Salem Communications Corporation

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Salem Communications Corporation, a publicly-traded radio broadcasting company, "provides programming targeted at audiences interested in religious and family issues. The Company owns and operates radio stations in large metropolitan markets. Salem also operates Salem Radio Network, a national radio network offering syndicated talk, news, and music programming to affiliated radio stations."[1]

About

Salem Communications Corporation promotes itself as "the leading provider of radio programming, online resources and magazines targeted to the Christian and family themes audience."[2][3]

Salem Communications states that it currently "owns and operates 95 radio stations nation-wide, with 60 stations located in the top 25 most populated U.S. markets," with the majority of its stations operating "within clusters involving three strategic formats" and its "foundational format ... Christian teaching and talk, featuring well-known speakers such as James Dobson, Janet Parshall, Dr. Charles F. Stanley and Chuck Swindoll."[4]

In April 2006, Salem Communications purchased conservative website Townhall.com.[1]

Propaganda

On February 21, 2005, Sarah Posner, writing for the The Gadflyer, reported that:

"And while the mainstream media is asleep at the switch, CNP (Council for National Policy) members' access to conservative media outlets enable them to collaborate and disseminate their propaganda. ...
"Another example is that five directors of Salem Communications Company are or have been officers and directors of CNP: Salem's president and CEO, Edward G. Atsinger III; Stuart W. Epperson (host of Truth Talk Live, a radio show broadcast on Salem's radio network); Roland S. Hinz (who is also president of Hi-Favor Broadcasting, LLC, which has purchased radio stations from Salem to implement a Christian format in Spanish); [former Ronald Reagan cabinet member] Donald P. Hodel; and Judge Paul Pressler (a retired Texas judge who has made a career of advocating a conservative resurgence in the Southern Baptist Convention). Salem owns over 100 Christian broadcast radio stations, is the provider of Christian programming on XM Satellite Radio, and recently agreed with America Online to provide the only Christian talk radio station on the AOL Radio Network. Last year, Salem was ranked in the top 100 in Fortune Small Business magazine's list of fastest growing small public companies. Salem is the seventh largest owner of radio stations in the country, and while it barely rivals Clear Channel Communications at over 1,200 stations, the combined Christian broadcasting power of Salem and American Family Radio -- a project of the American Family Association -- would rank them fourth, just behind powerhouses" Clear Channel, Cumulus Media (Cumulus Broadcasting), and Citadel Communications Corporation. "Many Republican House and Senate candidates, as well as the Bush/Cheney campaign (Bush-Cheney '04 Inc.), the Republican National Committee, and the Republican Majority Issues Committee, the issue advertising committee formed by [Tom] DeLay, have been the beneficiaries of not only Atsinger's largesse, but that of Salem Communications' political action committee as well."

In a February 28, 2005, follow up, "Salem Communications and the White House" Posner wrote:

"So let's recap: Salem Communications, which owns SRN News, is intimately involved with CNP, which for more than two decades has evaded paying federal income taxes by operating as a tax-exempt educational organization but conducting its activities in secret. Had CNP complied with the law, it either would have had to forego its tax exemption or made its activities, speeches, panel discussions, and publications available to the public. But it did not, so the American public helped finance its secret meetings, which included secret meetings with Bush Administration officials. SRN has a correspondent in the White House press pool who partied in the basement with Scott McClellan. All this hardly seems like the makings of an objective reporter."

Jon Rappaport wrote in his November 3, 2004, Populist Party article "Enter, Mr. Blackwell: Was He Bush's Trump Card In Ohio?" that

J. Kenneth Blackwell, Ohio's Secretary of State, "controls every aspect of the voting process, from his office. ...
What may not be so well known is that "Mr. Blackwell is a member of the national advisory boards of Youth for Christ and was formerly a domestic policy analyst at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C. Mr. Blackwell has held the nation's highest security clearance. He is a contributing commentator for Salem Communications, delivering commentaries on Salem's more than 90 [Christian] radio stations nationwide."

Salem Communications Corporation is listed among the many high-profile clients of the Alexander Strategy Group, a "Full Service Lobbying and Public Affairs Firm" with close ties to the Republican Party.[5]

Divisions

Board of Directors

Executive Officers


Contact details

Salem Communications Corporation
4880 Santa Rosa Road, Suite 300
Camarillo, CA US 93012
Phone: 805 897-0400
Fax: 805 384-4520
URL: http://www.salem.cc/
NASDAQ: SALM [Industry: Services - Broadcasting & Cable TV]

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References

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