Top Faith and Family Channel CEO Begins Next Adventure: ‘Honor God in all Your Ways’

UP Entertainment has grown from a cable Gospel Music Channel into a massive brand. The brand includes the leading streaming service for faith and family content. It’s a business empire that Charley Humbard began in his basement more than 20 years ago. 

This year marks a major milestone for the company as Humbard is stepping away and retiring. The last day on the job is at times a long walk down memory lane for UP Entertainment CEO Charley Humbard. He told CBN News’ Studio 5 how he felt leaving the company that he created.

“I guess I’d compare it maybe to your kid going to college and never coming back home. No, it’s certainly an emotional moment for you. But it’s still very emotional. When you are a CEO, but you’re also the founder, it really is your baby.”

“We went on the air in October of 2004. But I started the journey of raising money in early 2002 because I’d left Discovery after 9/11. Decided, this is what I wanted to do, was start Gospel Music Channel. So that journey of raising money was a little over two years as well. So, I’ve been doing this a long time now. It’s 22 years of CEO and two years of raising money,” Humbard said.

UP Entertainment is now home to the leading faith and family streaming service. Brands like UP-TV, Aspire, Gaither TV, and more are reaching an audience of at least 60 million people.

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Humbard’s faith roots run deep. He is the son of the very first Televangelist, Rex Humbard. His dad preached on the radio in the 1940s and then on television in the 1950s.
    
“I had the opportunity to grow up and learn so much watching dad as a great example of how to live it and really how to speak to people and spread the important message,” Humbard said. “It was great that dad lived long enough that he was there at our launch. I remember him at the launch. It was a small group of us, probably about 15 employees at the time. And his talk to all of us was, honor God in all your ways and he’ll direct your path. And so that’s something I’ve always kept alive here at the company, that very thought, that scripture, because I think it’s important to keep your focus on the right things. It’s so easy in the media industry to get lost and get astray and wander off brand and end up in places that you really aren’t serving the purpose that you started with. So I think that was great to have that experience with dad and have him for at least the first three years. The last thing he said to me before he passed away was hang in there, man.”

Humbard has done more than hang in there. He has grown his business to more than 135 employees. He has offices in Atlanta, New York, and Chicago. He shared with CBN News’ Studio 5 his most trying times with the network.

Humbard said, “The very beginning was really difficult because you’d never done it before. It had never been done before. It was the first gospel music channel. And not everybody was receptive to that.”

He also shared his highest moments with the network.
        
“I think the business is the best it’s ever been. We’re really healthy in a very challenging time in media and seeing the growth of our streaming service that we can compete with everybody out there and have a streaming service that has the same level of interface for consumers and all that like Netflix would. So, it’s a world-class service, but represents content based in faith and family”, Humbard told CBN News’ Studio 5. 
         
“As a business leader, keep your focus on your purpose. Not all businesses have a purpose. Ours was founded on a purpose, so that is our north star, and it’s always allowed us to use that as a measuring stick. And we believe here that quality and entertainment with characters with character can have an impact on people’s hearts and change our world,” he continued.

Humbard tells CBN News’s Studio 5 when he recognized the power to touch people through entertainment.       

“That was in the ministry of my father. He was a preacher, but he knew that quality entertainment wrapped around a message would engage people. And I watched the power of TV then with him on television. The music we had was the best. One Sunday we’d have Johnny Cash, then we’d have Andre Crouch and the Disciples, and we would have Pat and Debbie Boone. So, it was always quality entertainment. It engaged the people and then he could put his message in there to them.”

Now, Humbard makes the decision to walk away from the network.

“Last year was our 20th anniversary, and I thought that’s when I was going to do it. My wife looked at me and said, ‘We don’t have enough money. You got to keep working.’ So just being honest, you got another year of work today. I was like, ‘All right, I’ll do it another year.’ But you can’t, to me, look, I’m 60, now 63, and if I’m never going to do anything else or have other experiences, now’s the time,” Humbard said.
            
“I’m excited about it. I look at my life like a movie. There are three acts in a movie, right? And 0 to 30 is Act I, 30 to 60 has been Act II. I’m now over 60. And Act III, I’m excited about. I should have more wisdom now, more ability to not just react because I’m on a career track. So I’m excited about getting smarter, getting wiser, being more adventurous.”

Whatever the adventure, Humbard is taking his UP-entertainment memories with him.