Salem Media Group, Inc. (formerly Salem Communications Corporation) is an American

radio broadcaster Radio broadcasting is the broadcasting of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radio ...

, internet content provider, and magazine and book publisher based in

Irving, Texas Irving is a city in Dallas County, Texas, United States. It is part of the Mid-Cities region of the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex and is an Inner suburb, inner city suburb of Dallas. Irving is noted for its #Demographics, racial and ethnic diver ...

, targeting audiences interested in

Christian values Christian values historically refers to values derived from the teachings of Jesus Christ. The term has various applications and meanings, and specific definitions can vary widely between denominations, geographical locations, historical context ...

and what it describes as "family-themed content and conservative values". 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 Audacy, previously known as Radio.com, is a free broadcast and Internet radio Computing platform, platform developed by the namesake company Audacy, Inc. (formerly known as Entercom). The Audacy platform functions as a Recommender system, mus ...

for the fifth-largest radio broadcaster. In addition to its radio properties, the company owns: *

Salem Radio Network Salem Radio Network is a United States–based radio network that specializes in syndicated Christian political talk, music, and conservative secular news/talk programming. It is a division of the Salem Media Group. Network information Salem ...

, which syndicates talk, news and music programming to approximately 2,400 affiliates. * Salem Media Representatives, a radio advertising company. *

Salem Web Network Salem Web Network is a Christian website company, headquartered in Richmond, Virginia with offices in Dallas and Nashville. The company is owned and operated by Salem Communications. History Salem Web Network began with the acquisition of On ...

, 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 ''Hot Air'' is a conservatism in the United States, conservative American political blog. It is written by Ed Morrissey, John Sexton, and David Strom. Karen Townsend and Jazz Shaw wrote for the blog until their deaths in 2024. The pseudonymous ...

, 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 A for-profit corporation is an organization which aims to earn profit through its operations and is concerned with its own interests, rather than the interests of the public (nonprofit corporation). Structure A for-profit corporation is usually an ...

. This allows it to accept commercial advertising. It was formerly traded on

Nasdaq The Nasdaq Stock Market (; National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations) is an American stock exchange based in New York City. It is the most active stock trading venue in the U.S. by volume, and ranked second on the list ...

until it was delisted on December 26, 2023 for not meeting exchange requirements; it now trades

over-the-counter Over-the-counter (OTC) drugs are medicines sold directly to a consumer without a requirement for a prescription from a healthcare professional, as opposed to prescription drugs, which may be supplied only to consumers possessing a valid pres ...

History

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 City, 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 Contemporary Christian music (CCM), also known as Christian pop, and occasionally inspirational music, is a genre of modern popular music, and an aspect of Christian media, which is lyrically focused on matters related to the Christianity, Chri ...

(with most stations under this format branded as "The Fish"), news talk (branded as "The Answer"), Spanish-language Christian content, and business programming. 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 Regnery Publishing is a politically conservative book publisher based in Washington, D.C. The company was founded by Henry Regnery in 1947. In December 2023, Regnery was acquired from Salem Media Group by Skyhorse Publishing, with Skyhorse ...

Human Events ''Human Events'' is an American conservative political news and analysis website. Founded in 1944 as a print newspaper, ''Human Events'' became a digital-only publication in 2013. ''Human Events'' takes its name from the first sentence of the U ...

, and RedState, and sister companies Eagle Financial Publications and Eagle Wellness. On February 23, 2015, Salem Communications changed its name to Salem Media Group. In 2015, Salem Media Group expanded their digital platform with acquisitions of several businesses and assets, including DividendYieldHunter.com, Stockinvestor.com; DividendInvestor.com, 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; the Retirement Watch newsletter and website, Retirementwatch.com; and the

King James Bible The King James Version (KJV), also the King James Bible (KJB) and the Authorized Version (AV), is an Early Modern English translation of the Christian Bible for the Church of England, which was commissioned in 1604 and published in 1611, by ...

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. In March 2019, political writer

Raheem Kassam Raheem J. Kassam (born 1 August 1986) is a British political activist, former editor-in-chief of ''Breitbart News'' London, and former chief adviser to former UK Independence Party (UKIP) leader Nigel Farage. He has been described as far-right a ...

and lawyer Will Chamberlain purchased ''

'' from Salem Media Group for $300,000. In early 2021, the company moved most operations from the former main operations city of

Camarillo, California Camarillo ( ) is a city in Ventura County, California, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 70,741, an increase of 5,540 from the 65,201 counted in the 2010 Census. Camarillo is named for brothers Juan and ...

, the same location of their long-owned radio station

KLTY KLTY (94.9 FM broadcasting, FM) is a Non-commercial educational station, non-commercial FM radio, FM Radio broadcasting, radio station licensed to Arlington, Texas, owned-and-operated station, owned and operated by Educational Media Foundation wi ...

. On November 8, 2023, Salem exited the Upstate market after it sold WGTK in

Greenville, North Carolina Greenville ( ; ) is the county seat of and the most populous city in Pitt County, North Carolina, United States. It is the principal city of the Greenville, NC Metropolitan Statistical Area, and the List of municipalities in North Carolina, 12t ...

and the Earth FM stations to the

Educational Media Foundation Educational Media Foundation (formerly EMF Broadcasting, abbreviated EMF) is an American nonprofit Christian media ministry based in Franklin, a suburb of Nashville. EMF is the parent company of K-LOVE and Air1—the world's largest contempor ...

, resulting in WGTK switching to the

K-Love K-Love (stylized as K-LOVE) is an American Christian radio network. Owned by the Educational Media Foundation (EMF), a non-profit Christian ministry, it primarily broadcasts contemporary Christian music. As of June 2019, the network's progr ...

network and WRTH and WLTE switching to

Air1 Air1 is an American Christian radio network owned by the Educational Media Foundation (EMF), a non-profit Christian ministry. It primarily broadcasts contemporary worship music, and is a sister to the EMF's K-Love network. History On July 15, ...

several days before. In December 2024, it was announced that the company had sold all remaining Christian Contemporary stations to the Educational Media Foundation. The move was intended to help the company repay debt to investors. Educational Media Foundation began operating the stations on February 1, 2025. In April 2025 Salem media signed a deal with Donald Trump Jr. and

Lara Trump Lara Lea Trump ( Yunaska; born October 12, 1982) is an American political figure who is the former co-chair of the Republican National Committee. She is married to Eric Trump, the third child of U.S. President Donald Trump. She was the producer ...

that will see them both become stakeholders in the company. Salem media acquired a 30 percent stake in MxM News, a mobile news aggregation app that is co-owned by Donald Trump Jr.

Radio stations

Stations are arranged in order by state and city of license.

Salem Radio Network

Salem Radio Network is a

satellite radio Satellite radio is defined by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU)'s ITU Radio Regulations (RR) as a '' broadcasting-satellite service''. The satellite's signals are broadcast nationwide, across a much wider geographical area than te ...

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 Hugh Hewitt (born February 22, 1956) is an American conservative political commentator, radio talk show host with the Salem Radio Network, attorney, academic, and author. He writes about law, society, politics, and media bias in the United States ...

, Mike Gallagher,

Dennis Prager Dennis Mark Prager (; born August 2, 1948) is an American conservative radio talk show host and writer. He is the host of the nationally syndicated radio talk show ''The Dennis Prager Show''. In 2009, he co-founded PragerU, which primarily cre ...

Sebastian Gorka Sebastian Lukács Gorka (; born October 22, 1970) is a British-Hungarian-American media host and commentator, currently affiliated with Salem Radio Network and NewsMax TV, and a United States government official. He served in the first Trump ...

, Brandon Tatum, and

Charlie Kirk Charles James Kirk (born October 14, 1993) is an American Conservatism in the United States, conservative political activist, author and Right-wing populism, right-wing populist media personality. With Bill Montgomery (activist), Bill Montgome ...

. It also produces Christian market programming featuring ''The

Eric Metaxas Eric Metaxas (; born June 27, 1963) is an American author, speaker, and conservative radio host. He has written three biographies, ''Amazing Grace: William Wilberforce and the Heroic Campaign to End Slavery'' about William Wilberforce (2007), ' ...

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 Townhall is an American conservative website, print magazine and radio news service. Katie Pavlich is Editor. Previously published by The Heritage Foundation, it is now owned and operated by Salem Communications. The website features more than ...

.com. * 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 CRN Digital Talk Radio Networks, sometimes simply referred to as ''CRN'' or ''CRN Digital Talk'', is a syndicator and distributor of radio programs and talk radio networks. History CRN was founded in 1983 as Cable Radio Network to provide commerc ...

, on CRN3.

Salem Publishing

Salem's flagship publication, ''

CCM Magazine ''CCM Magazine'' is an online magazine focusing on contemporary Christian music and media, published by Logan and Amanda Sekulow. History ''CCM'' was first published in July 1978, as a printed magazine. It has been owned by Salem since 1999. O ...

'', was in the

Christian music industry The Christian music industry is one aspect of the broader music industry, with a focus on Christian music and subgenres such as gospel music, southern gospel, contemporary Christian music, contemporary worship music, and even traditional church m ...

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.

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 Xulon Press (pronounced "zoo-lon") is a hybrid publisher owned by the Christian publishing company Salem Media Group. In 2007 it claimed to be "the largest publisher of Christian books in North America", claiming more than 3,900 print-on-deman ...

is a

self-publishing Self-publishing is an author-driven publication of any media without the involvement of a third-party publisher. Since the advent of the internet, self-published usually depends upon digital platforms and print-on-demand technology, ranging fro ...

digital publisher of books targeting a Christian audience. 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.

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.

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 Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...

'' 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 The Council for National Policy (CNP) is an umbrella organization and networking group that advocates for conservative and Republican Party initiatives in the United States. It was launched in 1981 during the Reagan administration by Tim LaHay ...

, a group of conservative influencers, intellectuals, donors, and former elected officials, and Epperson has served as president of the Council. 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. In October 2022, Salem, along with

Dinesh D'Souza Dinesh Joseph D'Souza (; born April 25, 1961) is an American Right-wing politics, right-wing political commentator, conspiracy theorist, author, and filmmaker. He has made several films and written over a dozen books, several of them The New Y ...

and True The Vote, was sued by Mark Andrews for defamation in Dinesh D'Souza's film, '' 2000 Mules'', for which Salem was the distributor as well as the publisher of a book of the same name. In the film, D'Souza, without any evidence, falsely accused Andrews of ballot stuffing. In May 2024, Salem pulled the film and book from distribution and apologized to Andrews, claiming they had relied on representations made by D'Souza and True The Vote, and had never intended to harm Andrews. The suit is ongoing.

References

External links

* {{authority control 1980s establishments in California Mass media companies established in the 1970s Political organizations based in the United States Radio broadcasting companies of the United States Christian mass media companies Christian websites Mass media companies of the United States Companies based in Ventura County, California Conservative media in the United States Conservative organizations in the United States