Charley Humbard marks 20 years of uplifting TV!
Growing up as the son of televangelist Rex Humbard, Charley Humbard heard a lot of great gospel music. And keeping with the spirit of spreading uplifting messages to the faithful, he launched the Gospel Music Channel 20 years ago. Since then, the company’s CEO and founder has put his positive spin on a number of ventures and won Peabody, Emmy and the Movieguide Visionary awards for family-friendly programming. Here, he shares his background and insights on his niche of the industry.
How did you get started in the TV business?
I grew up in Ohio, went to college in Nashville and have been in the Atlanta area off and on for 35 years. I started on the production side before moving into sales and management, working for Turner, Crawford Communications and Discovery, where I was a founding member of the international team that put the network in 140 countries. After 9/11, I gave up globetrotting to settle in Atlanta where I have family.
How did the Gospel Music Channel grow?
In the beginning, it was like MTV for gospel and Christian music. But five years in, that changed to movies and shows all around uplifting entertainment. The channel became UPtv and quickly grew from fewer than 3,000 subscribers to more than 70 million. Atlanta turned out to be a great market for us. It’s been our home now for 20 years, but when we launched, I couldn’t have foreseen how perfect Atlanta would be.
The diversity of the workforce, the passionate gospel music fans and the great airport for our sales team and clients have contributed to our being an entertainment leader.
Did the aim always stay the same?
We’ve always been true to our purpose to uplift people through quality entertainment. We established the genre of uplifting content. Our mission is to provide an alternative, to be a beacon of light on a dark media landscape. If you watch our different brands, movies or series, you’ll have a positive feeling. We say our characters have character. It doesn’t mean we don’t deal with relatable, tough stories, but in the end, we win in the right way. It’s time well spent.
What sort of shows do the channels air or stream?
We have “Reba” and “Blue Bloods” as well as movies from the studios that produce them. But we also create original movies and content such as “City Eats: Atlanta” that are filmed around the metro area. We also have UP Faith & Family, GaitherTV+ and aspireTV, which we launched with [former NBA star] Magic Johnson to celebrate black and urban culture.
The last decade has brought major changes to the public’s TV-watching habits. How has that impacted the company?
We’ve gone through quite a shift with the decline in cable subscribers— we went from 71 million down to 40—but the good news is we got into streaming early. It’s been growing through 2015, and we now have three subscription services, including one for kids’ programming. I think streaming is here to stay, and it’s going to look more like cable.
Away from work, where do you find your entertainment?
I like to fly fish, and I go to a house we have in Utah to ski in the winter. And I love eating at Star Provisions next to Bacchanalia. Our office is on the Westside, so it’s my go-to lunch spot.
UPTV
uptv.com
@up_tv
