staff- and I'm
pretty sure radio programming will be something of a mess for a while.
Our programming people had their creativity amputated and cauterized
long ago.

Yes, one of the newspaper articles mentioned that they'd been told
not to produce any new shows for after May 20th.


I look after my own spheres of influence. I am operations manager of
KFTL-CD (Meaning that some days I manage to operate!). I am also the
default external Internet connectivity guy for FRHQ and look after the
mp3 stream encoders that function as STLs for direct-to-home satellite
uplinking in the U.K.

Family Radio has an uplink facility in the UK? What do they originate
from there?


There's a few other hats I wear from time to
time. It all sounds much more important that it really is.

:-)


Patty

Journalists visit Family Radio HQ (while they can)
 

Here's a follow-up article in the L.A. Times that mentions the
radio stations and FR personnel in a couple of places, including
news that FR's station in Sacramento was vandalized:

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la...,5118540.story

I checked the SacBee's website, but they had no further information;
just the same one-liner in the story they'd picked up from the Times.
Hopefully the vandalism was only graffiti or something like that that
didn't damage the broadcasting equipment.


Patty

Journalists visit Family Radio HQ (while they can)
 

* Patty Winter wrote, On 5/22/2011 10:16 AM:

I didn't notice any video links on the FR website, but maybe I missed
them. I'm still waiting for the May 19th Open Forum MP3 to be uploaded.


I'm always surprised anybody can find anything on that (F)ugly mess.
Don't get me started!


one of the newspaper articles mentioned that they'd been told
not to produce any new shows for after May 20th.


Not exactly. The problem was that no one said *what* to produce. And
it didn't matter to Camping and Co., since it was just "busy work" anyway.


mp3 stream encoders that function as STLs for direct-to-home satellite
uplinking in the U.K.

Family Radio has an uplink facility in the UK? What do they originate
from there?


We have had three full-time audio channels on direct-to-home satellite
for over ten years. One is our domestic stereo feed time-shifted for
Central European Time. The other two are multi-lingual mono streams on
the same satellites. These are currently uplinked for us by World
Radio Network (WRN), and we appear in the BSkyB EPG.

One of the multi-lingual streams is also directed to another uplink
site for specific program distribution to transmitters in various
places such as South Africa, India, Dubai, Wooferton, etc. If you go
to www.short-wave.info and select Family Radio from the drop-down
list, it will show you all of the shortwave transmitters we've been
on. Most of our shortwave programs are delivered to the uplink service
by ftp, however.

How much of this will continue, or for how long, I have no idea.

JT
--

Journalists visit Family Radio HQ (while they can)
 

* Patty Winter wrote, On 5/22/2011 11:18 AM:
Here's a follow-up article in the L.A. Times that mentions the
radio stations and FR personnel in a couple of places, including
news that FR's station in Sacramento was vandalized:

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la...,5118540.story


I hadn't heard that. I'm sure I'll get a thorough update tomorrow. A
lot of the "sheep without a shepherd" will be turning to my immediate
boss for guidance and feeding us news.

I'll update here as I can, when I know anything of a publicly
appropriate nature.

JT
--

Journalists visit Family Radio HQ (while they can)
 

In article ,
John T wrote:
* Patty Winter wrote, On 5/22/2011 11:18 AM:
Here's a follow-up article in the L.A. Times that mentions the
radio stations and FR personnel in a couple of places, including
news that FR's station in Sacramento was vandalized:

I hadn't heard that. I'm sure I'll get a thorough update tomorrow. A
lot of the "sheep without a shepherd" will be turning to my immediate
boss for guidance and feeding us news.

I'll update here as I can, when I know anything of a publicly
appropriate nature.

Please do let us know what you find out about the Sacto facility.
And anything else you can reveal about what happens at the HQ
tomorrow would also be very interesting. This is a unique and
bizarre situation for a radio network, so I really appreciate
that you've been sharing what you can with BABM/RRB readers.


Patty

(additional questions sent in email)

Journalists visit Family Radio HQ (while they can)
 

Patty Winter wrote:

I checked the SacBee's website, but they had no further information;
just the same one-liner in the story they'd picked up from the Times.
Hopefully the vandalism was only graffiti or something like that that
didn't damage the broadcasting equipment.

Third-hand rumor I heard was AC compressors and tubing were taken and
some of the ground radials.
--scott


--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."