Feisty Glendale TV Preacher Claims the Last Laugh Over FCC

Glendale preacher Gene Scott shut down his KHOF-TV Channel 30 on May 23, 1983, after courts had upheld the Federal Communication Commission’s refusal to renew his license.

The unusually bitter church-state conflict was marked by Scott’s daily on-the-air tirades against government bureaucrats whom Scott eventually represented in the form of toy monkeys on his programs.

However, when the FCC allowed Channel 30 to resume broadcasting last week, under new call letters and a new interim operator, the first face seen on the screen was that of the flamboyant, white-bearded Scott.

The minister declared in a statement this week: “The simple facts are that the FCC lost and Scott got the last laugh.”

Demanded Records

The FCC had demanded access to financial records and videotapes from Faith Center and its station in 1977 to determine whether federal law on solicitations had been violated. Several former Faith Center employees had alleged that funds raised over the air were not used for the stated purposes.

The flagship station for Scott’s Faith Broadcasting Network refused to turn over church records to the FCC, contending that church-state separation provides protection from inspection. The federal agency did not produce evidence to support the original charge but it denied KHOF-TV’s renewal application in 1980.

Although Scott had remained on the air through other outlets, he reappeared on Channel 30 because the interim operator needed a transmitter.

Angeles Broadcasting Network, the interim operator under the call letters KAGL, is using Scott’s transmitting facilities in the San Gabriel Mountains above Claremont in exchange for time on the channel. A spokeswoman for Scott said the minister was able to get the time slot he wanted--9 p.m. to 1 a.m. nightly.

Redefines Terms

Scott once vowed that no other broadcaster would use his transmitter, but he said this week that “I said no one will use it unless I’m on it.”

Washington attorney Lewis Cohen, who represents Angeles Broadcasting, said transmitting facilities are “difficult to come by” and that “my client wanted to get on the air as soon as possible.”

Spokesmen for both Scott and the present operator said emphatically there is no other connection between the two organizations.

Questions about possible relationships arose partially because Angeles Broadcasting’s address is a post office box number in Glendale. But Glendale is the residence of the Rev. Glen A. Chambers, a Los Angeles pastor and the station manager.

The general manager of Angeles Broadcasting is the Rev. Gerald Bernard of Solano Beach, a charismatic minister who pastors Christian Faith Centre in La Jolla and heads Christian Communications Network in San Diego.

Controversy Persists

Despite the resumption of broadcasting, so far with an all-religious format, controversy still surrounds Channel 30.

Angeles’ closest competitor for the interim license, Orange County-based Maranatha Broadcasting, is one of three parties that filed an appeal in the U.S. Court of Appeals in the District of Columbia. Contested was the FCC decision early last month to grant Angeles Broadcasting the chance to resume broadcasting while the commission selects a permanent operator, a process that some say could take 2 to 10 years.

The FCC narrowed its selection of an interim operator to Angeles and Maranatha, and picked Angeles because it offered 33% minority and female ownership, compared to Maranatha’s proposal of 25% ownership. A black woman, Earlean Anthony, is one of three officers of Angeles whereas Vera Waisanen of Costa Mesa is one of four board members of Maranatha.

FCC review board officials said at the time that the difference, “while slight, is significant enough under existing precedent to tip the comparative scales in favor Angeles.”

Vera Waisanen’s husband, Tim, a tax accounting executive, said in an interview that the FCC review board gave Bernard local residency status (the station is technically said to serve San Bernardino) despite the fact that Bernard lives more than 100 miles south. “If the FCC had decided local residency properly, they never would have got to the minority question,” Waisanen said.

Angeles attorney Cohen said that Bernard stated in his application that he would move to San Bernardino and that he and his wife were looking for a home there. “Bernard also hopes to have a studio in San Bernardino in the next couple of days,” he added.

Maranatha Broadcasting, headed by William Welty of Anaheim, proposed a mixture of programming but all from “a Christian world view.” Welty and Waisanen said they received initial financial support from Calvary Chapel in Costa Mesa but are otherwise independent from that large church.

Notices of appeal also were filed in Washington by the Asian American Broadcasting Foundation of La Canada, another applicant, and by Melana James, secretary to Gene Scott. James said she filed as a member of Faith Center Church because she had previously intervened in the process leading to the granting of an interim license but had not received notices of FCC action and was thus denied “due process.”

Meanwhile, Scott compared the FCC alternately to “bureaucratic monkeys crying in their beer” and to the evil Haman in the Book of Esther who “punished anyone who did not bow to his unjustified demands.” Scott added, “All the money spent by the FCC resulted in robbing the church of its ownership position, but they were unable to silence (me).”

Although Channel 30 was dark from May 24, 1983, until the station resumed broadcasting Jan. 20, Scott had continued his radio broadcasts and the buying of time on other television outlets. At the start of this year, the minister, whose evangelism and anti-bureaucracy messages were mixed with frequent fund-raising appeals, was on both cable and broadcasting stations around the country, including channels 18 and 56 in Southern California.

Last week, Faith Center completed the sale of its Hartford, Conn., station WHCT-TV to Astroline Communications Co., of Saugus, Mass., for $3.1 million.