Changing Horses - Again

ncredibly, at the end of 1999, Bill Brumbaugh renegotiated his standing with Genesis and abruptly switched networks again, and put his show on Heritage. But there's more. By the time he left Heritage, Mr. Brumbaugh's shortwave bill had grown to over $5,000. He never paid for his shortwave time on WINB and left Loris Thompkins with an expensive deficit that was only encumbered to accommodate Bill Brumbaugh.

Because Loris Thompkins had negotiated Brumbaugh's airtime with Hans Johnson at WINB, the Heritage Network was on the hook for the shortwave bill regardless of Mr. Brumbaugh's refusal to pay Heritage. This occurred at a time when Heritage was already considerably weakened commercially. They were strapped for cash from the very beginning because Genesis had stolen their broadcasting equipment. In fact, Ms. Thompkins had sold her family farm to pay for the original ownership of the network.

Furthermore, by the time Brumbaugh left Heritage, the Heritage reputation was at an all time low. Even though they carried several Christian programs, Heritage never was a "Christian" network per se. Indeed, Thompkins had placed several unsavory programs (mostly racist in nature) on the net in a desperate gambit to keep the network alive. Loris Thompkins surprised most observers with an unexpected abundance of integrity. Over a period of about a year, making installment payments, she personally paid WINB for Bill Brumbaugh's time. In other words, Bill Brumbaugh ripped off Loris Thompkins for over $5,000.

By examining the time frame, it becomes evident that as Bill Brumbaugh knew he would eventually have to pay his obligations at Heritage in order to continue broadcasting, he again began negotiating with Genesis so he could then burn the Heritage bridge.

Once he had returned to Genesis, Bill was broadcasting over Dave Frantz' WGTG (now known as WWRB). This affiliation occurred during most of the year 2000. It was during this very period that Dave Frantz, utilizing the power of his 4 shortwave transmitters, repeatedly reviled Christianity over his airwaves. This information is widely known among regular shortwave listeners and is detailed in the book Shortwave Wars by the present author. So here is Bill Brumbaugh, daily professing himself to be a man of God on his program, helping to support the apostate Dave Frantz by affiliating his broadcast with the well known "accuser of our brethren." (3)

During this period, I had formed the Christian Media Network and was not in a position to keep track of what Mr. Brumbaugh had been up to with his shifty transitions back and forth between networks to evade making any payments on his shortwave time.

In March of 2000, I formed the network and quickly brought Steve Quayle over to CMN. We had no sooner assembled the lineup for the Christian network, than people began urging us to get Bill Brumbaugh to join us. Although I knew that Bill was being carried by WGTG through his Genesis affiliation, at that time I was completely unaware of what had happened at Heritage.

Had I known that Bill had stolen his airtime from Loris Thompkins, I would never have agreed to any association with him. After all, this would be a fairly strong indicator that he was not a man of integrity. Indeed, it is the virtual refusal of so many Christians to stand up and tell the truth about the unsavory practices of so many "Christian" leaders that has left the church in the sad state it presently wallows in.

I must confess that I had an inner concern about Bill Brumbaugh as a host on our network, but I refused to listen to that still small voice that was warning me that all was not right with Baloney Bill.

Bill Brumbaugh Joins Christian Media

t the urging of several listeners as well as then Christian Media host Steve Quayle, I began a series of conversations with Mr. Brumbaugh. I had already been acquainted with Bill for several years due to his association with Quayle. In fact, Bill had attended one of my speaking engagements in Southern California and I had already had a couple of satisfactory commercial dealings with him.

Bill has periodically represented some video duplicating houses in the Los Angeles area and he had brokered some video duplication business for Christian Media. In these commercial situations, Christian Media was the customer. We paid every invoice we were ever presented with. The last time we had spoken on tape duplication Bill had been unable to provide us with the product that we needed so I stopped calling him. Obviously, when we discussed bringing Bill over to Christian Media, he would be the customer as shortwave programmers pay for their time in most cases.

Bill stated that he wanted to get out of Genesis because he was very unhappy being associated with such a group of unethical people. I told him how much money we needed for him to do a daily hour on the Christian Media Network. In most cases, these airtime fees are paid a month in advance. I repeatedly told Bill that we must receive payment for airtime, because we don't have a margin for error. Since CMN does not have a millionaire like Genesis' Ted Anderson backing the network (as a front for gold and silver coin transactions), we simply cannot afford to sponsor multiple shows and operate in deficit financing in the fashion that Genesis does.

During these conversations, Bill claimed he was at a crossroads with Genesis, and would probably be kicked off of the air very soon. He intimated they were pressuring him in some financial way, but did not elaborate. It apparently had something to do with the requirement of Genesis that Bill obtain an ISDN capable telephone line and the associated equipment at his own expense. This is due to the technical requirements at Genesis. I understood this would encumber Bill to pay about $350 per month. While our total airtime bill would be more than this amount, he would not need this type of equipment.

Bill told me that he had a big financial windfall that he expected would arrive in about 30 days. He said if we put him on the air without our usual cash advance he could pay the bills at that time. I agreed and he told me he would announce on his evening show at Genesis that he would be doing a morning show on Christian Media. Bill Brumbaugh premiered his Christian Media show on November 2, 2000 at 11 AM Pacific Standard Time. His program was carried on WRMI at 15.725 on the shortwave dial.

Almost a month later, I spoke to Bill and he said his money had not yet come in, but he expected funds in approximately two weeks that would be able to bring us current. After two more weeks, he again told me that money was coming in about two weeks. This was mid-December and at this point he had been on the air for six weeks with Christian Media. Two more weeks elapsed and it became obvious that the two week gambit had no end. After eight weeks of broadcasting Bill Brumbaugh again gave me the "two week promise." At this point he had used up $1,600 worth of shortwave time on the network (that we had to pay for) and we had not received one penny from him. I called Bill and told him we were forced to drop the program from the schedule.

Bill said that he understood and that there was no malice or attitude over the issue. I sincerely hoped that I could retain good relations with him. After he had been off the network for a few days, I called Bill again. I wanted to again re-affirm that this was not due to anything he had said on the air, but that we must be paid for airtime on the network. He reassured me that he understood this was a simple business decision, and I could still consider him my friend. This was at the end of December 2000. At that point, Bill had broadcast with us for eight weeks and he owed Christian Media $1,600. I resigned myself to the reality that it was extremely unlikely that Bill would ever pay for the airtime he used.

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