Salem Communications

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Salem Communications (NASDAQ: SALM) is a media company, specializing in talk radio, with a focus on an evangelical Christian religious and conservative political point of view, which operates in the United States, with 99 U.S. commercial radio stations (pending acquisitions) that are primarily concentrated in the nation's biggest markets, including 65 stations in 23 of the top 25 markets; in these markets Salem is the fourth largest radio station owner after Clear Channel, Cumulus Broadcasting and CBS Radio. The company focuses on acquiring radio stations with powerful transmitters, unlike most Christian broadcasters who tend to purchase many low-power translators. Salem owns slightly more AM than FM stations, and covers one-third of the U.S population.[3] Salem is a leading U.S. radio broadcaster, Internet content provider, and magazine and book publisher targeting audiences interested in Christian and family-themed content and conservative values.

Salem Communications was founded by Stuart Epperson and Edward Atsinger III and, unlike many Christian broadcasters, is a for-profit corporation. [1]

Salem's CFO approximates that the company's income is as follows:

  • 50% Teaching and Talk stations
  • 25% Christian contemporary music stations
  • 15% Secular news/talk stations
  • 10% Magazines and Websites

Contents

Based in beachside Camarillo, California, Salem owns many of the frequencies that feature programs like Focus and Insight. It operates 97 stations, 61 of them in the country's top-25 markets.[2]

Salem operates mostly four radio formats: Christian talk and teaching (transmitted on AM in some areas and on FM in others), Contemporary Christian music (transmitted mostly on FM stations), conservative News/Talk format (transmitted on AM stations), and Christian Teaching (transmitted on AM stations).

Contemporary Christian Music is transmitted full-time on most stations, but in areas where Salem has a limited number of stations it is transmitted only part-time in morning and afternoon drive times on weekdays and weekend afternoons. Where Salem only has one FM station (WAVA in Washington, DC and WORD in Pittsburgh), CCM is transmitted on weekends, with talk and teaching on weekdays. Most CCM stations play music full-time and do not sell blocks of time to religious organizations except sometimes on Sunday mornings.

Christian Talk, comprising talk shows where listeners call in and participate in the show, is transmitted during weekdays in some areas, and only in drive times in others. The rest of the day is filled with blocks of time ranging from a few minutes to an hour sold to churches and Christian organizations.

Conservative Talk transmits full-time on a commercial basis. These stations only sell advertisement time, not blocks of time like Christian Talk counterparts. Some of these stations have religious programs on Sunday mornings.

The teaching format relies on selling blocks of time to organizations full-time. These stations offer diverse religious features such as church services, political and religious interview features, Christian family life programs, and children's shows. Music (exclusively Christian) is only transmitted by a few of these stations at times during the weekend.

Salem also owns a few oldies stations, a country station, and a Spanish music station in Portland, Oregon. It sold its sports station in Cleveland in December 2006.

The company's Salem Radio Network subsidiary produces several talk radio shows and a 24-hour news service that are distributed to more than 1900 radio affiliates. Salem Radio Network also operates three satellite feeds with contemporary Christian music, traditional Christian worship music, and gospel music for Christian radio stations with small budgets.

Many of the stations owned by Salem are in fact licensed to one of a number of subsidiaries. Salem's subsidiaries include:

  • ATEP Radio, Inc.
  • Bison Media, Inc.
  • Caron Broadcasting, Inc.
  • CCM Communications, Inc.
  • Common Ground Broadcasting, Inc.
  • Golden Gate Broadcasting Company, Inc.
  • Inland Radio, Inc.
  • Inspiration Media, Inc.
  • Inspiration Media of Texas, Inc.
  • Kingdom Direct, Inc.
  • New England Continental Media, Inc.
  • New Inspiration Broadcasting Company, Inc.
  • Oasis Radio, Inc.
  • Oneplace, Ltd.
  • Pennsylvania Media Associates, Inc.
  • Radio 1210, Inc.
  • Salem Media Corporation
  • Salem Media of California, Inc.
  • Salem Media of Colorado, Inc.
  • Salem Media of Hawaii, Inc.
  • Salem Media of Illinois, Inc.
  • Salem Media of Kentucky, Inc.
  • Salem Media of New York, LLC
  • Salem Media of Ohio, Inc.
  • Salem Media of Oregon, Inc.
  • Salem Media of Pennsylvania, Inc.
  • Salem Media of Texas, Inc.
  • Salem Media of Virginia, Inc.
  • Salem Music Network, Inc.
  • Salem Radio Network Incorporated
  • Salem Radio Representatives, Inc.
  • South Texas Broadcasting, Inc.
  • SRN News Network, Inc.
  • Vista Broadcasting, Inc.





Salem Communications syndicates a number of programs in two separate streams: mostly politically conservative secular talk, and Christian talk. This programming is distributed, mainly to Salem-owned stations but also to non-Salem-owned stations, under the banner of the Salem Radio Network.

Salem's syndicated shows air on more than 2,000 stations around the country.[2]

Some programs are fed live. Many stations carry delayed feeds. Some stations substitute other conservative talk programs from other syndicators. Hosts such as Laura Ingraham and Dennis Miller appear on Salem-owned stations.

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

Salem's Christian talk programming is primarily aimed at Christian stations, although a few secular talk stations, such as Salem-owned KYCR in Minneapolis-St. Paul, carry some of the programming.

Salem Web Network has the goal of replicating Salem's leadership position in radio in the digital world. They began with the acquisition of OnePlace.com and SermonSearch.com.[neutrality disputed] At that time, they were receiving 78,000 page views, had a revenue of 3 million and a profit of -6.1 million. Today, Salem Web Network reaches more than 6 million unique users each month with over 60 million+ page views, has a revenue of 10 million and a profit of 2 million. According to Nielsen Net Ratings, Salem Web Network has more pages viewed than all other web sites combined in the Christian niche.[citation needed] Salem Web Network owns and manages over 60 websites including: Christianity.com, Crosswalk.com, OnePlace.com, SermonSearch.com, LightSource.com, ChristianJobs.com, ChurchStaffing.com, TheFish.com, Townhall.com,CrossDaily.com, and many more.[3]

Salem's flagship publication, CCM Magazine [4], has been in the Christian music industry for more than 25 years. Other magazine publications including Homecoming [5] from Bill and Gloria Gather, Youth Worker Journal [6], and Preaching [7].

Xulon Press is Salem's digital publisher of books targeting the Christian audience[4]. 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 Freling.

The founders of Salem Communications support various religious causes. Epperson was recently reported in Time magazine as one of the "25 Most Influential Evangelicals in America." In 2004 he co-chaired Americans of Faith, a religiously-based Republican electoral campaign. Both founders have served on the Council for National Policy. 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.[8]

  1. ^ ChristianityToday.com, "Dollars and Sense: How Salem Commmunications makes its money", 1/26/07. Retrieved on 2007-10-11.
  2. ^ a b ChristianityToday, "Making Airwaves", 2/26/07. Retrieved on 2007-10-11.
  3. ^ [1], Salem Web Network
  4. ^ [2], Xulon About Page

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