Background
The channel was originally launched in 1985 as The Nostalgia Channel through the efforts of former Our Gang child star George "Spanky" McFarland. The channel featured vintage movies, similar to Turner Classic Movies, which would launch years later. The channel changed its name in 1990 to Nostalgia Television, removed movies with poor quality prints and added lifestyle series as well as vintage TV series programs.
ALN was owned by the Unification Church from 2001 to 2009. According to a June 2007 story in Variety, the network had been a consistent money-loser, although the church's tax-exempt status made it easier to absorb the losses. In 2001, ALN broadcast the Unification Church-sponsored film Inchon (1982), one of the few times it has been seen since its initial theatrical run. In 2007 the network broadcast George Clooney's documentary, A Journey to Darfur. It released the film on DVD in 2008 and announced that proceeds from its sale would be donated to the International Rescue Committee for its humanitarian efforts in Darfur.
In May 2009, the network was acquired by ComStar Media Fund, an organization chaired by Robert A. Schuller, son of Crystal Cathedral founder Robert H. Schuller. Schuller said that the network would concentrate on "family-values programming that speaks to all generations." On November 29 Shuller's new program Everyday Life was first seen on ALN.
Chris Wyatt, ComStar's chief executive officer and founder of religious website Godtube, commented: "We are not creating another religious network but rather a family-values channel. We've tapped into a huge underserved market and have the opportunity over time to increase distribution to exceed 40 million homes." Media reports indicated that the network's on-air presentation would change and that other syndicated series would be targeted for acquisition.
On December 1, 2009, ALN announced that it would start airing episodes of Chuck Norris' World Combat League, previously seen on the Versus network. ComStar also has access to a library of classic television programing including Happy Days and My Three Sons. Some of the older television shows moved from ALN to its sister network, FamilyNet on March 1, 2010, when it was spun out into its own company as Robert A. Schuller as the chairman.
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