Salem Hires Former WABC PD Phil Boyce

[Barry]

A press release from Salem Communications states that he will be VP in charge of spoken word formats: "Phil will lead Salem's programming department as we improve the overall sound and effectiveness of our News Talk, Teaching and Talk, and Business formatted stations."
Perhaps hiring a former PD from a high profile talk station such as WABC will lead to significant changes in conservative talk WNYM, and brokered religious WMCA, owned by Salem.
The press release states that Boyce will be based at the Salem facilities in the New York market.

Salem Press Release: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/sa...n-word-format-2012-02-02?reflink=MW_news_stmp

 

[wadio]

Don't hold your breath. Remember, Boyce caved to the bean counters at WABC by filling evenings and weekends with brokered programming. Laurie Cantillo tried to reverse the trend and we see where that got her!

"Phil will lead Salem's programming department as we improve the overall sound and effectiveness of our News Talk, Teaching and Talk, and Business formatted stations."

-- Translation --

"Phil will lead Salem's programming department by helping to disguise brokered programs as legitimate talk shows on our News Talk, Teaching and Talk, and Business formatted stations. Our listeners are stupid and don't know the difference."

 

[jhguthlac]

I had fully expected him to return to WABC. Going to Salem does not seem like a wise move.

 

[DToTheJ]

Going to Salem seemed to work out well for Curtis Sliwa... he's the only New York morning radio host that also does an afternoon show! :

Of course, this move reunites Boyce with Sliwa... Maybe Kuby won't be far behind?

 

[badjef]

Going to Salem seemed to work out well for Curtis Sliwa... he's the only New York morning radio host that also does an afternoon show! :

Of course, this move reunites Boyce with Sliwa... Maybe Kuby won't be far behind?

Not very likely.

Jeff in Sa-ra-so-ta!

 

[DanStrassberg]

Going to Salem seemed to work out well for Curtis Sliwa... he's the only New York morning radio host that also does an afternoon show! :
Of course, this move reunites Boyce with Sliwa... Maybe Kuby won't be far behind?

Not very likely. Jeff in Sa-ra-so-ta!

Salem, surprisingly, seems to be willing to hire hosts of many different religions. The common thread among the hosts is that they are all very extreme in their religious and political orientations. An orthodox Jew who is also politically ultra right wing (e.g. Dennis Prager or Michael Medved) can do well there. A nonobservant Jew would never be hired. Though publicly held, Salem is Epperson and Atsinger's company. It appears that they, therefore, get to call the shots on who can work there and who can't. That, of course, is the law at any company or organization that is owned or controlled by a religious institution. But, despite its strong religious orientation, Salem is, AFAIK, a privately held, for-profit company. Can for-profit companies that are not owned by religious institutions legally refuse to hire people whose religious and political orientations differ from those of the principal owners? If the law says that such companies cannot refuse to hire individuals whose political views are at variance with those of the company's owners, my impression is that media companies must have an exemption.

 

[TimeIsTight]

Salem is, AFAIK, a privately held, for-profit company.

Just to set the record straight, Salem Communications is a "publicly held" for-profit corporation. Any member of the public can buy shares in Salem on any day the stock market is opened. Salem Shares trade on NASDAQ under the symbol: SALM

As a "public company" Salem's records must be open to the public.

You will find a lot of financial information on Salem here:

http://www.reuters.com/finance/stocks/companyProfile?rpc=66&symbol=SALM.O

I think what you meant was that unlike other religious broadcasters, Salem is for-profit. Other religious broadcasters like Family Radio, and Pillar of Fire are non-profit and tax exempt. But they also must make all their financial records available to the public since donations to them are tax deductible.

Either way, these organizations cannot discriminate against anybody solely based on their religious beliefs, but they can hire anybody they want and have other standards that they go by. You can be sure they don't have a written policy that says "only the very monotheistic religious may apply." But, they could prefer to hire graduates of the "Moody Bible Institute" instead of Harvard or MIT because they think Evangelically educated people would be a better fit in their organization.

By the way, about 40-percent of Salem's shares are held by institutions, like investment funds, pension funds etc. You can be pretty sure they do their homework on how Salem is run, and Salem most likely plays by the rules because of all the scrutiny.

And besides orthodox Jews as prominent program hosts, they have Bill Bennett who is Roman Catholic.

The bottom line is:

If the law says that such companies cannot refuse to hire individuals whose political views are at variance with those of the company's owners, my impression is that media companies must have an exemption.

Media companies are NOT exempt, and because of their high visibility and broadcast license holdings are under even more scrutiny than most companies and have all sorts of publicly available records to prove they don't discriminate based on political or religious beliefs or affiliations. They probably don't even ask about those topics during the hiring process, that is Human Resources 101 stuff that is strict policy at most larger corporations in this country.

 

[kevinsealy]

For Salem to have a successful News Talk station, Salem may have to move WNYM's format down to 570 AM WMCA and switch WNYM 970 AM back to all religious programming.



Thanks,
Kevin L. Sealy

 

[wadio]

For Salem to have a successful News Talk station, Salem may have to move WNYM's format down to 570 AM WMCA and switch WNYM 970 AM back to all religious programming.

That would make a lot of sense. WMCA has a talk heritage and I'll bet the brand still lingers in the minds of many listeners, albeit older ones. Also, WNYM can be barely heard in Connecticut so, if Salem wants to compete with WABC and WOR in the tri-state area, that's the only way to go.

 

[Signal_Faded]

Now...if Boyce can make Lou Dobbs' show sound good now that he has signed on with TRN then he will cement himself in the Radio Hall of Fame!

 

[[email protected]]

So it's been a while since Phil Boyce was hired at WNYM...have we noticed any difference in WNYM under his reign?

 

[TimeIsTight]

So it's been a while since Phil Boyce was hired at WNYM...have we noticed any difference in WNYM under his reign?

In its primary signal area the station still sounds good, there was the image change to "The Answer," not a whole lot of programming changes. And since WNYM doesn't subscribe to ratings, only Arbitron subscribers will know if Boyce is getting better numbers or not.