The BIG NEWS in TheMeetingHouse is our effort to retool our broadcast and present it to PBS affiliates for broadcast.
It began three months ago with a phone call from PBS of North Carolina. “Send us some samples of TheMeetingHouse,” they said; and we did, raising $25,000 and collaborating with an experienced PBS producer. Our proposal is one of 15 now under consideration by the good folks in Raleigh.
But we have approached PBS affiliates in six other states: Alabama, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Oklahoma, and South Carolina. We intend to contact every single affiliate, plus other non-profit video distribution platforms (like AIB–Atlanta Interfaith Broadcaster).
If you know someone connected to any of these broadcast platforms, don’t hesitate to contact us.
In the next few months, we will secure space for a simple but adequate studio, pull together a team of both on-air talent (music, news, co-hosts, etc.) and business operations (production, marketing, program, etc.). I will continue to be the lead host and scrip writer.
We have put together three promotional pieces: a pitch deck, a two-minute-40-second video, and a 30-minute video.
TheMeetingHouse: Conversations on Religion and American Life broadcast is unique, and that is both a strength and a weakness. Many PBS affiliates are nervous about including religion in their lineup. “It is a hard sell,” one gatekeeper said to us. Most religion on television is polemic in nature, designed to promote one religion or one viewpoint. Not so TheMeetinghouse. We provide all the News from the wide world of religion; we interview important and influential people: scholars and authors, rabbis, imams, priests, and ministers, activists and converts and those who have given up on religion. It is all part of our story.
Then there is music and commentary and the spirit of curiosity, inclusion, and communication.
PBS has not had a religion show like this since 2017 when “Religion and Ethics Weekly with Bob Abernathy” concluded its 20-year run. He launched it in 1997 after a long career with NBC news. He was 69 when it started, and 89 when it ended. He died last year at the age of 93. We take inspiration from him, especially since I am 72 years old … and launching into a new adventure!!
Funding for this first stage of our efforts has come from 15 individuals. As we move into the production of longer videos, those that present the possibilities of TheMeetingHouse with the highest of content and production values, we will approach endowments and foundations to seek their support.
Don’t hesitate to contact me if you have ideas, money, contacts, warnings, or good wishes. We need all the help … and prayers … we can round up. 859-229-8642.
I’ll be glad to talk with you or pray with you.
Dwight A. Moody
Creator and Host
(July 2022)
