Dr. Willard Peirce was on staff at Faith Center. Dr. Peirce produced a bible study that aired daily on FBN stations
Outreach Unlimited was a program produced by FBN. It was hosted by John Cardoza and featured interviews with men and women involved in outreach ministries for Christ. John was also the Production Manager in the early days of FBN. His wife Frankie (yes…Frankie and Johnnie) co-hosted a program titled Meetin’ Here Tonite.
The Pastor’s Desk was a daily devotional vignette featuring guest pastors from around the Los Angeles area. The guest pastor would tape a week of messages that would be aired near the end of the broadcast day on KHOF-TV. Pictured on the right is Rev. Bob Bloom, guest pastor.
Doug Clark was an evangelist who produced a weekly program, Amazing Prophecies, on FBN. It was Doug’s program that became the catalyst for FBN to get their first electronic videotape editor. When programs were produced they had to be taped in one pass from start to finish. There was no stopping in between since the single tape machine at the studio had no way to stop and restart in the middle of a program without creating video breakup. Doug’s program was picking up popularity creating the need to produce more and more programs. One day while taping a number of mistakes had occurred resulting in having to start from the beginning each time. Finally rolling again, Doug was on camera interviewing his wife and secretary. All of a sudden, a lamp in a studio fixture exploded, literally showering hot glass fragments over the set. The ladies were startled and nearly jumped out of their chairs. They began pointing where the hot glass was burning holes in the carpet! Doug remained seated and didn’t as much as blink an eye. He simply looked up and into the camera and with a calm but disgusted voice said, “Well, that’s the end of that show.”
Bruce Braun was the director of the program and remembers Doug not missing a beat, but in response to the hail of molten glass he also made some remark like, “God said in Revelation 13:13...and he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men.” This was not unusual for Doug as he had a talent for being able to give a spontaneous reply to any situation that would suddenly arise. We found it “amazing” how quick he could turn the action being projected behind him into a point he was making about bible prophecy.
It was after the exploding lamp and having to restart the production that Doug spoke to the management and convinced them that an electronic videotape editor needed to be acquired.
It is also noted that Amazing Prophecies was the first program produced by FBN to utilize the “blue screen” matte technique as shown in the photo on the right. This process allowed still pictures, videotape, film and live action to be displayed behind Doug. Faith Center had limited funds and was unable to purchase a commercial matte device. The staff was able to construct their own from scratch at a fraction of the cost using a design published in Broadcast Engineering magazine.
L.D. Kramer was a pastor from Minnesota who produced an interview program where he talked with people involved in various ministries. He was sometimes referred to as “Mr. Challenge.” Pastor Kramer had also been instrumental in starting some senior care facilities. When Faith Center fell on hard times in 1974 Mr. Kramer was selected to come in and help out. He hired an individual who later became a very popular men’s ministry leader. That man was Pastor Edwin Cole. Pastor Cole came in and began to set up operational procedures and established an office at the production center. This lasted for several weeks, then suddenly, the staff was notified that the deal would not consummate and to everyone’s surprise Pastor Cole had left. Ray Wilson (aka Black Buffalo) stepped in as interim leader for Faith Center.
Wilmington First Assembly of God church sponsored a program titled Living Waters. It was hosted by the Pastor of the church, Roy Sapp. The program featured both teaching and music ministry
Audrey Mieir hosted a program featuring her choir called Sing with Audrey. Many of Audrey’s songs are still sung in churches today. One of her songs often sung in church services is His Name is Wonderful. Audrey opened her program each week with that song.
The Difference was a program featuring Ken Connolly who was the founding pastor of Berean Baptist Church in Orange, California. His show began with a blank artist pad on an easel. An artist by the name of Camargo would sketch the picture on the left and when completed the scene would dissolve to Pastor Connolly. The program consisted primarily of bible teaching by Pastor Connolly with illustrations by Camargo.
The Voice of Faith was a program that aired on FBN after Dr. Gene Scott became Pastor in 1975. This program consisted of teaching and singing. The picture on the right is of a Christian singing group called The Velvetones. The two ladies of the Velvetones were sisters, Pam Dietz and Alice Durbin. The gentleman on the right is Jerry Pippen. Pam and Alice had the most beautiful voices and Dr. Scott named them the Dove. It was a fitting name as they sang under the anointing of the Holy Spirit. They are sisters to Armond Morales of the Imperials. The Dove was featured often on the programs of FBN in the late 70’s and early 80’s
Here is an interesting note about the opening. Dr. Scott had challenged the crew to construct an opening within a couple of hours. In trying to come up with a “snazzy” background we found an old record turntable and crumpled up some aluminum foil and placed it on the spinning table. After shining some colored lights on it and de-focusing the camera it was quickly decided that this would be our background. Some camera zoom action on the Voice of Faith title was the finishing touch.
Dr. Scott loved it!
One of the early specials produced at FBN was with Hal Lindsey. Hal was interviewed about his new book he had authored, The Late Great Planet Earth. On a technical note you will see the slide projector projecting the book on a screen. This was before many of the modern day techniques used in the production of television programs today. Pictured is Hal Lindsey on the left and the program host, Dale Coffman an FBN staff member.
PROGRAMS PRODUCED AT FAITH BROADCASTING NETWORK
FBN produced a number of its own programs as well as programs for clients that aired on FBN and other television stations. This page shows some still photos of those programs along with additional information we think you will find interesting. After reading this page be sure to click the link at the bottom to view these video clips.
Click on the slide at the right to see some photos and read the story about one of the programs produced by the youth of Faith Center, “Meetin’ Here Tonite.” This particular Meetin’ turned out to be one of the most interesting and talked about of all those that were produced. It featured a contemporary youth singing group called The Continental Singers (The Continentals).
Revolution to Revelation was a special produced at FBN featuring Pastor/Evangelist David Wilkerson. Music featured that of Dallas Holmes. The program opened with a film clip and then dissolved to David Wilkerson in silhouette. He showed clips from the motion picture The Cross and the Switchblade which told of his early life starting out as a young evangelist.
FBN taped music from various artists and church groups that was used as interstitial fill and within FBN originated programs. The group pictured here are youth from the Whittier First Family Church pastored by Rev. Ronald Prinzing.
Black Buffalo’s Pow Wow was a daily half hour kids show hosted by Ray Wilson whose Indian name is Black Buffalo. Ray’s wife and two daughters, White Dove and Bright Eyes, often assisted him on the program.
Another locally produced kids show that began on KHOF-TV was Captain Noah. Due to a conflict with a show by the same name elsewhere in the country the name was changed to Captain Andy. Shown on the left are the three principle characters of the show, Sister Joyce, Tony Babalony and Captain Andy.
Click the TV set on the left to view the video clips of some of the programs produced at FBN mentioned above and other clips we have made available.