My dear friends,

No use beating astound the bush, we’ve really got some problems this month. CBN, our major network, has given us an ultimatum about the new air time charges. They’ve done us quite a few favors to keep us on this long without charge, it must be said, but the day of reckoning has truly arrived.

I’m not going to belabor the CBN situation again except to say that they really do need the money. To their credit they have carried Christian shows year in and year out without charge and provided a one-of-a-kind service to the American Christian television viewer. They have built a vast satellite network which has made it possible for what would have been small local ministries to extend their message to the millions. But all of this has cost money in simply staggering amounts and prices are exploding with the present inflation. The costs have simply outstripped the donations received by CBN and profound changes have to be made in the financial policies of that network. One of those changes involves air time charges and that’s where we come in.

We will have to begin paying for our air time, and I mean really paying. The rate proposed by CBN is far in excess of any other air time rate we now pay for (and some we still get free). But then CBN can supply so much more vast an audience than any other outlet. It’s quite a calculation to make certain that the air time buy is worth it financially, but of course, the ministry effect is unquestioned. In pure money terms the donations that we presently receive from CBN viewers will not be enough to cover the future expenses of the air time alone, not to mention the making of new programs. The price still seems simply out of reach but I have become greatly encouraged since this situation first developed last spring. It seems that the unexpected really happened; our donations went up significantly when people realized the reality of the problem. Many of you have kindly upped your pledges and sent single checks that bowled us over. With confidence then, we undertook the production of new programs this summer. Now we’re back to square one.

The new programs are ready to show and they are excellent. They’re the best we’ve ever done if I may say so. If ZOLA LEVITT LIVE was rated No. 1 on CBN this past year, then it will extend that leadership even more greatly in the season to come. But of course this is assuming that we can show our programs on our biggest network. Making good programs is one thing and paying to air them is something else again.

I must apologize for the bleak sound of this letter but I’m not taking the trouble to giftwrap this urgent message. There’s no point in appealing to you with gimmicks or premiums or promises of miracles; I’m aware that the audience of ZOLA LEVITT LIVE is far too intelligent for such approaches anyway. If you understand our teachings then you’re above this sort of promotional gimmickry so prevalent in all merchandizing today.

One thing has changed since last spring and it sounds an encouraging note. In the spring we didn’t have a chance of meeting CBN’s requirements. At this time, however, with the increased giving and the long series of reruns, we’re at least in a position to shoot for it. We have bargained as best we can, of course, but in the end we’ll need money and enough of it to significantly help a network that has helped us. The only other alternative is for us to drop CBN, in which case we will lose a majority of our audience all at once. Donations will then fall so that we’ll have to drop the next most expensive network and so on and so on. We’ll have to undo all that we have done and finally end where we began—as a local show supported by the personal funds of its host.

Instead, I’d like all of you to think about your part in ZOLA LEVITT LIVE. We never ask for the limited money of poor people but we are aware that we are not receiving the gifts of those who can well afford to support us. We know that numbers of people watch the show and never pay for it. Well, we can’t afford to carry your burden any further. This is the time we must ask you to do the right thing. And for those of you who already have done so much…at a time like this could we ask you to do just a little more? We’ll continue to do our part if you’ll do yours.

It could be that God doesn’t want any more of ZOLA LEVITT LIVE and that occurred to me. It is not written in Scripture that I must have a television program nor that our teaching must reach so vast an audience. I have spent a good deal of prayer on the present dilemma to try to know the proper course to take. Your suggestions and wisdom are solicited respectfully. We still read every letter, believe me.

Well, that’s all that I can say about the present problem. Naturally my request is directed particularity to CBN viewers since you are the ones who will lose the program if we can’t continue. But I might say to all the rest of you who enjoy the show that we are talking about a potential audience of more than 10 million people that is reached by CBN; if we would all pull together we could pay this air time and keep the teaching coming. I have already asked for your special gifts on behalf of the outreach to New York. Now I ask on behalf of the outreach to all of the continental United States, Alaska, Hawaii and Puerto Rico. The new CBN programming may well gather the largest audience to even watch a Christian network. It may include multitudes of unbelievers. Please help us remain among those with a chance to speak to this huge and needful audience.

Thank you in any case for all of your help of the past and may God guide you as you consider the above request.

Your messenger,