PrintPrintWLCN, the Lowcountry Community Network, is owned by Faith Assembly of God Church in Summerville, but the station is a commercial for-profit operation that will be supported by advertising revenue. The station, channel 18, will report news as it breaks, but in a more positive way than other news outlets, its general manager said.
By Ashley Fletcher Frampton
aframpton@scbiznews.com
Published June 8, 2009
Starting Friday, a new local news station with a Christian mission will join the television airwaves in the Charleston area.
WLCN, the Lowcountry Community Network, is owned by Faith Assembly of God Church in Summerville. Broadcasting will start Friday at 7 p.m., said Lucas Fry, general manager.
Though owned by a church, the station is a commercial for-profit operation that will be supported by advertising revenue, Fry said. He said he doesn’t know of another television station operating under a similar church-owned model.
The station, channel 18, will report news as it breaks, but in a more positive way than other news outlets, Fry said. Instead of reporting only that killings and car wrecks happened, the station will try to explain why the incidents happened, what policy issues are involved and how they can be solved, he said.
“That’s our philosophy: rather than report just the bad news, (to) show people that somebody cares and somebody’s trying to fix it,” Fry said.
WLCN plans local morning news between 6 and 9 a.m., midday news from noon to 12:30 p.m., evening news from 7:30 to 8 p.m. and late news from 10 to 10:30 p.m.
In addition to news, WLCN will feature local programming, including shows that help people find jobs, save money, fix up their homes and have fun despite the economy, according to the station’s Web site. The station will air syndicated programs and movies as well.
The content is not exclusively Christian, Fry said. Instead it’s meant to be programming that families feel comfortable watching.
So far, the station has 16 employees with backgrounds in broadcast news. Fry said it has contracts in place to air on Knology and Home Telephone Co. and is in negotiations with Comcast and Time Warner Cable.
The long-term plan is to will branch and open stations across the country, creating a network that everybody would want to watch, Fry said. The station doesn’t want to “preach to the choir” of existing believers.
“The church has a vision of becoming a global broadcast entity and spreading the gospel throughout the world, and this is where it starts,” Fry said.
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