INSPIRING COWBOYS: Charlotte-area TV network INSP flips from the Gospel to Westerns.

• Author: Smith, Warren Cole

One of the biggest ratings successes of the past decade in the U.S. television industry is INSP, which is based in suburban Charlotte, in Indian Land, South Carolina. That success has led to robust paydays for CEO David Cerullo and other executives of the not-for-profit organization, formerly called The Inspirational Network. It has a mission of "impacting people for Christ worldwide through media," according to its federal tax filing.

In 2022, INSP often appeared among the top-rated networks on television, including two weeks in the No. 6 spot in February. For 115 consecutive weeks, its ratings have been in the top 10 of U.S. cable networks, INSP officials say.

INSP's popularity followed a rebranding, kicked off in 2010, that emphasizes Western-themed, family-friendly programs, rather than religious-oriented fare. Over the past decade, household viewership has soared more than 1,300% with the network available to more than 60 million households, the company says.

Religious programming on INSP is now largely limited to 4 a.m. to 7 a.m., when the long-running "Camp Meeting" teaching and fundraising telethon airs.

Otherwise, INSP mostly airs shows from the 1960s and '70s, such as "The Rifleman" and "Gunsmoke." Last year, INSP changed its logo to include a cowboy hat and its tagline is now "Heroes Live Here."

Amid INSP's success, Cerullo established for-profit operations, including Imagicomm Communications, which bought 18 television stations in 12 markets from Atlanta-based Cox Media Group last August. Media reports placed the value of the deal at $488 million, which INSP officials declined to confirm.

The Imagicomm stations range from Binghamton, New York to Eureka, California. The biggest markets include Memphis, Tennessee and Tulsa, Oklahoma.

"It's a blockbuster of a deal," according to Radio+Television Business Report, an online publication. Imagicomm's purchase of the Cox stations "is among the largest divestments seen in recent memory."

When announcing the deal, Cerullo said it was part of a "broad corporate strategy to expand our media ownership across multiple entertainment platforms." He called the stations "important local-journalism brands."

INSP's roots stem from the PTL Television Network, founded in Charlotte by Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker in 1978. David Cerullo's father, Pentecostal evangelist Morris Cerullo, bought the assets of the network in a bankruptcy court-approved sale in 1990. For two decades, it carried primarily...