wfn.org | Mission Broadcasting lends gratis support ot UCC ad campaign

[powellb@ucc.org]

United Church of Christ
Press contact: Barb Powell
(216) 736-2175
<powellb@ucc.org>
On the web: <www.ucc.org>

For immediate release
December 7, 2004

Mission Broadcasting lends gratis support to United Church of Christ's
national ad campaign

      CLEVELAND -- The NBC and CBS television networks may have refused to

run a 30-second United Church of Christ television commercial, but the

UCC's "controversial" message of extravagant welcome soon will air on a

number of NBC and CBS stations, among others, owned by Mission Broadcasting

Inc.

      Dennis Thatcher, Mission Broadcasting's Executive Vice President /

Chief Operating Officer, said his company will air the commercial ? without

charge ? on its 14 stations in Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, New York,

Pennsylvania and Texas through January 2005.

      "We're responding to the fact that the networks took what we think is

a biased and unfair stance on the UCC commercial," Thatcher said. "We

looked at the commercial and didn't get the same take on it. We don't

really see what they [NBC and CBS] see.  We see it as a message to all

people of faith, that we are all equal in God's eyes."

      "Mission Broadcasting thinks that is an important message, especially

around the holidays," he said.

      Thatcher's stance, he said, is supported by the stations' owners,

David Smith and his wife, Nancie. Smith, a former Cleveland broadcaster, is

now a full-time minister at St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Sharon Center,

Ohio.

      Thatcher said the company believes the networks are responding to

fear of controversy, citing the Janet Jackson Superbowl incident and the

flap over the ABC Network's recent airing of the movie, "Saving Private

Ryan."

      "Broadcasters are almost running scared and taking an unreasonable

level of self censorship," Thatcher said. "They decided to censor this

message on possibility that someone will perceive this as a kind of

endorsement of gay marriage. We didn't see that at all."

      Mission Broadcasting's commercial stations are not explicitly

religious in nature, even though the company thinks the message of

inclusion is an important one.

      "We think the message is correct and believe it should apply to all

faiths," Thatcher said. "The acceptance of diverse backgrounds and all

views, we believe that is how God sees us and we should stand up for it."

      The following is a list of Mission Broadcasting Inc. stations and

their network affiliations: WYOU CBS-22 in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, Pa; KOLR

CBS-10 in Springfield, Mo.; KCIT Fox-14 and KCPN (LP) Ind-33 in Amarillo,

Texas; KJTL Fox-18 and KJBO (LP) UPN-35 in Wichita Falls, Texas; KODE

ABC-12 in Joplin, Mo.; WBAK Fox-38 in Terre Haute, Ind.; KAMC ABC-28 in

Lubbock, Texas; KRBC NBC-9 in Abilene, Texas; WUTR ABC-20 in Utica, New

York; KSAN NBC-3 (a satellite of KRBC) in San Angelo, Texas; and WTVO

ABC-17 and WTVODT UPN in Rockford, Ill.

      The United Church of Christ, with national offices in Cleveland, has
1.3 million members and almost 6,000 local churches in the United States
and Puerto Rico. It was formed in 1957 by the union of the Congregational
Christian Churches and the Evangelical and Reformed Church.
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