The long-awaited L.A. Times piece on the problems at the Calvary Satellite Network was published today. It doesn’t include much more than we already knew, save for a few interesting factoids:
1. The CSN network is valued at $250 million, most of that in the form of the licenses for the 450+ full-power FM and translator stations it owns.
2. Calvary Chapel founder Chuck Smith poured some $13 million into network construction, and Chuck’s son, Jeff, siphoned money from his dad’s radio ministry to finance CSN in troubled times.
3. CSN’s director of operations, Mike Kestler, pastor of Calvary Chapel of Twin Falls, Idaho, has a long history of friendship with Chuck Smith, which is why the split between Chuck, Jeff, and Mike has been so acrimonious.
4. Allegations of sexual impropriety against Kestler involve not one, but at least three women. Kestler wouldn’t talk with the Times, and his lawyer contributed two sentences.
5. The lawsuit flurry between the parties has not yet been settled, though it seems that if CSN is split up, the Smiths will take most of the full-power FM radio stations (valued at $50 million) and Kestler gets the translators (valued at $200 million). The Smiths would like Kestler to stop using the Calvary Chapel “brand” in connection with his church, but they may need to sue him (again) to make that happen.
It’s bad enough that everyone involved in CSN feels comfortable enough to squat on so much spectrum for such narrow-minded purposes. But the manipulation of women in this saga, for sex and for revenge, turns the stomach and says more about the main players than clever navigation of the FCC’s licensing system ever could.
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