"We were both well aware that the radio stations were very valuable CA (Calvary Albuquerque) assets," Nelson wrote in his letter. Nelson and board members from Albuquerque voted against the move, which did not occur. The resignation letter by Heitzig's hand-picked successor, Pete Nelson, said Heitzig in March 2004 proposed transferring the radio station assets to a company he controlled. 1, 2001.įast forward to 2006, when a simmering dispute at the city's biggest nondenominational church boils over into public view. The FCC permitted the transfer of KLYT and its statewide network of translators on Jan. Connection Communications ran another Albuquerque station, KTKN. The president of Connection Communications was Heitzig, who founded Calvary Chapel of Albuquerque, and at the time was its senior pastor. The Christian Broadcasting Academy Board chaired by Saber voted to give the 31-year-old radio station to a nonprofit subsidiary of Calvary called Connection Communications Associates. "It wasn't just gifting (the station) to Calvary it went straight to Skip." The president of the Christian Broadcasting Academy Board at the time was Paul Saber, a Calvary Albuquerque board member and prominent backer of Heitzig.įolk said of his objection to the transfer. He also claims the deal was set up to benefit former Calvary pastor Skip Heitzig.įolk said members at Calvary dominated the board of Christian Broadcasting Academy, the company that was operating KLYT. "I told the FCC I didn't think it was right to have a public broadcasting station, the only (Christian) one in town, being taken over by one particular denomination," he said recently. The reason: He argued that the nonprofit Christian Broadcasting Academy Inc., which had run KLYT for several years, was not affiliated with any particular church. A Christian radio station that figured prominently in the recent power struggle at Calvary Chapel was donated to the church five years ago in a transaction that attracted scant attention.īryan Folk, a youth activities leader for an East Mountains evangelical church, was one of two people who formally opposed the deal, urging the Federal Communications Commission to reject the transfer of Albuquerque-based KLYT 88.3-FM to a Calvary-run nonprofit.
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