Paul Crouch Jr
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Paul Franklin Crouch Jr. /kraʊtʃ/ (born March 13, 1959) is an American Christian broadcaster. He is chairman and chief studio designer for Cinemills Corporation. He is best known, however, for his long association with the
Trinity Broadcasting Network The Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN; legally Trinity Broadcasting of Texas, Inc.) is an international Christian-based broadcast television network and the world's largest religious television network. TBN solicits donations on its Web site, a ...
(TBN), which was founded by his parents
Paul Paul may refer to: People * Paul (given name), a given name, including a list of people * Paul (surname), a list of people * Paul the Apostle, an apostle who wrote many of the books of the New Testament * Ray Hildebrand, half of the singing duo ...
and
Jan Crouch Janice Wendell Crouch () (née Bethany; May 14, 1938 – May 31, 2016) was an American religious broadcaster. Crouch and her husband, Paul, founded the Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) in 1973. Early life and ministry Crouch was the daught ...
. His teachings, along with TBN, are grounded in
prosperity theology Prosperity theology (sometimes referred to as the prosperity gospel, the health and wealth gospel, the gospel of success, seed-faith gospel, Faith movement, or Word-Faith movement) is a belief among some Charismatic Christians that financial bl ...
.


Personal life

The oldest of Paul and Jan Crouch's two children, Crouch Jr. was born in
Rapid City, South Dakota Rapid City is the county seat of Pennington County, South Dakota, United States. It is located on the eastern slope of the Black Hills in western South Dakota and was named after Rapid Creek (South Dakota), Rapid Creek, where the settlement deve ...
, where his father was working in commercial broadcasting at the time. The Crouches eventually moved to
California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...
, where they co-founded Trinity Broadcasting Network in 1973. Crouch married Tawny Dryden, the daughter of
Oklahoma City Oklahoma City (), officially the City of Oklahoma City, and often shortened to OKC, is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Oklahoma, most populous city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The county seat ...
pastors Ron and Linda Dryden, in 1980. The couple had three children together—son Brandon and daughters Brittany and Carra—before divorcing around 2007. He married Brenda Crouch in 2014.


Professional career

As a teenager, Crouch worked behind the scenes during the formative years of TBN, alongside his parents and younger brother Matthew. In the early 1980s, however, he left TBN and ventured out on his own to produce and direct various Christian television programs such as ''Church in the Home'' for Fred Jordan and a program for TBN regular Dwight Thompson. Around this time, in 1982 Crouch briefly entered the spotlight as an outspoken critic of
backmasking Backmasking is a recording technique in which a message is recorded backward onto a track that is meant to be played forward. It is a deliberate process, whereas a message found through phonetic reversal may be unintentional. Artists have used ...
. He made appearances on both religious networks (including TBN) and secular programs, such as ''
The Merv Griffin Show ''The Merv Griffin Show'' is an American television talk show starring Merv Griffin. The series had runs on two different networks on NBC (1962–1963) and CBS (1969–1972) but is most known for its run on first-run syndication from 1965 to 1 ...
'', playing
rock music Rock is a Music genre, genre of popular music that originated in the United States as "rock and roll" in the late 1940s and early 1950s, developing into a range of styles from the mid-1960s, primarily in the United States and the United Kingdo ...
recordings he believed contained Satanic messages when played backwards. In 1983 Crouch formed PJ Video, a full service video production company which offered post-production services for both Christian ministries and secular clients. Two years later he co-founded The Edit Bay, a post-production editing facility. In 1990 Crouch joined
Jay Sekulow Jay Alan Sekulow (; born June 10, 1956) is an American lawyer, radio, television talk show host and politically conservative media personality. He has been chief counsel of the American Center for Law & Justice (ACLJ) since 1991. As a member of P ...
in establishing Sonlight Broadcasting Systems, a network of Christian television stations based in the
southern United States The Southern United States (sometimes Dixie, also referred to as the Southern States, the American South, the Southland, Dixieland, or simply the South) is List of regions of the United States, census regions defined by the United States Cens ...
. All of Sonlight's stations were affiliated with the Trinity Broadcasting Network. Crouch served as a member of the board of Sonlight Broadcasting until 1995, and developed and producing television programs that were broadcast on the stations.


TBN

Crouch returned to Trinity Broadcasting on a full-time basis in 1998 in the role of vice president of production, where he oversaw the development of new programs and special projects. He also worked alongside his brother Matthew, as second unit director of photography on the TBN-produced full-length motion picture, ''
The Omega Code ''The Omega Code'' is a 1999 apocalyptic thriller film directed by Rob Marcarelli, written by Stephen Blinn and Hollis Barton, and starring Casper Van Dien, Michael York, Catherine Oxenberg and Michael Ironside. The premillennialist plot revolves ...
'' (1999). In 2003 Crouch and his son Brandon spearheaded the launch of
JCTV JUCE TV was an American youth-oriented Christian digital brand and formerly an American Christian television network owned and operated by the Trinity Broadcasting Network. The channel was aimed at teenagers and young adults between the ages of ...
, TBN's youth network. Crouch was later elevated to the position of chief of staff, taking a more prominent role in the management and expansion of TBN's global network. Crouch led TBN's expansion into digital platforms, including the internet and social media sites such as
Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...
and
Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...
, live video streaming content to mobile platforms, and
video on demand Video on demand (VOD) is a media distribution system that allows users to access videos, television shows and films Digital distribution, digitally on request. These multimedia are accessed without a traditional video playback device and a typica ...
(VOD). He also began to increase his on-camera presence on the network as a frequent host of ''Praise the Lord'' and ''Behind the Scenes'', TBN's flagship programs.


Recent career

Crouch was forced from his role at TBN, and quit being on the board in October 2011. His departure came on the heels of a lawsuit brought against his parents by his daughter, Brittany Crouch Koper. Crouch and his daughter Brittany left TBN in an act of solidarity to protest the controversial actions taken by the network’s management. He later joined the Word Network as director of project development. The Word Network is a Christian network, headquartered in
Southfield, Michigan Southfield is a city in Oakland County, Michigan, Oakland County in the U.S. state of Michigan. An inner-ring suburb of Detroit, Southfield borders Detroit to the north, roughly northwest of downtown Downtown Detroit, Detroit. As of the 2020 Uni ...
. Crouch established facilities for the Word Network in the
Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
area. Crouch was fired by the Word Network in 2016 due to a conflict of interests when he produced a spot for another Christian network on his own time using equipment he owned through his video production company, PJ Video, a full service video production company. Crouch has owned and operated PJ Video since 1983. In his current position, Crouch serves as chairman and chief studio designer for Cinemills Corporation. Cinemills provides studio facilities and designs, manufactures and supplies lighting equipment for motion pictures, television and still photography. Crouch also provides management, technical and creative consulting services for
Tri-State Christian Television Tri-State Christian Television, Inc., trade name, doing business as TCT Network and TCT Ministries (formerly Total Christian Television), is a religious broadcasting, religious television network in the United States. The network was founded in M ...
, doing business as TCT Network, and Truli Media Corporation, parent company of Truli.com, a digital OTT platform focused on family friendly content. In February 2017, Crouch, the management of Cinemills Corporation and
Michael Jay Solomon Michael Jay Solomon (born January 20, 1938) is an American businessman, and entertainment executive. Solomon's career spans more than 55 years in the media and content distribution business. He is the founder, chairman and president of several pub ...
, chairman and CEO of Truli Media Corporation, formed Truli Cinemills Media Corporation (TCMC). TCMC will produce and distribute family-friendly films, documentaries and TV series in English and Spanish. The first project announced as part of TCMC is ''A Cowgirl's Story'', a full-length feature film inspired by the classic novel ''Little Women'' by
Louisa May Alcott Louisa May Alcott (; November 29, 1832March 6, 1888) was an American novelist, short story writer, and poet best known for writing the novel ''Little Women'' (1868) and its sequels ''Good Wives'' (1869), ''Little Men'' (1871), and ''Jo's Boys'' ...
. ''A Cowgirl's Story'' is set to be distributed by Samuel Goldwyn Films.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Crouch, Paul Jr. Living people 1959 births Christians from South Dakota People from Rapid City, South Dakota American television personalities Crouch family Pentecostals from California Trinity Broadcasting Network people