Chicago Tribune from Chicago, Illinois • Page 70

6 Section 5 Chicago Tribune, Sunday, June 7, 1998 in Ch. 38 Continued from Page 1 over the head," said one religious broadcaster. "I think there is a movement of understanding that we've got to keep up with changes these days. We can use moral features and not just 'Thus sayeth the In August, Bud Paxson, a born-again Christian, will launch Pax-Net, a 7-day a week broadcast network that will specialize in so-called family values-type programming. Using syndicated programming that includes "Dr.

Quinn, Medicine Woman," "Touched by an Angel" and "Promised Land," PaxNet will be the first broadcast network to deliberately move in the direction of family values and away from O'Hare International Airport Touhy Avenue Higgins Creek (1) Central Core Site (2) FOR MARKETING MATERIALS Call Steven Cohen at (773) 894-5093 CITY OF CHICAGO Department of Aviation LA SALLE PARTNERS BUY WITH CONFIDENCE! CDW is a Fortune 1000 company IP Compaq Armada 1590OMT 2387.94 cdw 96612 I 166MHz Intel Pentium processor with MMX' technology I RAM: 16MB 80MB max. 2.1GB hard drive 20X CD-ROM drive 1 12.1" active-matrix display 1 33.6K bps modem I Windows 95 Gustavson, president of the National Religious Broadcasters. This is a risky venture, on several fronts. Even though plenty of evidence says family values programming is a hot ticket, history shows the popularity of this genre ebbs and flows on the commercial networks. David Poltrack, the executive vice president for research and planning at CBS, cited the earlier popularity of "The Waltons" and "Little House on the Prairie" and noted these kinds of programs largely disappeared in the 80's and early 90's.

"But now that Baby Boomers are having children there is an attraction to this," Poltrack said. "I think it will stick around." The proliferation of specialty television channels may contribute to that, creating a potential home for this kind of programming. The critical factor, though, is what sells all television: telling good stories. Christian programmers will have to tap into that non-denominational vein of Americans concerned about the content of television. They'll also have to straddle two programming camps the inter-denominational appeal of shows that find a home at the broadcast network level, and the more direct, proselytizing approach that Christian TV loyalists have come to expect.

Rose will have to maneuver easily between television for the masses and television for the flock, satisfying those who have always turned to Christian television seeking answers, not simply a moral muddle. This will be important to advertisers as well as viewers because if they can't attract them, they won't get the money needed to produce the programming. "There has to be a mix," Gustavson said. "Otherwise you lose your constituency." Rose said he is developing some program ideas dealing with the Bible, morality and the world view, including a television movie that features a straight-laced, know-all-the-answers seminarian who comes to grips with life's reality in an inner-city pastorate. He said he also is impressed with a recent New Zealand production aimed at teenagers, a cross between MTV and the former NBC program, "USA Nation." "This is a sensitive issue," Rose said, noting that "we are a ministry involved in television, not television involved in a ministry." "There are segments of the evangelical community that feel if you're not completely overt in your approach, they won't accept it.

We won't be able to satisfy some of those people. But we have to get to another level." Television, too, it seems, works in mysterious ways. what Paxson calls exploitation of sex and violence. Sales of books dealing with religion and spirituality are stronger than ever, with sales doubling from 1991 to 1996, according to the American Booksellers Association. Thomas Nelson the Bible and Christian book publisher, has found space in the secular world of publishing by setting up special sales kiosks in the national bookstore chain, Books-a-Million.

Current bestsellers include "Simple Abundance," an inspirational guide for women, and "Talking to Heaven," a discussion of the afterlife. This category of these books tracks with the inspirational themes and subtle religious messages of popular television shows. Church attendance numbers, however, do not reflect that popularity; they have been falling for more than 25 years. At the same time, though, disbelief in the afterlife, according to a 1997 University of Chicago report, has declined. "I think we're going through a spiritual rediscovery in this country," Rose said.

"With the whole aging of the Baby Boomer generation, there is a rediscovery of spiritual roots, which I think we'll see for an extended period of time. I think we are seeing a reawakening." We are certainly seeing a realignment in television, which is an important reason Rose is seeking to redefine the essence of religious broadcasting by making it more relevant, interesting and stimulating. The number of religious television stations is dwindling, due to the exploding sale values of all TV stations and the irresistible urge by owners to cash out while the market is hot. The approach of digital television is forcing all TV station operators to upgrade their transmitting facilities, adding big costs onto low-budget operations. Rose said it would cost Channel 58 an estimated $10 million to $14 million to make the technical transition.

With an annual operating budget of only $6 million, Rose said, there was little incentive to spend the additional money "just so we could stay at the level where we have been. We need to get to a new plateau." Channel 38 currently produces 10 Christian programs, including two that are nationally syndicated. Rose said he is convinced the future of Christian broadcasting does not belong to the broadcasters but to those who will produce programming to attract a broader audience and a new generation of viewers. Getting to this new plateau will not be easy, or cheap. Christian broadcasting always has been a fringe player in television, a low-budget, spiritual oddity relying on viewer contributions operating in Toshiba Equium 7000D cdw 109257 1 300MHz Intel Pentium II processor 512KB Level 2 cache RAM: 32MB 256MB max.

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True, the audiences are small, but they are loyal and enduring. "Perhaps reljgion thrives in America now precisely because it is absent from the corrosion of prime-time television. After all, TV loves politics, and viewers now detest Washington," wrote Steven Stark in the 1997 book, "Glued to the Set." If the Christian reach is to grow at a time when Christian stations are dropping in number, the programming approach will have to include network-quality movies, documentaries and music, Rose and others say. "People have criticized Jerry by saying he has sold out," said Phil Cooke, a veteran California-based film producer of Christian programs and advertising campaigns. "But he got a ton of money from selling the station, and he'll need it to produce shows that challenge people.

I think what we have to do is move from the era of TV preachers to the era of TV producers." Selling programming to PaxNet or the Discovery Channel or other cable outlets, as Rose wants to do, will require a significant improvement in program quality. "We have produced inexpensive programming, and that's got to be ratcheted up to a higher level. They have to be better or they won't get on. We'll just get on the dumpy operations," said Brandt Hewlett-Packard cdw 97680 LaserJet 4000.se printer I Up to HP ProRes 1200 (true 1200 dpi) resolution I Print speed: up to 17 ppm I RAM: 4MB standard with HP Memory Enhancement technology (MEt) I Three open 100-pin DIMM slots for memory expansion up to 100MB I 1-year return-to-HP warranty HP C3094A visiontek I Internal notebook hard drive upgrade with Drive Exchange" data transfer system Up to 3GB hard drive capacity Support for Dell IBM, and Toshiba notebooks I No manual reinstallation of the operating system, drivers or applications I Windows NT support Reuse existing drive as backup with included drive caddy and cabling 2.1GB $539.07 CDW 106907 3GB $619.07 CDW 106885 Compaq Deskpro 2000 799.55 cdw 92841 200MHz Intel Pentium processor with MMX' technology RAM: 32MB SyncDRAM 384MB 1 3.2GB EIDE hard drive I Integrated S3V2 enhanced 64-bit graphics I Windows 95 I Intelligent Manageability Microsolutions backpack "248.87 cdw 110615 bantam 24X parallel port CD-ROM drive I Standard PC parallel port interface 1 1200KBps data transfer rate via enhanced parallel port 1 128KB data buffer 1 150ms average seek time I Reads CD-R, CD-RW and CD-ROM media Vernon Hills Showroom 200 N. Milwaukee Vernon Hills, IL 60061 Hours: M-F 9 a.m.

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