My Dear Friends,

How about some response to oar new shows?

We began the new series in August and we’ll continue as long as we can with all new productions. We certainty hope you like them, but even if you don’t, let us know!

There are no ratings, in the sense of commercial television, to tell us how we’re doing, so we have to ask you. There’s a story about a nervous comedian who asked his audience after every joke, “How do you like me so far?” That’s what we’re asking.

We really need to know if spending money on new productions is the best stewardship. It’s tempting for us to air a few new shows and then dive back into the safety of reruns. We would certainty risk a lot less money and many new folks would be seeing the shows for the first time anyway. But you are our real audience, our faithful, our true believers. You have made the new shows possible with your support, and we owe them to you. They’re yours, in a word, and we’d like to know how you feet about them.

Another reason we need to know about our new shows concerns a tough situation coming up at the first of the year. There’s going to be a squeeze-play between airtime and production costs at that time. We expect airtime charges to shoot up with the new year (one of our most important outlets has announced a raise to more than double the old rates!). At the same time our production budget will be exhausted by the new fall shows. It’s a bit unclear just how we’ll get through all this, but I’ve worried in public before and then had to apologize later on. God knows all about production costs, airtime charges and all the rest, and so do His people.

We need only to make sure we’re doing the right thing in your estimation. There is wisdom in the counsel of many, according to Scripture, and so we covet your counsel.

As to the upcoming shows, we undertook something new for a small operation like ours. We covered the recent National Affairs Briefing in Dallas with two mini-cams and we got interviews with the big personalities of the event (Jerry Falwell, James Robison, etc.) Imagine us sharing a camera platform with NBC, ABC and CBS. Just call us ZLL!

Anyway, we’ll work up that interview footage into at least two shows, and we’ll give our views of all we saw at that unique conference. We’re also trying to work up something in the spirit of this election season, in which America will choose between two born-again believers, to hear them tell it. More teaching from the Bible is on the agenda as well; you know you can always count on us to give you the Word.

Now, about the scheduling of the show: On Channel 39, our home station in Dallas, we will change from 10:30 p.m. Tuesday to 9:00 p.m. Sunday. This will come as good news to you early-to-bed viewers in the D/FW Metroplex, and on 39’s cable outlets in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, etc. A good Bible teacher told me recently:

“Those going to Heaven
Get to bed by eleven!”

Our other national times depend on the network you watch. We cover all 50 rates. CBN plays our show at 7:50 p.m. Thursday and 11 p.m. Saturday, Eastern Standard Time (one hour earlier for each time zone going west). PTL plays us four times each Saturday: 1:30 a.m., 5:00 a.m., 2:30 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. EST. Trinity, our new network, plays the western states at 10:50 p.m. Saturday, and Miami at 8:30 p.m. Saturday. WCFC in Chicago plays us at 6:30 p.m. Friday and WPCB in Pittsburgh at 12:00 noon Sunday. As other cities pick us up we’ll let you know the broadcast times. Save this schedule and tell your friends and relatives!

The times above should be reliable week to week. Just look at what God has done in a year and a half!

I haven’t saved enough space to put a big money pitch on you this time, but suffice it to say that all this airtime has to be paid for. You’re “it” as always, but take comfort in the fact that your gift now talks to people from the Atlantic coast to Hawaii. If you can help us keep going at this rate, you will be doing a truly great work for all those multitudes of people.

Thanks so much, from the bottom of my heart, for all you’ve done so far.

Your messenger for Him,