Vibe is an entertainment channel on New Zealand's SKY Television. It is not currently part of the Freeview service.

The channel is aimed mostly at a female audience and includes drama, comedy and reality series, many of which will airing on SKY for the first time.

Some previously aired shows have a primetime scheduling for the channel. These include The O.C., Bones, Men in Trees, Charmed, Grey's Anatomy, House, Boston Legal, and Cold Case. The channel will also feature programmes never before seen in New Zealand including Make Me A Supermodel with Rachel Hunter, Most Haunted, , Desire, and .

The daytime schedule includes syndicated shows such as early episodes of ER, Suddenly Susan, Providence, and Lois and Clark. The channel also screens American talkshow The View on a daily basis.

Academic life

His 1959 An Analysis of Sect Development in the American Sociological Review and his book Sects and Society (Heinemann 1961) – a study of the Elim Churches, the Christadelphians, and Christian Science (based on his doctoral thesis at the London School of Economics) – may be regarded as representing the beginning of contemporary academic study of new religious movements, to which Wilson later contributed its influential The Social Dimensions of Sectarianism: Sects and New Religious Movements in Contemporary Society (Oxford University Press 1990). He was also a pioneer of studies of millennialism, many years before this field achieved its present visibility, in Magic and the Millennium (Heinemann 1973).

In a eulogical article by Massimo Introvigne, Director of the Center for Studies on New Religions (CESNUR), he is described as "one of the most distinguished sociologists of the 20th century" who has exercised "a crucial influence on the sociology of religion, not only through his many publications but also through the generations of his graduate students.[...] Wilson will also be remembered as one of the most prominent academic champions of religious liberty in the 20th century. He defended new religious movements and other minorities against the various waves of international anti-cult campaigns, for no other personal reason than his passionate love for freedom and justice, since he defined himself as an atheist." In Memoriam: Bryan Ronald Wilson, 1926–2004

Eileen Barker, James A. Beckford, Karel Dobbelaere have called him "the doyen of sociological studies of religion in Britain, stating that in honoring Wilson, "they represent thousands of other scholars around the world who owe him an enormous debt of gratitude for the enrichment that he has brought to our understanding of modern societies."

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Further reading

Category:1926 births Category:2004 deaths Category:Alumni of the University of Leicester Category:Fellows of All Souls College, Oxford Category:Fellows of the British Academy Category:British sociologists Category:Sociologists of religion Category:Researchers of cults and new religious movements