The Gospel Music Network was a US commercial Christian cable television station launched in 1986 by Bill and Linda Airy.
A guiding tenet was that GMN would never ask for donations on-air but would rely on advertising sponsorships and license fees from distributors.
Initially funded directly by the Airys, GMN's format was similar to that of MTV, mostly broadcasting music videos.
[1] In 1988, GMN was in negotiations for carriage with Tele-Communications, Inc. (TCI), a large cable MSO based in Englewood, CO. During those negotiations, TCI broached the issue of broadening GMN's line-up to include programming from a wide variety of faith traditions – Protestant, Catholic, Orthodox, and Jewish.
In 1989, the Airys sold their advertising agency, moved their family to Denver, and Bill Airy began working for TCI as president of VISN Group, Inc., a new TCI subsidiary formed to merge GMN with the television programming efforts of the National Interfaith Cable Coalition (NICC), a coalition of various leaders from the mainline faith community loosely affiliated with the National Council of Churches.