Waco -- Baylor is selling what used to be the university-owned PBS station KWBU-TV to Community Television Educators of Waco, which is headed by Daystar network owners Marcus and Joni Lamb, according to a filing seeking approval from the Federal Communications Commission.
Other officers of the group buying the noncommercial station KDYW include Dr. Michael D. Toby, pastor of First Baptist Church of Woodway; Hector Sabido, a businessman and recording artist, and Dr. Lee Farmer, senior pastor of Waco’s Harvest Time Revival Center. Click here to find out more!
The purchase price is $250,000, according to the filing.
CTEW will provide multi-cultural programming to the fast growing segments of the population comprised of Hispanics, African American and Asians,” the FCC filing says.
“CTEW also proposes to offer interdenominational religious education. In addition to secular and religions educational programming, CTEW desires to deal with the issues facing the proposed service area.”
The Waco PBS affiliate went off the air in the spring of 2010 because of a $400,000 budget shortfall and weak community support.
Baylor provided about half of the funding for the station, but community contributions made up the rest and they fell short.
The PBS station went on the air in 1989 as KCTF and in 1994 the license was transferred to Brazos Valley Public Broadcasting Foundation and the station was moved to the Baylor campus.
The call letters were changed to KWBU in 2000.
Last November, Marcus Lamb, who founded the Dallas-based DayStar Television Network, said three people tried to extort millions of dollars from him to stay quiet about an affair he had with a woman several years ago.
Lamb made the comments during a special broadcast on the global Christian network.
He and his wife said they had been keeping their troubles private so they could heal their marriage, but are going public now because they would rather risk humiliation than give in to extortion.
Daystar features some of the highest-profile evangelists in the world, including Joel Osteen, T.D. Jakes and Benny Hinn.
