Salem_Communications

Salem Media Group

Salem Media Group

American radio broadcaster and media company


Salem Media Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: SALM; formerly Salem Communications Corporation) is an American radio broadcaster, internet content provider, and magazine and book publisher based in Irving, Texas, targeting audiences interested in Christian values and what it describes as "family-themed content and conservative values".[2]

Quick Facts Company type, Traded as ...

Salem Media Group owns 117 radio stations in 38 markets, including 60 stations in the top 25 markets and 29 in the top 10, making it tied with Audacy for the fifth-largest radio broadcaster.[2]

In addition to its radio properties, the company owns:

  • Salem Radio Network, which syndicates talk, news and music programming to approximately 2,400 affiliates.
  • Salem Media Representatives, a radio advertising company.
  • Salem Web Network, an Internet provider of Christian content and online streaming with over 100 Christian content and conservative opinion websites.
  • Salem Publishing, a publisher of Christian themed magazines.
  • Conservative websites Townhall.com, RedState, Hot Air, and PJ Media, as well as Twitter aggregator Twitchy.

The company was founded by brothers-in-law Stuart Epperson and Edward G. Atsinger III and is a for-profit corporation. This allows it to accept commercial advertising.

History

Former logo of Salem Communications.

In 1974 Atsinger (chief executive officer) and Epperson (chairman of the board) combined their radio assets to create Salem Communications. Beginning with stations in North Carolina and California, Atsinger and Epperson purchased station properties in Boston, San Antonio, New York, San Francisco, Portland, Los Angeles and other markets, converting them to Christian talk stations. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, they expanded formats to include contemporary Christian music (with most stations under this format branded as "The Fish"),[3] news talk (branded as "The Answer"), Spanish-language Christian content, and business programming.[4]

Many of Salem's stations are licensed to subsidiaries, organized by geographical area and media cluster as the company has acquired new stations and their previous licensees.

Salem Communications Corp acquired Twitter curation site, Twitchy.com. In January 2014, the Company announced the acquisition of the assets of Eagle Publishing, including Regnery Publishing, Human Events, and RedState, as well as sister companies Eagle Financial Publications and Eagle Wellness.[5]

On February 23, 2015 Salem Communications changed its name to Salem Media Group.[6][7]

In 2015 Salem Media Group expanded their digital platform with acquisitions of several businesses and assets, including DividendYieldHunter.com,[8] Stockinvestor.com;[9] DividendInvestor.com,[10] a Spanish Bible mobile app, along with its related website and Facebook properties; the DailyBible mobile app; the Daily Bible Devotion mobile app; and also, Bryan Perry's Newsletters.

In 2016 Salem Media Group continued to expand by acquiring the websites ChristianConcertAlerts.com, Historyonthenet.com and Authentichistory.com; as well as Mike Turner's line of investment products, including TurnerTrends.com;[11] the Retirement Watch newsletter and website, Retirementwatch.com;[12] and the King James Bible mobile application. Salem Media Group also acquired Mill City Press from Hillcrest Publishing Group, Inc.

In July 2017 Salem Media Group merged DividendYieldHunter.com and transferred all content into DividendInvestor.com.[13]

In March 2019 political writer Raheem Kassam and lawyer Will Chamberlain purchased Human Events from Salem Media Group for $300,000.[14]

In early 2021 the company moved most operations from the former main operations city of Camarillo, California to Irving, Texas, the same location of their long-owned radio station KLTY.

On November 8, 2023 Salem exited the Upstate market after it sold WGTK in Greenville, North Carolina and the Earth FM stations to Educational Media Foundation, resulting in WGTK switching to the K-Love network and WRTH and WLTE switching to Air1 several days before.

Radio stations and licensees

Salem's radio stations are organized into six categories:

  • Christian talk and teaching, which consists of brokered programming in blocks produced and paid for by local and national ministries (the long-form format makes traditional commercial breaks impossible), with some stations branded as The Mission or The Word.
  • Conservative talk, a variant on the News/Talk format, focused around Salem Radio Network's Talk programs (see below). Most of these stations use the branding names The Answer or The Patriot.
  • Contemporary Christian Music, an FM format with such stations branded as The Fish.
  • Spanish-language Christian talk and/or music, using the branding Radio Luz.
  • Business talk, with these stations collectively branded as The Wall Street Business Network.
  • and a grouping of other stations not in one of those five categories.

As of 2023, Salem's radio stations and licensees (with stations arranged by state and market served) are:[15]

AM Stations FM Stations

Bison Media

More information Market, Station ...

Inspiration Media, Inc.

More information Market, Station ...

New Inspiration Broadcasting Co., Inc.

More information Market, Station ...

Salem Communications Holding Corporation

More information Market, Station ...

Inspiration Media of Texas, LLC.

More information Market, Station ...

Reach Satellite Network, Inc.

More information Market, Station ...

Salem Media of Massachusetts, LLC.

More information Market, Station ...

Salem Media of Colorado, Inc.

More information Market, Station ...

Salem Media of Hawaii, Inc.

More information Market, Station ...

Salem Media of Illinois, LLC.

More information Market, Station ...

Salem Media of New York, LLC.

More information Market, Station ...

Salem Media of Ohio, Inc.

More information Market, Station ...

Salem Media of Oregon, Inc.

More information Market, Station ...

Salem Media of Texas, Inc.

More information Market, Station ...


SCA-Palo Alto, LLC.

More information Market, Station ...

Salem Radio Network

Salem Radio Network is a satellite radio network serving general market News/Talk stations and Christian-formatted stations through affiliate partnerships serving more than 2,700 radio stations. The five major divisions are SRN Talk, SRN News, Salem Music Network, Salem Media Reps and Vista Media Reps and SRN Satellite Services.

  • SRN Talk produces general market News/Talk shows featuring nationally syndicated hosts Hugh Hewitt, Mike Gallagher, Dennis Prager, Sebastian Gorka, Brandon Tatum, and Charlie Kirk. It also produces Christian market programming featuring The Eric Metaxas Show.
  • SRN News is a news source for conservative and Christian radio serving over 2,000 affiliates, and stations also take newscast branded by Salem's Townhall.com.[16]
  • The Salem Music Network has three satellite offerings – Contemporary Christian, Praise and Southern Gospel.
  • Salem Media Reps specializes in Christian, family-themed and conservative media, radio, online, print and mobile.
  • SRN Satellite Services provides satellite distribution and production services to over 70 organizations and ministries.

The satellite feed for Salem's general market programming can be heard on the CRN Digital Talk Radio Networks, on CRN3.[17]

Salem Publishing

Salem's flagship publication, CCM Magazine, was in the Christian music industry for more than 25 years. Salem no longer prints CCM Magazine, but it still exists in an online-only format. Other magazine publications include Singing News Magazine, which discusses happenings involving the Southern gospel community.[18]

Salem Author Services

Under the umbrella of Salem Author Service are Xulon Press, Mill City Press, and the websites Bookprinting.com, Bookediting.com, Publishgreen.com, and Libertyhill.com.

Xulon Press is a self-publishing digital publisher of books targeting a Christian audience.[19] They use print on demand technologies that store books electronically and print them only as they are ordered. Xulon was founded by Christian author and publisher Tom Freiling and was acquired by Salem in 2006.[20]

Salem Español Online

Salem owns a collection of Spanish language sites that provide a variety of Christian and family-friendly resources online. A few of those sites are CristoTarjetas.com; ElsitioCristiano.com; BibliaVida.com and LuzMundial.com.[citation needed]

Political activities

The founders of Salem Communications support various religious causes, and are noted for their role in spreading politically conservative opinion to areas dependent on radio for current events information. In 2005, Epperson was reported in Time magazine as one of the "25 Most Influential Evangelicals in America".[21] In 2004 he co-chaired "Americans of Faith", a religiously based Republican electoral campaign. Both founders have served on the Council for National Policy, a group of conservative influencers, intellectuals, donors, and former elected officials known to feature right-wing extremists as members, and Epperson has served as president of the Council.[22][23][24][25] They gave $100,000 to the Bush presidential reelection campaign and $780,000 to the 2000 "California Defense of Marriage Act" (Proposition 22) ballot measure.[26]


References

  1. "Salem Media Group Company Profile". Craft. Retrieved October 23, 2019.
  2. "History – Salem Media Group". salem.cc. Archived from the original on September 15, 2012.
  3. "SALM acquisition of Twitchy.com". Archived from the original on March 25, 2014.
  4. "Salem rebrands to Salem Media Group". Radio Ink Magazine Archived September 24, 2015, at the Wayback Machine
  5. "Salem Media Group Announces Acquisition of DividendYieldHunter.com". Cision PR Newswire (Press release). November 2, 2015. Retrieved November 14, 2017.
  6. "StockInvestor.com". Stock Investor.
  7. "DividendInvestor.com". Dividend Investor.
  8. "Salem Media Group Announces Acquisition of Mike Turner's Line of Investment Products". Cision PR Newswire. October 27, 2016. Retrieved November 14, 2017.
  9. "Retirement Watch". Retirement Watch.
  10. "Welcome Dividend Yield Hunter Readers". Dividend Investor. July 11, 2017. Retrieved November 14, 2017.
  11. Wemple, Erik (March 1, 2019). "Breitbart alum to resuscitate Human Events". The Washington Post. Retrieved May 17, 2019.
  12. "SRN – About Us". November 14, 2017. Retrieved November 14, 2017.
  13. "Salem Radio Network – Salem Media Group". salem.cc. Archived from the original on December 13, 2014. Retrieved December 23, 2014.
  14. "Xulon Press – Salem Media Group". salemmedia.com. Archived from the original on May 16, 2017. Retrieved May 24, 2017.
  15. "Stuart Epperson – The 25 Most Influential Evangelicals in America". Time. February 7, 2005. Retrieved November 7, 2013.
  16. Katie Thornton (November 22, 2022). "The Divided Dial: Episode 2 – From Pulpit to Politics – On the Media". WNYC Studios (Podcast). Retrieved November 26, 2022.
  17. Berlet, Chip (2018). Trumping democracy in the United States : from Ronald Reagan to alt-right. London: Routledge. ISBN 978-1-315-43839-9. OCLC 1129904664.
  18. "A Higher Frequency". Mother Jones. Retrieved December 10, 2011.
  • Official website
  • Business data for Salem Media Group:

Share this article:

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Salem_Communications, and is written by contributors. Text is available under a CC BY-SA 4.0 International License; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.