Why is the "700 Club" called that?

[rpannier]

CBN was founded in January of 1960 and broadcast its first program October 1, 1961. The network refused commercial advertisements, so by the fall of 1963, CBN conducted its first telethon to raise funds to keep the station alive. Pat Robertson, CBN's founder, told his viewers that a "club" of 700 contributors, each giving $10 a month, would allow CBN to meet its expenses.

link:
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1383/why-is-the-700-club-called-that

I'm SHOCKED, SHOCKED I tell you! Shocked that the origin of the show's name was/is about money

[BlueJazz]

1. I thought that was the total combined IQ of all of it's members.

:)

[Yeahyeah]

2. I thought it was because there's at least 700 A-holes watching it at any given time.

[Forkboy]

3. It's how many times per episode they ask for your money.

[mrcheerful]

4. It was called the 700 club because to be a full fledged member you had to send

Pat $700 a year, there was also a 800 900 and 1,000 club membership for those that believed sending more money to Pat would get them a better spot in heaven.

[one_voice]

5. Hmmm....

I thought it was the number of brain cells for ALL it's members....combined.

[mrcheerful]

6. With Pat it's always about the money

[NYC_SKP]

7. During a 1962 telethon, WTOV set a goal of signing 700 people up to a $10/month membership

from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_700_Club

History
1960s

In 1961, Robertson bought the license for WTOV, channel 27 in Portsmouth, Virginia. It had gone off the air five years earlier due to poor viewership. The station returned in October as WYAH, broadcasting twelve hours of Christian programming to the Hampton Roads market each day.

In 1962, the station suffered financially and almost closed. To keep the station on the air, WYAH decided to produce a special telethon edition of the show. For the telethon, Robertson set a goal of 700 members each contributing $10 a month, which was enough to support the station. Robertson referred to these members as the '700 Club' and the name stuck. The telethon was successful and is still held annually.

After the 1962 telethon, The 700 Club continued as a two hour a day local show. It consisted of a lot of music, preaching, group prayer, bible study, and some talk. The show started out as a Christian variety program. The music was hymns, instrumental pieces, southern gospel music, and urban gospel music. The show was run two or three times a day.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

:patriot:

[mrcheerful]

11. I was going by what Pat said on his show in 1991 shortly after the gulf war started

My best friends dad would only watch the 700 club for news on the Gulf war and Pat was doing an on air Q&A session about how the 700 club worked, he said that $700 a year would enter people into the 700 club, then he went on with the 800,900 and 1000 club memberships.

[NYC_SKP]

12. I don't doubt that this story is also true.

The name could come from the 1962 story and then morphed into a different sort of membership drive.

Your best friend's dad's story sounds like the kind of thing Robertson would do.

:P

[mrcheerful]

13. No the reason I was watching the damn show was his dad took over the TV when he came over to visit

my friend, friends dad was worried that Saddam was going to attack the US with scuds. The reason he was tuning into the 700 club was because MSM couldn't be trusted to tell the truth about the war. The real sad thing was that was the only thing I remembered about the whole show, lol.

[KonaKane]

8. I thought it was so named after the 700 reasons Pat Robertson is an asshole.

But hey, I could be wrong.

[one_voice]

9. ......

:rofl:

[Warren DeMontague]

10. Pat Robertson's SAT score?

Combined.

[rpannier]

14. 700

Wonder who he cheated off of...
or did they give 700 for spelling your name correctly?

[kstewart33]

15. Pat's age? nt