From Publishers Weekly
Cofounder of the Home Shopping Network, Paxson could shake up the television industry this year when his company, Paxson Communications, which owns over 75 TV stations, launches PAX NET?a family-oriented TV network that, he claims, will air "positive programming that communicates God's love and presence." Part homily, part business autobiography, part Christian self-help manual, this forthright self-portrait written with Templeton, a minister, charts Paxson's metamorphosis from pitchman and radio announcer to a phenomenally successful entrepreneur and media mogul. Paxson, who calls himself a visionary and a pioneer, and reiterates his belief that his success (and PAX NET) are part of God's plan, somehow manages to come across as unpretentious, though his prose tends to be as bland, didactic and formulaic as some of his syndicated fare. By "threading the needle," he means balancing the significant elements in one's life?spiritual growth, work, family values?by opening oneself to God. For Paxson, this came after he hit spiritual bottom?when his first wife dumped him for another man on Christmas Day 1986. He dusted himself off and came up with the idea of making cable America a retail wonderland with the HSN; now, with PAX NET (which owns syndication rights to Touched by an Angel; Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman; and Diagnosis Murder), he promises to recast family TV viewing in a kinder, gentler (and, one assumes, highly lucrative) light. Author tour.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Paxson created the Home Shopping Network and headed Silver King Communications, the leading producer of "infomercials." In 1991 he sold both for a profit of $130 million. Several days later he began buying radio and television stations. Paxson's dream, to be fulfilled this fall, is to start a seventh television network, even though--as with Snow White's dwarves and Santa's reindeer--most Americans would be hard-pressed to recall all seven at the same time. Paxson is a born-again Christian, and his programing will feature family entertainment, such as re-runs of
Dr. Quinn and
Touched by an Angel, as well as original programming that would include a celebrity charity show. Paxson tells the story of how he built his broadcasting empire, contrasting his personal wealth with his "spiritual bankruptcy." In 1986, after his wife walked out on him, he found himself alone on New Year's Eve in a Las Vegas hotel room. There a desolate Paxson sought out a Gideon's
Bible and discovered Jesus Christ.
David Rouse
