The New Channel in Town

Channel surfing can be productive sometimes.

As I wandered over the digital cable landscape yesterday, I happened across one of the newest additions to Time Warner Cable's lineup, at least in the upstate NY market. The Gospel Music Channel (GMC) must've debuted within the last week, but TWC never bothered with a memo to its subscribers, or, at the very least, I didn't see one with my bill.

Anyway, GMC doesn't just play music (What? Does Viacom own this station, too? Boo! Hiss!). Like the other music channels, they also mix in movies and old TV shows, some of which you're already familiar with, I'm sure. The programming lineup includes 227, Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, Highway to Heaven (Michael Landon's 1980's drama, which also has been added stealthily to Retro's lineup as of July 4, but TWC won't acknowledge it), Amen, & The Waltons. I think you can see the pattern forming. Yesterday, GMC ran a marathon of the "Left Behind" movie series, based on the novels by Tim LeHay. Well, that does serve as perfect counter-programming to ABC Family playing the "Harry Potter" movies into the ground over the last two days.

Like MTV, GMC restricts its music blocks to mornings and late nights, with familiar gospel favorites like Amy Grant & Michael W. Smith on the playlist. Now, the only question remaining is if they are like other cablers and will insult viewer intelligence by compressing the closing credits to fit in advertising. I'll have to find that out shortly. TWC, as a result, now has 4 religious-themed channels (TBN, Daystar, & EWTN are the others). Hey, it works.