Awarded over 30 Emmy’s in 61 years of Broadcasting
Inductee of the National Religious Broadcasters Hall of Fame
Silver Circle Award Winner from The Chicago Chapter of the National Academy of Arts and Sciences
Jerry Rose, executive producer, producer, and television host, has won over 30 Emmy Awards in 61 years of broadcasting. He began in Dallas as an on-air personality, hosting radio and television shows around Texas. His deep faith led him to Christian television production and he became manager of CBN-TV’s Christian station in Dallas. Several years later, he took on his greatest challenge - as general manager of a new Christian TV station, but this time in the not so welcoming environs of Chicago. WCFC-TV became the most powerful Christian television station in the country, with a reach that extends around the world.
It was an audacious vision. Chicago was not a bible belt city like Dallas. Chicago was 72 percent Catholic with a sizeable Jewish population. Even other evangelical Christian groups resisted the idea. Pat Robertson said “The one place in the world I would not try to build a Christian television station would be Chicago. I don't think it's possible.”
“The first couple of years... it was just a struggle to stay alive,” said Rose. But with faith, commitment - and Rose’s insight into how new technology would transform broadcasting - when the station was sold, it was arguably the nation’s most successful Christian TV station with a reputation for quality and excellence. That single Chicago station became Total Living Network Media (TLN), now a global Christian broadcast and digital communications company.
TLN studios was located in a massive 65,000 square foot broadcast studio in Aurora, Illinois, where Rose and his family resided for many years. The studio is now located in Naperville, where the family also lived.
Rose won four (4) Emmys as executive producer for Sea of Hope, Encounters with the Unexplained, Ink 180 and More than Music. He was also executive producer on three (3) feature films; THr3e, Quigly and Hangman’s Curse. He is a member of the National Religious Broadcasters Hall of Fame, and served as their President for three (3) years. He won the Silver Circle Award from The Chicago Chapter of the National Academy of Arts and Sciences, and Toast Master Award from the Chicago Toastmasters. Rose has also authored several books.
Rose was President of TLN Media and Total Living International (TLI) for 48 years, having started with the company as General Manager of WCFC-TV in 1975. He retired in November 2023 and is now Board Chairman Emeritus of TLN Media.