Gospel Music ChannelFor Nashville gospel and Christian music fans who have longed for a faith-based version of MTV, your prayers have been answered.
Starting about 5 a.m. today, the 18-month-old Gospel Music Channel moved in to Comcast’s digital cable Channel 189. It also started on Comcast in Atlanta today at about the same time and on the same channel.
The addition of the network in these two Southeastern markets, both centers for gospel and Christian music, will add just under a half-million subscribers to the channel’s 5-million-strong base.
But beyond the numbers, those two Comcast pickups mark an important milestone for the independently owned cable venture.
“You have to understand that two days after we started this company, we headed to Philadelphia to strike a deal with Comcast’s corporate office,” said Charley Humbard, co-founder of the station and the son of 1970s-era televangelist Rex Humbard.
“We knew where our priorities were.”
GMC has headquarters in Atlanta but maintains an office in Nashville and uses some studio facilities in Franklin.
Before today’s Comcast launches in Nashville and Atlanta, the station already had agreements in place with the corporate headquarters of Cox Communications and Charter Communications.
The station is carried in 77 markets, including parts of the New York and Los Angeles markets, and expects to have a subscriber base of 10.2 million by the end of the year.
Humbard hopes deals with DirecTV and Dish Network will be coming soon, as well.
Broad agreements with these cable operators give the network the green light to pitch local carriers on picking up the station in a particular city; there are no guarantees.
John Gauder, vice president and general manager for Comcast’s Nashville operations, said that with at least 70% of the gospel music business based in town, carrying the gospel channel was almost a no-brainer.
“They still needed to prove to us that they would provide viable and interesting programming for our customers, Gauder said.
“Of course, it’s one thing to add a channel. The real task now is to let people know it’s out there so they’ll watch it.”
Humbard, who left his job as a senior vice president at Discovery Networks in 2001, said the channel would pick up about 120,000 subscribers in Nashville.
The station is included only on Comcast’s digital tier, though Gauder would not say what percentage of subscribers that includes.
Gauder did say that the launch had been scheduled for a later date but was pushed up to today to coincide with Gospel Music Association week, which ends with the Dove Awards on Wednesday.
And even though it took 18 months to get on the air, Humbard said in the world of cable television — especially for an independent channel — that’s about as fast as things are likely to happen.
“It took Great American Country three years to get on the air in Nashville,” he said.
And just as networks like GAC and Viacom’s Country Music Television have helped raise country music’s profile nationwide, gospel and Christian music insiders hope that GMC will be able to do something similar for their industry.
“I think not having a channel like this was one of the missing links for gospel,” said Gwendolyn Quinn, the New York publicist for gospel stars Kirk Franklin and Smokie Norful.
“This thing is going to explode. It will do what BET (Black Entertainment Television) did for rap and hip-hop.”
In terms of musical styles, Humbard said, the channel serves a whole range of audiences, but makes sure to do it in a consistent way that doesn’t leave viewers confused.
“Part of our mission is to help popularize all styles. We hear time and time again in focus groups … that people really like the diversity.”
Humbard said when he and GMC’s vice chairman and co-founder, Brad Siegel, a former executive at Turner Broadcasting System who happens to be Jewish, laid out plans for the station, they identified three audience groups.
One is Christian consumers who are already in sync with the world of gospel music.
Another group is people who want music programming with a high production value, but don’t want to fret about their kids watching it.
And third, Humbard said, are music lovers in general.
Those tastes are represented in a wide swath of programming that goes from a special documentary called Gotta Serve Somebody: The Gospel Songs of Bob Dylan, airingWednesday,to a Kirk Franklin Night on April 26.
There’s also an upcoming show, Faith & Fame, in which artists share their life stories.
Michelle Duffie, general manager at Brentwood-based PureSpring Gospel, the label owned by CeCe Winans, said she thinks the channel is like any other network designed to appeal to the whole family.
“You’ve got cartoons for kids on Saturday morning, you’ve got Oprah on every afternoon, and you’ve got Law & Order on at night,” Duffie said. “It really gives you a choice.”
Such a formula could appeal to advertisers, as well.
Already, 14 “blue chip” companies have signed on as advertisers, including Ford, Kraft and Unilever, Humbard said. And among those, ad spending has increased by 30%.
That equation makes perfect sense to Duffie.
“Eighty- to 90% of Americans are churchgoers,” she said. “I think advertisers also recognize that those people wear lipstick, drive cars and eat at McDonald’s.”
