Originally founded by
Richard H. Palmquist, with the assistance of
Harold Camping and Lloyd Lindquist as fellow members of the initial Board of Directors, Family Radio began obtaining
FM broadcasting licenses on commercial frequencies in 1959, Its first radio station,
KEAR in
San Francisco, California, then at 97.3
MHz, came on the air on Wednesday, February 4, 1959. In 1992, Family Radio began teaching that the
Great Tribulation began in May 1988, and that the rapture would occur on September 6, 1994, later adjusting the predicted date to between September 15 and 27, 1994, and telling listeners not to make any long term plans. The network's promotion of these predictions caused some nations in Asia to prevent Family Radio from commencing operations in their countries. His actions led to mounting criticism from former supporters and led some Family Radio staff members to resign, as well as prompting some outside ministries to leave the network. The loss of these programs from the Family Radio schedule gave Camping more airtime to express his teachings. Around this time, former Family Radio employees, pastors, cult specialists, and others, began to publicly describe Family Radio as a
cult.
Finances By 1994, Family Radio owned 40 radio stations nationwide. Although listenership declined following its 1994 rapture prediction, the organization subsequently experienced a period of growth. By the start of its second major campaign, the network consisted of 216 AM and FM stations and two television channels. During the second campaign, the organization's spending increased, resulting in a decline in net assets despite a steady rise in listener contributions. In 2009, the organization maintained an annual budget of $36.7 million, with $117 million in assets and $18.4 million in contributions. By 2010, assets decreased to $110 million while contributions rose to $18.7 million and staff levels remained stable at 346 employees. In 2011, contributions fell to $17.2 million and assets dropped to $87.6 million, accompanied by a reduction of 26 employees. By the conclusion of 2011, assets had further dropped to $29.2 million following a 70% drop in donations; the following year, the organization secured a $30 million loan. In the lead up to the predicted day of the rapture, many followers of Family Radio's teachings spent their life savings to donate to Family Radio or personally advertise the predicted rapture date. Scholars of apocalyptic groups found the various responses among Family Radio's followers to be consistent with what they expected to see among members of a cult, with disillusioned followers concurring that Family Radio is a cult. Two days after the forecast "Rapture" failed to happen, A Bible Answer, a Bible teaching ministry who had been tired of the "Rapture" predictions, offered to buy 66 full-powered radio stations from Family Radio founder Harold Camping in an effort to get him to resign from preaching this doctrine. The offer came with a catch – they were not to take possession of the stations until October 22, the day after Camping's revised set-date for the end of the world. A Bible Answer's website called for Camping to resign from the Family Radio board, citing "the self-proclaimed expert on the Bible has brought reproach upon Christ, the Bible, and the church," and added "After taking the money of his supporters, let Harold give up all he has, to show he believes what he is preaching. He does not or else he would sell. It is time to get new leadership at Family Radio."
Aftermath and network reorganization On August 3, 2011, the radio industry website Radio-Info.com reported that Family Radio was putting two of its full-powered FM stations up for sale. These stations were:
WKDN in
Camden, New Jersey (covering
Philadelphia), and WFSI in
Annapolis, Maryland (covering
Baltimore and
Washington, D.C.). The article indicated that the network may have sold the stations to pay off "operating deficits accumulated over the last several years". WFSI would be purchased in November 2011 by
CBS Radio, which converted the station to a
Spanish language dance music format under the
WLZL call sign. Merlin Media, LLC struck a deal in December 2011 to acquire WKDN, which was relaunched with a
talk format under the
WWIQ call sign. WWIQ was later sold to
Educational Media Foundation in late 2013, and became
WKVP, a
K-Love affiliate station. In January 2012, Family Radio applied to the FCC to change the license of station WFME in
Newark, New Jersey, near
New York City, from non-commercial to
commercial. The application quickly prompted conjecture from radio industry monitors that the station would soon be sold. The application was approved in February. Those rumors were confirmed on October 16, 2012, when it was announced that Family Stations would sell WFME to
Atlanta-based
Cumulus Media for an undisclosed price. A November message from Camping posted on the Family Radio website admitted, "Either we sell WFME or go off the air completely." The 94.7 signal would be relaunched as
country-formatted station,
WNSH. Concurrent with 94.7's sale to Cumulus, Family Radio purchased FM station WDVY in
Mount Kisco, New York from Cumulus, which would soon after adopt Family Radio's programming and the
WFME-FM callsign. After 40 years on the air,
WYFR, Family Radio's shortwave station located in Okeechobee, Florida, ceased operations on July 1, 2013. In December 2013,
Radio Miami International, purchased the shortwave transmission complex and began broadcasting from there; the complex now operates under the
WRMI call letters. Harold Camping died from a fall on December 15, 2013, in his home in
Alameda, California. His death was confirmed by an employee of the network. Following Camping's death, the network reaffirmed its commitment to his teachings, specifically the belief that all churches had become apostate, and that true Christians should not attend church. On November 21, 2014,
The Walt Disney Company announced it would sell WQEW in New York City to Family Radio for $12.95 million, part of Disney's decision to end terrestrial distribution of the
Radio Disney format. The sale was approved on February 10, 2015, and the station returned on the air on February 27 as the new
WFME (AM), thus giving Family Radio full coverage of the New York City metropolitan area for the first time in two years. Concurrent with the sale, the FCC converted WFME's broadcasting status from commercial to non-commercial. WFME has since been taken off the air, following Family Radio's sale of its transmitter site. During 2016, Family Radio moved its corporate offices and main studios from Oakland, where it had been based since the network's inception, to the adjacent East Bay city of Alameda. In September 2018, Family Radio formally ceased airing all programs featuring the voice of Harold Camping and discontinued the distribution of his literature. This decision was a two-fold effort to move away from Camping's unorthodox theology and to reintroduce programming from outside Bible teaching ministries into the network's schedule. The shift included new programming from noted Calvinist teachers such as
John MacArthur,
John Piper, and
R.C. Sproul. In 2019, Family Radio announced that it would be moving its headquarters from Alameda, California, to
Franklin, Tennessee. Following the move, in 2024, parent entity Family Stations was reorganized; its assets were transferred to a new Tennessee-based entity, Loam Media, with no change in ownership or management. ==Ideology and teachings==