Salem Communications (NASDAQ: SALM) is a U.S. radio broadcaster, Internet content provider, and magazine and book publisher specializing in evangelical Christian and conservative political talk radio. It owns 99 commercial radio stations, 65 of which are in the top 25 markets. Salem is the fifth largest U.S. radio station owner after Clear Channel, Cumulus, Citadel, and Entercom. The company focuses on acquiring radio stations with powerful transmitters, unlike most Christian broadcasters who tend to purchase many low-power translators. Salem owns more AM than FM stations, and covers one-third of the U.S population.[1]
Salem Communications was founded by Stuart Epperson and Edward Atsinger III and, unlike many Christian broadcasters, is a for-profit corporation.[2] Also unlike their non-profit counterparts, Salem stations transmit high-powered signals in commercial radio bands.
Salem's CFO approximates that the company's income is as follows:
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Salem is based at 4880 Santa Rosa Road in Camarillo, California, northwest of Los Angeles in neighboring Ventura County.[3] In addition to Contemporary Christian music and talk radio, Salem's station formats include oldies, country, and a Spanish music station in Portland, Oregon. It sold its sports station in Cleveland in December of 2006.
Many of Salem's stations are licensed to one of a number of subsidiaries, organized by geographical area and media cluster as the company has acquired new stations and their previous licensees. The list of Salem's licensees include:
Salem Communications syndicates a number of programs in two separate streams: mostly politically conservative secular talk, and Christian talk. This programming is distributed to stations, most of which are owned by Salem, under the name the Salem Radio Network.
Some programs are fed live, while 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 Web Network is network on the WorldWide Web. Salem Web Network owns and manages over 60 websites, including Christianity.com, Crosswalk.com, OnePlace.com, GodTube.com, SermonSearch.com, LightSource.com, ChristianJobs.com, ChurchStaffing.com, TheFish.com, Townhall.com, CrossDaily.com, and HotAir.com.[4]
Salem's flagship publication, CCM Magazine [4], has been in the Christian music industry for more than 25 years. Salem no longer prints CCM Magazine. Other magazine publications including Homecoming [5] from Bill and Gloria Gaither, Youth Worker Journal [5], Preaching [6] and Singing News Magazine.
Xulon Press is Salem's digital publisher of books targeting the Christian audience.[6] 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.[1]
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