Television has been a regular fixture in American homes since the 50’s. It provided a means of dispensing images and messages across a huge population with limited effort. It wasn’t long before God’s people envisioned the great opportunity television provided. In Kennett, the coming of Martel Pace provided a way to actually seize such an opportunity. He came in August of 1974 with the expectation that he could begin a diligent effort of reaching the people of our community via the television. A year after his arrival, he wrote in the bulletin:
It is our fervent prayer through our cablevision work to open the hearts of man in our community to Christ and pure New Testament Christianity.
After a year of preparation, the work finally took flight. Monday, September 15, 1975 was the first day of Slicer Street’s original programming on local cable. It began with the following schedule:
6:00 Children’s Clubhouse Show
6:15 Time for Talk
6:30 Home Bible Studies with Martel Pace (Larry and Anne Metheny)
6:45 Your Bible Questions Answere
(Over time it was Larry Brinkley and Martel Pace, Finis Caldwell’s Old Testament Lectures; etc.)
7:00 Various programs from other places.
The Clubhouse program ran through the 1977-1978 programming year. It did, however, resurface in 1980.
Time for Talk took the introductory slot for our programming when Clubhouse discontinued and has filled that slot ever since.
Home Bible Studies lasted a short while and was then replaced with a Bible study program.
The Bible Questions Answered program ran for as long as Martel was in Kennett. He would list the questions to be answered in the bulletin. (Forexample: Do animals have souls? Should Churches have to report their income to the IRS? Why should we fight pornography? What is a cult? What’s wrong with alcohol and does it apply to foreign countries?). Sometimes guests would join him in answering the questions. During this time the name changed to Ask Martel and Larry, since Larry Brinkley in Senath was with him. He would also use this time to interview different people, like Albert Gardner, John Clayton, or a visiting speaker.
Larry Brinkley also had a program as well as Jerry Culbertson.
When Johnny Hester came to Kennett in 1983, the programming changed to how it has been ever since.
7:00 Time for Talk
7:15 Guidelines for Life
7:30 Various programs
In 1984, Thursdays were filled by Jerry Culbertson’s Making a Difference.
Since that time, Time for Talk begins the evening at 7:00, the preacher at Slicer Street hosts Guidelines for Life. (David Wade, Larry Rogers, Spencer Furby), and the final thirty minutes is filled by various shows each night, usually the preacher at Senath (Art Smith, Greg Pollock), and programs brought in from other places. There have been other short term efforts by Spencer Furby, Jim Medlock, Finis Caldwell, James Powell, and Rich Shockley.
Slicer Street’s programming has taken up 90 minutes at one time, but mostly the hour between 7 and 8. The channel has moved as well, starting on 4 but also moving to 9, 19, 39, 5 and 2.
Today, our programming is seen every weeknight on channel 2 from 7:00 to 8:00 and every Sunday at 10:00, 1:00, and 5:00.
