TV

Only a few thousand families in Tennessee were able to see the Gospel Music Channel light when it began less than four years ago.

Now it's television's fastest-growing cable network — available in some 40 million homes, more than a third of the nation.

It reaches a milestone Wednesday when it carries live coverage of the annual Dove Awards for gospel music.

The co-founder of the Gospel Music Channel attributes its success in part to a lesson learned from his father, the late televangelist Rex Humbard.

Humbard embraced inspirational music of all forms — June Carter and Johnny Cash, Mahalia Jackson, Andrae Crouch and Amy Grant all performed on his show, said Charley Humbard, co-founder and president of the Gospel Music Channel.

Similarly, the Gospel Music Channel plays the gospel sounds of black churches, edgy Christian rock and rap, mainstream contemporary Christian pop and even Latin gospel music, he said.

Radio station owners typically recoil from presenting so many forms of music, and some in the industry believed the Gospel Music Channel was making a mistake.

Instead, the network has been accepted by fans of all forms of inspirational music, Humbard said.

"We like to say in here, 'multiple styles, one message,'" he said.

Charlie Humbard is a former executive at Discovery, where he worked on networks passionately devoted to particular interests such as health and aviation. He joined with a former Turner executive, Brad Siegel, to begin the Gospel Music Channel.