The Echo Park-Silver Lake area is no stranger to religious broadcasting.
Indeed, the Foursquare Church and former home of pioneering evangelical broadcaster Aimee Semple McPherson sit just a few steps from Echo Park Lake.
What goes and around comes around and with it this news from Reuters: the Church of Scientology will launch a multi-media operation in the former KCET studios on Sunset Boulevard in Silver Lake:
The church plans to establish a central media hub for our growing world network of churches and to move into the production of religious television and radio broadcasting," said Karin Pouw, a spokeswoman for Church of Scientology International, in an email [to Reuters].
KCET employees moved to Burbank in April, after the church bought the lot last year for $42 million.
Home to KCET since 1970, it has been the longest continually-producing studio in Hollywood, since 1912.
There is no timeframe for when production or hiring for the Scientology project will begin.
A pop culture expert quoted in the Reuters story expressed no suprise at the move, noting that churches have often been at the forefront of niche broadcasting.
