Thank you to Chet for bringing this to my attention
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2002816/Doomsday-pastor-Harold-Camping-suffers-stroke.html
The measure of the strength of a family is how they behave when their leader is near death. Do they surround him and protect him or do they circle like vultures waiting to split up the furniture?
Harold Camping’s failed prediction that May 21st was going to be the date of the rapture made him a world wide celebrity for a week. It was great cannon fodder for “See how stupid Americans are?” reporters all around the world.
From all I can tell Harold Camping is a sincere man, just eccentric. Back when I was researching his network (along with every other major radio owner), I tracked down his “mansion”. He lives in a very modest house in Oakland. His entire ministry is run from a storefront on a road near the Oakland airport in an industrial part of town. Just off the top of my head, I can think of at least 4 “Christian” radio owners who live very prosperous lives gathering up money for Jesus and taking their “cut” of the proceeds. Harold claims to not take a salary for his work. I think that’s probably true.
However, the organization he built over the last 50 years is worth a LOT of money. When he is unable to run it (or dies), what happens next will determine what his long term legacy is.
Harold got involved with FM radio back when it didn’t yet exist in cars. The FCC issued him licenses in a number of major cities. Non-commercial licenses are selling now for more than commercial ones in many cases.
WFME-FM in New Jersey covers all of New York City. That one station by itself is probably worth $100 million. His network also owns stations that cover San Francisco, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Seattle, along with a network of satellite fed FM translators. My guestimate is the network is worth about $250 million.
I heard one report as May 21st was approaching that Family Radio had borrowed money to get the word out, in which case those licenses would have been the collateral.
So the next chapter in the story awaits…