Origin from 1973
A Christian television network launched on May 28, 1973, by Paul and Jan Crouch together with Jim and Tammy Bakker, that grew from a single rented UHF station into the largest religious broadcaster in the United States.
Facts
Finances
Institutional Wealth or FinancesProPublica's Nonprofit Explorer database shows Trinity Broadcasting of Texas Inc's (EIN 74-1945661) most recently extracted full Form 990 filing, for the fiscal year ended 31 December 2023, reporting total revenue of about 105.3 million dollars, total expenses of about 168.9 million dollars and total assets of about 736.9 million dollars, a reported net loss of about 63.5 million dollars. Trinity Broadcasting of Texas is one of several affiliated entities within the wider Trinity Broadcasting Network that file separate Form 990 returns, so this figure does not represent the network's combined worldwide finances. 3 Institutional Wealth or FinancesTrinity Foundation, a nonprofit watchdog organization tracking televangelist finances, reported in 2021 that Trinity Christian Center of Santa Ana and other affiliated Trinity Broadcasting Network organizations transferred about 860.1 million dollars in assets to the newly restructured Trinity Broadcasting of Texas Inc during a 2019 internal reorganization, and that Trinity Broadcasting of Texas's own Form 990 reported total revenue of about 933.3 million dollars for that year, a figure Trinity Foundation attributes largely to that internal asset transfer rather than ordinary donations or airtime sales. The same organization received a 3.3 million dollar federal Paycheck Protection Program loan in 2020. 4 Basis of the Wealth Figure Financial Disclosure RegimeTrinity Broadcasting Network operates through a network of separately incorporated affiliates, each of which, as a religious broadcasting nonprofit, files its own annual Form 990 with the US Internal Revenue Service; these filings are made public through services such as ProPublica's Nonprofit Explorer. No single consolidated financial statement covering the whole network was located in this pass; what is available are the separate filings of individual affiliates such as Trinity Broadcasting of Texas Inc, together with independent reporting, such as Trinity Foundation's, that reads those filings directly. 4 Wealth Figure As Of Year Wealth Figure As Of Year Origins
Origin Period FounderPaul Crouch, Jan Crouch, Jim Bakker and Tammy Bakker, 1973. 1 FoundedLaunched May 28, 1973, when the founders rented air time on a small UHF station in Santa Ana, California, and began airing a few hours of homemade Christian programming a day with a single borrowed camera; Jim and Tammy Bakker had previously worked at Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network before joining the Crouches. 1 Organisation
Notable MemberSourced to the subject's own accountJan Crouch, co-founder, died in 2016 at age 78. 2 Notable MemberSourced to the subject's own accountPaul Crouch, co-founder and longtime president, died in 2013. 2 Scope NoteClaims about 5,000,000 weekly viewer households in the United States and describes itself as reaching a larger domestic audience than its nearest religious broadcasting competitors combined. 1 Status
Current StatusSourced to the subject's own accountContinues to operate as a Christian television network under the Crouch family. 2 Learn More
A Borrowed Camera and a Shower Curtain: TBN's First Broadcast
Trinity Broadcasting Network began on May 28, 1973, when Paul and Jan Crouch, together with Jim and Tammy Bakker, who had both previously worked at Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network, rented air time on a small UHF television station in Santa Ana, California. The founders' own account of the launch describes a single borrowed camera and a shower curtain standing in for a set, airing a few hours of homemade Christian programming a day to a Los Angeles area audience.
The Bakkers left within the year to found their own ministry, PTL, in North Carolina, leaving the Crouches to build TBN as a standalone network. Paul Crouch served as president for four decades, and Jan Crouch remained a visible co-host and network figure until her death in 2016; Paul Crouch had died three years earlier, in 2013. Under their leadership TBN expanded from its single Santa Ana station into a satellite and cable network carried across the United States and, eventually, internationally.
The network's growth from a rented UHF slot to a national broadcaster illustrates a pattern repeated across several religious broadcasting ministries: a preacher or a small team securing a foothold in local broadcasting and using the audience it built to fund a permanent, independent broadcast infrastructure rather than remaining a guest on someone else's program.
The Largest Religious Network in America
Five decades after its first rented broadcast, Trinity Broadcasting Network describes itself as reaching about 5,000,000 weekly viewer households in the United States alone, a domestic audience the network states exceeds its nearest religious broadcasting competitors combined, placing it among the largest television networks of any kind operating in the country, religious or secular.
TBN's programming schedule carries a wide range of Christian content, including preaching drawn from across Pentecostal, charismatic and Word of Faith traditions, alongside its own original productions, making it one of the principal channels through which prosperity gospel and Word of Faith teaching reaches a national television audience today, in a direct institutional line from the network the Crouches and the Bakkers built from a single rented station in 1973.
Leadership of the network passed within the Crouch family following Paul Crouch's death in 2013 and Jan Crouch's death in 2016, and the network continues to operate its original Santa Ana area facilities alongside a national and international satellite and cable footprint built up over five decades of continuous broadcasting since that first rented UHF slot in 1973.
Connections
Associated With
Source The Story of TBN, 50 Years in the Making (Trinity Broadcasting Network)Trinity Broadcasting Network
Source The Story of TBN, 50 Years in the Making (Trinity Broadcasting Network)Trinity Broadcasting Network
Belongs to Tradition
Source The Story of TBN, 50 Years in the Making (Trinity Broadcasting Network)Trinity Broadcasting Network
Founded By
Co-founded TBN in 1973 with Paul and Jan Crouch before leaving to found PTL.
Source The Story of TBN, 50 Years in the Making (Trinity Broadcasting Network)Trinity Broadcasting Network
Co-founded TBN in 1973 with Paul and Jan Crouch before leaving to found PTL.
Source The Story of TBN, 50 Years in the Making (Trinity Broadcasting Network)Trinity Broadcasting Network
Members
Co-founding member before leaving to found PTL.
Source The Story of TBN, 50 Years in the Making (Trinity Broadcasting Network)Trinity Broadcasting Network
Co-founding member before leaving to found PTL.
Source The Story of TBN, 50 Years in the Making (Trinity Broadcasting Network)Trinity Broadcasting Network
Produces
Source Praise, an Inside Look at TBN's Original Empowering Program (Trinity Broadcasting Network)
Sources
1. The Story of TBN, 50 Years in the Making (Trinity Broadcasting Network)
Trinity Broadcasting Network, Trinity Broadcasting Network, 2026View the Source 2. Trinity Broadcasting Network (Wikipedia)
Wikipedia contributors, Wikipedia, 2026Introduction identifying it as n international Christian-based broadcast television network and the world's largest religious television networkQuote, Introduction identifying it as n international Christian-based broadcast television network and the world's largest religious television network
The Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN; legally Trinity Broadcasting of Texas, Inc.) is an international Christian-based broadcast television network and the world's largest religious television network.
3. Trinity Broadcasting of Texas Inc, Organization Record (ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer)
4. Trinity Broadcasting of Texas Obtains PPP Loan After Receiving $933 Million (Trinity Foundation, 2021)
Barry Bowen, Trinity Foundation, 2021Introduction, activityQuote, Introduction, activity
is an international Christian-based broadcast television network and the world's largest religious television network.
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