Faith in Programming

A made-for-TV movie about media mogul Lowell “Bud” Paxson would have to feature two pivotal props: an electric can opener and a Gideons’ Bible. The can opener helped make Paxson a billionaire. The bedstand Bible brought focus to his affluent, hard-driving life.
     At one time, Paxson—now chairman and chief executive of Pax TV—was the owner of a struggling radio station who agreed to accept 112 Rival electric can openers as payment from a cash-strapped advertiser. Paxson, a born retailer who bought his first radio station at age 22, offered the gadgets on air and sold out in a few minutes. Two years later, he took the concept to television, and the Home Shopping Network was born.
     In the 1980s, Paxson’s lucrative communications network grew from 5 to 7,000 employees. “It was like riding a tiger—and the hardest job I’ve ever done,” Paxson says. Still, the intensity took its toll. In 1986, the year he spent 260 days on the road negotiating with manufacturers in 100 countries, Paxson’s marriage broke up.
     A few weeks after the split, Paxson and his four children were staying at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas. “It was New Year’s Eve Day, and I was not feeling festive,” he remembers. In the middle of that sleepless night, Paxson flipped through the pages of a Gideons’ Bible on his bedstand. Two passages about God’s unconditional love for sinners stopped him short. “I had an instant response in terms of my comfort and inner peace,” Paxson says. “I was 54 years old, yet I had never realized how important faith is in life.”