In May 2009, business news carried a story out of the US about an alleged ponzi scheme which mentioned that a couple of hosts of a Canadian religious show were alleged to be part of.
It took a story in the ‘local’ newspaper (The Hamilton Spectator) mid-May to get people to start to notice all was not well at the Burlington broadcast behemoth. One of the many things that fascinated me was how slow the Canadian religious broadcaster was to respond. For awhile this blog was busier than normal, as a few thousand people who cared wanted the news, gossip, facts, speculation, details. You know, stuff. People want to talk back now, not be talked to, and blogs are good for that. Crossroads isn’t suffering from scandal and economic downturn as much as indifference, as a few boomer fans hang on. Millennials and the rest of us moved on a long time ago.
By June 2009 Crossroads Christian Communications Inc. flagship show 100 Huntley Street responded with a very dramatic black outfit, black background announcement that Ron and Ann Mainse and Reynold and Kathy Mainse had er, stepped aside to deal with personal issues.The dramatic hype would have been funny if so many good people hadn’t been so badly burned. The appropriate board announcement went up on the appropriate corporate web page. Those announcements have disappeared now. Broadcasting is a business first, ministry second, and when it comes to image and bottom line, marching on matters.
As with most events, this one played itself out and it has been painful to watch the good ship Crossroads attempt to right itself. David Mainse stepped in to help guest host his TV show; (he supposedly retired after heart surgery in 2003) not one but two fundraisers were run, and Canadian religious media gave the story gracious space. Interestingly enough as who did what, lost what, and what was going on got sorted out, sister ship CTS found itself floundering with a non-existent charity. Revenue Canada meant what it said last summer when it told Canadians the Charity division was clamping down and clearing away the trough feeders. Media didn’t even bother touching the CTS piece of news. Even industry blogs haven’t bothered.
Re-runs are still being re-run, it’s taken months for this once dominant flag show staff to do simple things like update web pages.
I have no idea how much money Crossroads lost when the founders sons finally admitted they had been finders in what viewers realizewas not an ‘alleged’ ponzi scheme. During the second fall donor drive I think it was mentioned the budget was about 30% short. The public eventually learned the brother hosts were both victims and victimizers, sincere promises were made of restitution, and that was that. We’ll never know because in a top down medium such as TV, in a mentality stuck in the glory days, it’s none of our business. It’s just not Christian to talk about these sorts of things. None of the Imagine Adoption or Earl Jones response for the 100 Huntley Street fan base and the scalded.
The glossy media magazine Compass, once popular for 100 Huntley is still getting pumped out for faithful donators, and hosts get to preach in print.
During the summer Crossroads began scrubbing tidying up it’s web presence, but whoever was in charge of that has been oddly reluctant to let go of the familiar. Perhaps given the potential upset, decisions were made to bridge the world of who gave while making desperate moves to find new givers. While Ann Mainse showed up to the studio to help ask for money, Ron’s grand TV re-entrance was more carefully staged. He swallowed hard and put a brave face on his demotion to spiritual director/executive producer. It was not public business whether salary was drawn during personal time off. Upon the two day return fanfare, faithful viewers were told his brother and his wife had not been on staff at Crossroads for about a year and a half and wouldn’t be coming back. A sentence toss-off, and the show went on.
Viewers are still asking where Reynold and Kathy are on the 100 Huntley Facebook page. But hey, the broadcaster has a Facebook page, and they are trying to Twitter. The feed reads like a long lonely commercial, a Twitterer without re-tweets. The 100 Huntley You Tube channel is faithfully chopping up the show into YouTube sized pieces for the mobile crowd, and the good ship Crossroads got around to announcing in December they had a new CEO who had been on the job since the end of October. “New” media (the internet) is being introduced on 100 Huntley Street set with the predictable sputters and epic fails. I did mention it is painful to watch, didn’t I?
When the catastrophic earthquake hit Haiti, 100 Huntley managed to snag Canada’s outstanding World Vision President and CEO Dave Toycen, who was on his way to the airport to get to the devastated country. It was an excellent interview, almost as good as his soundbite on Hope Haiti. If 100 Huntley had not solicited funds that day for their Haiti help they may have upped my respect. If they had just directed viewers to give to the outstanding work World Vision Canada does and is doing, they may have won some brownie point with unsure viewers.
Knowing how far behind 100 Huntley is in responding to world wide catastrophes, a Haiti special aired January 23. I give them credit for attempting to showcase lesser known Canadian ministries, but as common with live shows, static formats feeds from Haiti understandably broke down and most pictures used had been splashed around world media and absorbed by compassion weary viewers. Sincere but dated, the asking for funds for Crossroad Haiti relief seemed tacky as the quick scoring the interview with Dave Toycen was a coup for Crossroads.
Use teh google, type in 100 Huntley Street and this blog is still on the first page. I don’t think this aside will surprise my readers, but that saddens me. The posts about what really has been a long demise accelerated by a ponzi scheme are…I don’t know what they are really. Posts, almost ghost posts, on a group of people running a show ministry which is as stuck as the 1993 CRTC religious broadcasting regulations, I guess.
The broadcaster is starting to push their way back to the top of the search engines. This week 100 Huntley finally got around to updating it’s front web page to match reality.
This simple change ( a picture sans brother Reynolds and Kathy) took almost a year from the time the public began to learn Gordon Driver and Axcess Funds boot stomped his way through the bubble with the brothers trotting behind.
Life changing media.
For Crossroads the past 10 months has been.
Haven’t they?
Life Changing Media? It should read Life Changes Media.
One gets the impression that the business of religion on air is a dinosaur. It not about God anymore, it’s about keeping the ministry going.
What ministry? If they can’t be open about the operation then what is really going on behind the scenes? I would think more than twice before I sent them a dime.
Phil Cooke is in the media business. On his blog he did a survey, most of his readers are in the industry or are as he says “really interested in the intersection of faith and media.”
He outlines sound reasons why Christian TV is not doing well, (this is the US with a lot more choices) and was surprised by his survey results:
I watch Christian television:
20 times a week or more – 3%
10 hours a week or more – 4%
5 hours a week or more – 10%
1 hour a week or more – 18%
I don’t watch Christian television – 49%
We should abolish Christian television – 18%
“If 67% of people who read an online blog dedicated to issues of faith and media either don’t watch Christian TV at all or would prefer it be abolished- can you imagine what the general public feels about it?” p. 118 The Last TV Evangelist
1 Cor. 3:11-15 “For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man’s work. If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames.”
Could this be what we are seeing everywhere in the church lately, the fire of God testing and proving what is of Him and His kingdom, and what is of the flesh, having been built using the things of this world rather than the spirit? “Judgment begins with the house of the Lord” is an oft-quoted verse, and if what we are seeing now is the judging of His house, then the judging of the world is not far away..
I remember the days when 100 Huntley was held up as an example of a TV minsitry that was honest.
It looks like David Mainse and the rest of the Mainse clan were seduced by the lure of power and influence which ultimately led to their downfall(with a little help from demographics).
For years though, the Mainses were able to have it both ways:
Playing the sincere preachers of the gospel, while playing an active role in right wing(and in some cases rather extreme right wing) political circles.
Having been subject to their anti gay pro family campaigns and David Mainse’s toleration of genuine all out haters like the late Ken Campbell I can say I do not mourn 100 Huntleys demise.
Bene, I haven’t seen any mention anything related to CTS charitable status on 100 Huntley St. program or elsewhere so far, however, I happened to catch the host of Our Jewish World on CTS this evening briefly announcing that they had previously been receiving support from CTS but that since this support will no longer be forthcoming from the station, (no reason was given), the program must therefore now seek it’s own source of financing. Leads me to wonder if there are other CTS programs similarly affected. Definitely some belt-tightening going on.
Has there been an unusual period of grace or has there been a fastidious and surreptitious effort to whitewash this sad and sorry tale that still raises more questions than there have been answers. I sense it’s the latter.
Thanks for that Therese.
CTS is not in good shape, I don’t know the reasons why.
Economics is certainly a fair speculation, the expansion into Alberta just prior to the global downturn might be a reason.
Also, the CITS Media Resources Organization claiming charitable status under CTS Our Cause/The Cause when it did not have Rev Can approval is a very serious matter.
To have continued to keep the information up after the refusal has led to complaints to the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council, the CRTC and Revenue Canada.
On air personnel at CTS are wearing a lot of hats, they are doing the work many comparitable shows would have staff.
I think of what are skeleton crews as similar to local cable.
You can see that in the camera work.
The re-runs have been mentioned several times in BDBO comments. Those re-runs are not a healthy sign.
The loss of a charismatic leader has been proven to throw religious broadcaster organizations into chaos.
Phil Cooke (The Last TV Evangelist) identifies key needs for a broadcaster to survive, with no guarentees. Many will go under.
a) branding and identity (ie: clinging to identity in the founder is a company death decision)
b) rapidly changing media consumers and choices
c) digital transition – entering it without planned strategy such as adaptability to choice, usability and need
d) generational leadership. That’s a big one and I would like to write about that more. Moving from personality leadership style to institutional and professional management
e) deep changes in fundraising
f) adaptation to generational communication styles
In the granting of it’s broadcast licence CTS committed to the government to meet certain criteria. They may have reached too far, been too optimistic and ambitious; not unlike sister charity Crossroads expanding far beyond what it can pay for as donors die off.
I think some of the on-air staff are performing under very difficult circumstances.
I wonder if the new CEO of Crossroads and a possible board shake up is a factor.
As well the figure of a 30% drop in donations I heard in the second fundraiser 100 Huntley held after the ponzi scheme is an indicator. It would have a profound effect on CTS which is owned by the charity.
The Canadian Broadcast Standards Council has been asked if the CTS response to the complaint can proceed to the ruling committee. (adjudication) That will take months.
If CTS folds, I feel badly people will be out of work, since no one is talking we don’t know how bad it is.
We don’t know if there have been salary cuts etc.
We don’t know if there have been layoffs, or if nepotism positions have been purged.
I think Lorna Dueck mentioning the bartering agreement (and her show appears financially healthy) has been good for her show, but perhaps not so much for CTS.
I appreciated her reaching out and I appreciated her honest answers, but I don’t know how healthy a business model that is for CTS in economic hard times or who else in their programming schedule is using it.
We know CTS workers (from past comments) hit walls which as professionals were too much. We don’t know if the culture and work environment has improved.
CTS competes with a small pool of viewers who may switch over to The Miracle Channel or Vision (they dulipcat same programs out of the US for revenue that Vision etc run).TMC also has a new CEO who is cross platform saavy, has a quicker turn around, charisma, a far better desrgned set and an established audience.
The public doesn’t distinguish between the non profit Crossroads and the charity.
Thanks Therese, I deeply appreciate you and other readers keeping us up to date. This news you’ve presented is important.
Tim: We may be seeing less grace and more the business of broadcasting. Grace matters but it doesn’t pay the bills. TV is hurting, that’s a hard and known reality. CTS does not disclose, does not communicate to/with viewers, does not value transparency, so at best some of what is put forward in the BDBO comments is observation and speculation.
Some is factual and regardless of what regulators rule, information will be on record.
Also would anyone following this be surprised if CTS/Crossroads in their promise to provide new programming reached out for every funding possibility they can? Government, private funding groups etc. Their advertising seems to be stagnant, they have little wiggle room to do anything else.
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