NEW YORK -- When the Rev. Billy Graham steps to the podium tonight in New York for his final U.S. crusade, he'll be revisiting the place that in 1957 not only cemented his national reputation but also created a television ministry that has affected millions.

It was here that Graham's Sunday night sermons -- at Madison Square Garden that summer 48 years ago -- reached a mass audience far beyond the Garden. Millions watched on ABC. And it sparked a commitment to television that has helped make him a fixture in U.S. homes and hearts for nearly half a century.

"He learned in 1957 that television had an enormous impact," said William Martin, a sociology professor at Rice University and the author of "A Prophet With Honor: The Billy Graham Story."

Although Graham's programs long ago left the national network, his specials -- edited versions of his crusades or spiritual movies made by the ministry's production arm -- appear in almost every TV market several times a year. The ministry's media-buying unit, Willow Communications, purchases blocks of primetime or the access periods right before it, market by market, securing the pre-emptions of network programs on the stations that air the specials.

Unlike other religious programming, Graham's specials aren't relegated to the weekend dustbin. Graham's ministry always has insisted on primetime or near-primetime placement in as high-rated a station as possible -- and is willing to pay well for the time. Station managers say interrupting primetime doesn't just cost the value of the local ads that would have run but also the network-affiliation fee, which could run thousands of dollars in some markets.

Graham's advisers say it's well worth the price, which is financed via contributions to Graham's ministry. "Primetime is when people are watching television," Graham media consultant A. Larry Ross said. "Mr. Graham is obviously trying to reach as many people as possible with his gospel message."

Martin noted that Graham has been wise and efficient in his use of TV. "He was wanting to reach people who were primetime television watchers rather than those who were the devoted on Sunday morning," he said. "There you are preaching to people who are shining their shoes (for church) or studying their Sunday school lessons."

Graham has carved out a niche in American life that hasn't been rivaled before or since -- one that's more ecumenical than any single denomination.

"He has become America's Protestant chaplain," said Bill Leonard, dean of the Wake Forest University Divinity School. It has boosted Graham beyond the pale of the television preacher, who never would get the same level of primetime exposure and attention.

"Many (TV station managers) say that they have a corporate policy against religion on the air, but they'll make an exception for Mr. Graham," Ross said. "That speaks to the integrity of his message."

Station managers and religious experts say it is that integrity that accounts for his appeal and allows him access to primetime.

"He's avoided scandals, and he lives the message," said Doug Barrow, general manager of WISE-TV, the ABC affiliate in Fort Wayne, Ind. Graham's messages are well received in that Midwest community, Barrow said. It's the same thing in conservative Cincinnati, where WCPO-TV vp and general manager Bill Fee said the Graham specials "always play very well."

Community is at the heart of every Graham crusade, said Dana Robert, a professor at the Boston University School of Theology. He's always invited by local churches, and the choirs and other participants always are drawn locally. Graham encourages people to find a church locally and not just in a specific denomination.

"If you've got an entire community supporting these crusades before they even start, you've got a built-in TV audience," Robert said.

The Billy Graham Specials usually run in a time period that's weak for an affiliate's broadcast network. Although station managers say it doesn't thrill the networks for local affiliates to pre-empt primetime programming, the affiliate agreements allow for a certain amount of pre-emptions per year as long as it doesn't interfere with a sweep.

"We're very judicious in how we pick," Fee said. "We're not going to show it at 9 o'clock at night Sundays, being an ABC affiliate, for example."

There have been few complaints about the pre-emptions, many stations say.

"We have not been accused of aligning ourselves with some religious belief or support of a particular religious group," said John Dittmeier, former general manager of WYOU-TV in Scranton, Pa., which carries the specials, and now vp and general manager of WBRE-TV in the same city. "It's a tender line that you walk, a fine line, and that goes into every decision we make -- that if we are pre-empting an hour of CBS, that it is one that will cause the least level of frustration to viewers."

Said Chris Rohrs, president of the Television Bureau of Advertising: "Stations have always liked the Billy Graham specials. It's uplifting programming that's well produced and has a loyal audience."

In many markets, it's hard to tell how many people tune in. Only a handful of the markets are metered by Nielsen Media Research; the others that are paper-diary-based don't do them outside of sweep periods. But in Cincinnati, the June 10 airing of a 90-minute Graham-produced movie did a 4 rating/8 share, compared with another network's lesser performance running Friday night drama repeats.

"It doesn't hurt us from a ratings standpoint," Fee said. "It's a fit for us programmatically, in production values (and) revenue."

Christine Bateman, national sales manager of WHOI-TV in Peoria, Ill., said the Graham specials serve the station's viewers.

"Billy Graham's been around a long time. He's got a good reputation, and he's got a message that comforts people," she said.