Any of you can get as angry as you wish but here's a FACT which is hard to overlook: Salem is a "For Profit" operation. One of their "products" they've used to profit from is Christian Preaching and Teaching. They don't shy away from that. Compare that to those who have set up alleged "Non-Profits" claiming to do "God's Work" with the "brass" of the outfit making obscene salaries instead of public stockholders having a financial gain. Whether or not you agree with Salem's politics or the hosts of their religious broadcasts, they were honest in their purpose...generate a profit!
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A Good Thing About Salem
- Thread starter DOGDOG
- Start date
Except for one thing: They don't make a profit.
That's true, not for a while but they did and their business organization is "For Profit".
Well...for those who say they are Christian, there is the line Jesus said (I think it's in all three of the synoptic gospels): "You cannot love both God and mammon (translated as money)." Also, while I do know of station-purchasing sprees by K-Love, Inc., Radio Training Network, and other non-commercial Christian broadcasters, I'm not aware that many, if any, of their executives ar taking obscenely large paychecks. (Of course, "obscenely large" is a judgnet call and is therefore in the eye of the beholder.)
You missed the point entirely. Salem SELLS Christianity for a profit in the same way "for profit" stations sell other formats for profit. The "for profit" nomenclature is a business term and there's nothing wrong with making a profit. Sometimes "for profit" designated business don't make a profit. That's business. The "non-profit" designator is for operations which do take in income and use that income to put back into the business to help them accomplish what ever cause they are championing. The also get TAX BREAKS. The problem which comes in is the so-called "non-profit" operations which put that income into obscene salaries, benefits and perks for the "owner(s)" of the alleged non-profit as well as the TAX BREAKS they are getting! There's not very much more putrid than some alleged religious "foundation" where the owner(s) are dividing up the "rake off" while telling those who donate how much they are doing some sort of religious work and soliciting for "volunteers" to help get that income. There's at least one alleged religious organization where they claim to be helping poor people in the "mother country" while the female head is taking over a million per year in her rake off. They do a program which is 100% solicitation and often runs on the Salem stations. If you're ever interested, IRS Form 990 is public information and every alleged non-profit is supposed to file one yearly. You can read these forms at various websites. Before you do, get out the puke bucket!
I worked Christian radio selling time to ministries. Note the ? mark at the end of my statement. I got to know a couple of folks at Salem. Those folks were making typical wages. A few ministries would be in prison if we could figure out how to prosecute without 'religion' getting tossed out in court to justify it. Most ministries sure weren't rich and only those where some dollars from deceased were delgated to the ministry were 'comfortable' enough to not worry much. You'll find some of the finest people and some of the worst scumbags in Christian radio. I encourage people to hunt up the IRS Form 990.
Salem, as told to me, is a radio company who chose Christian programming as one of their formats.
When I was selling time, I'd negotiate a rate and depending on who they were would determine how low I'd go. I doubt many here know this but there are several 'types' of Christianity: full gospel, fundamental (look up the word...you might have it wrong) and mainstream, sabbath keepers, etc. We chose mainstream, so if a fundamental or full gospel wanted a quote, I'd tell them we didn't have other fundamentals on and quote the rate. I wouldn't negotiate much. In essence, it was kinda like being a rock station and they want me to sell them time to play a country tune.
Salem, as told to me, is a radio company who chose Christian programming as one of their formats.
When I was selling time, I'd negotiate a rate and depending on who they were would determine how low I'd go. I doubt many here know this but there are several 'types' of Christianity: full gospel, fundamental (look up the word...you might have it wrong) and mainstream, sabbath keepers, etc. We chose mainstream, so if a fundamental or full gospel wanted a quote, I'd tell them we didn't have other fundamentals on and quote the rate. I wouldn't negotiate much. In essence, it was kinda like being a rock station and they want me to sell them time to play a country tune.
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It's not a business. It's a mission. There are no limits in missions. Ask a missionary: How many souls are enough?
Of the roughly 60 AM stations remaining in El Salvador (where there used to be well over 100 stations) there are only about 10 left that are either government operated or private and commercial. The rest are operated by a wide variety of religious groups.
Despite being criticized by using examples from other countries, radio is radio, and the fact is that in many, if not most of the nations where are commercial radio ran in a form similar to or identical to hours in the USA, have always had about the same mix of different kinds of formats as well as religious and government owned stations. I use international examples in this case to show that the loss AM station mainstream programming, and the perfusion of religious outlets is nearly what you could call universal.
In some countries, the government has made opportunities for AM stations to move to FM, but in all cases, the AM dial is becoming more and more religious except for places like Mexico that have severe restrictions on religious broadcasting due to their extreme constitutional separation of church and state which was implemented over 100 years ago in an attempt to resolve a civil war. As an historical sidebar, in Mexico, priests could not wear religious clothing outside of the church as recently as the 1990s.
Fundamental I'm guessing is BBN, VCY America, Family radio etc. Or for those that remember it WMUU which was owned by Bob Jones University. Mainstream would be K-Love, Air1 etc. Full gospel I'm not sure about.
Fundametal is easily defined as hardcore "my way is right and everybody else is wrong" and tends to center on manmade rules. VCY is an example. BBN isn't. Full gospel is speaking in tongues, healings and such. Mainstream is neither of these and would not ever cut down fundametal and full gospel with a philosophy of welcoming everyone.
I could go deep on each type. One fundamental denomination says kids can't go to see a movie because it's dark and kids will 'fool around sexually' while another says rock music is of Satan. One full gospel denomination teaches if you don't come out of the baptismal water speaking tongues, you really aren't saved. A mainstream ministry on his broadcast says he was asked to pray for a Jewish friend. He did but said the Jewish friend's prayer was heard just like his.
I could go deep on each type. One fundamental denomination says kids can't go to see a movie because it's dark and kids will 'fool around sexually' while another says rock music is of Satan. One full gospel denomination teaches if you don't come out of the baptismal water speaking tongues, you really aren't saved. A mainstream ministry on his broadcast says he was asked to pray for a Jewish friend. He did but said the Jewish friend's prayer was heard just like his.