.... "The Loma Linda Broadcasting Network, as they called their operation, subscribed to "It is Written," a syndicated Adventist program, and another program called "Christian Lifestyle."

"We had no budget. We didn't have a dime," Hanna said. "We negotiated programs in exchange for name exposure. A lot of times, when you're a big network, they love to have their programs on your air. But when you're small, they don't take you seriously. They give you their older material."

By 1998, "We started developing some viewer interest," he said, measured by encouraging mail, some of which contained contributions.

The network set up shop in a one-room studio at the church and expanded its programming to 30 hours a week, packaged in blocks to be broadcast at staggered times throughout the week.

"We got more equipment and more people interested in what we were doing," he said. "It took on a life of its own."

The network purchased analog satellite airtime at a staggering $750 an hour to expand its broadcasts across North America. By 2002, the Loma Linda Broadcasting Network had converted to a digital-satellite signal at one-fifth the cost that could reach Central and South America.

The network purchased the former packing house for $250,000. They spent that much again on wood siding, two layers of insulated drywall and fashioning 3,000 square feet of production space and five studio sets. The work was completed this past summer.

Network officials also negotiated a deal to broadcast Loma Linda City Council meetings in exchange for access to the city's fiber-optic cable network.

So by the end of the month, Hanna said, they will tie into a transatlantic cable that, combined with their webcasts, will give the network worldwide reach.

Executive Director of Marketing Derrell Mundall, 38, of Loma Linda, is negotiating programming rights with overseas cable distributors, a few at a time.

"Right now I'm working with Taiwan," he said. "I'm getting close to a deal that, beginning in January, should give us access to one-million households."

Separate arrangements are in the works with cable stations in India, Jamaica, Pakistan and several countries in Africa.

"Yesterday I got an e-mail from Zimbabwe asking for programming over there," Mundall said last week. "The thing that differentiates us from other religious programming is our emphasis on health and lifestyle: what you eat, how you exercise, your family."

Those are big advantages for a tiny station, he said."

Full text: http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_C_llbn08.5e7b54.html