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Salem talk stations

101tm

101tm

Does anyone have an idea of the demographics Salem’s talk stations are compared to the typical offerings by iHeart/Audacy/Cumulus?

From my limited listening, Salem’s hosts seem to be “angry old white guys” but too old to be vocally angry anymore. So basically seems intended for an even older audience than typical news/talk stations.

These stations in most markets may have a local morning host, but the rest of the day is generally Salem’s syndicated fare that’s mostly carried on their own stations. Most of these hosts, like Mike Gallagher, Hugh Hewitt, Michael Medved, Dennis Prager, and Sebastian Gorka seem like they would attract an even older audience than Sean Hannity, Dana Loesch or Clay Travis and Buck Sexton. Salem does have that Charlie Kirk guy that’s on for an hour that’s young, I guess that may be their attempt to try to diversify.
 
Larry Elder is an "angry old white guy?? "

Don't get me wrong, I can't Salem's hosts for the reasons you mentioned. Basically, they're BORING and they rant on and on with no unique perspective.

But watch the clichés. Not all white men are "angry," just as not all black men were "uppity," as portrayed in the 1950s.
 
wadio said:
Larry Elder is an "angry old white guy?? "

Don't get me wrong, I can't Salem's hosts for the reasons you mentioned. Basically, they're BORING and they rant on and on with no unique perspective.

But watch the clichés. Not all white men are "angry," just as not all black men were "uppity," as portrayed in the 1950s.
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Larry Elder isn’t with Salem anymore. I believe his show was replaced with Sebastian Gorka.

I’m struggling to come up with the word - but there is something about Salem’s hosts that is just as you said, boring. I’m not a fan of Premiere’s (or WW1’s) talk shows, but they’re a bit more…dynamic? Original?

Salem is a religious company at heart, so their talk hosts are generally vocal about moral and social issues without directly coming off as being religious like a Christian talk station. They would probably find somebody like, say, Rush Limbaugh to have been a bit offensive and/or controversial. Are there any Salem stations that are actually successful or a player in their market?
 
They seem to do fine with very little ratings, and I suppose direct response advertising They're usually paired with a talk/teaching format. I don't know if the idea is to attract people to their online products or what?
 
gr8oldies said:
They seem to do fine with very little ratings, and I suppose direct response advertising They're usually paired with a talk/teaching format. I don't know if the idea is to attract people to their online products or what?
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I would think it would be for market clearance to sell, but I’m not sure how big of a deal that is to Salem…I’m not aware of any non-Salem stations that carry any of their talk shows but I believe they’re made available.
 
This is like asking which tooth I want the root canal on, but I’d rather hear Elder than Gorka. They’ve also added a show by a guy named “Officer Tatum”, younger dude that’s better than Charlie Kirk if that’s saying much.

Michael Medved is probably one of the better hosts Salem has. He’s been dropped or sidelined by a number of their stations due to his anti-Trump stance he still maintains. He’s kept his word unlike Mark Levin (who originally said he would never, ever vote for trump and is now one of his biggest butt kissers). If I recall, most Salem hosts weren’t very warm to Trump during the primaries in 2016, not sure if they’ve all fallen in place (other than Medved) like Premiere and WW1 hosts.
 
Salem talk stations are rarely listed in the Nielsen ratings. The exception is a few markets where Salem has a Contemporary Christian FM station, usually called "The Fish." If the company buys the Nielsen ratings for the FM station, it gets the AM talk station thrown in.

Los Angeles.................................870 KRLA...#33 tie
Atlanta...........................................920 KGKA...Did Not Show, rating is 0
Portland OR.................................860 KPAM...#33 tie
Nashville.......................................1420 WHK...Did Not Show, rating is 0
Greenville-Spartanburg..........94.9 WGTK-FM...#14

Interesting that on a 100,000 watt FM signal in South Carolina, the Salem talk station actually gets decent ratings! But in most places, it gets little or no listeners. Yet Salem is quite profitable. So apparently the Salem Talk Network makes money.

The schedule is...

6 to 9 a.m. ET............................Hugh Hewitt
9 a.m. to Noon.........................Mike Gallagher
Noon to 3 p.m......................... Dennis Prager
Noon to 2 p.m......................... Charlie Kirk (Stations may choose either Prager or Kirk, running one live and one delayed.)
3 to 6 p.m.................................. Sebastian Gorka (Michael Medved once had this slot. Now he independently syndicates.)
6 to 9 p.m.................................. Officer Tatum (Larry Elder once had this slot.)

Most stations find a slot for the one hour Jay Sekulow Show. I'm not sure but he may pay for that time to hawk his foundation. He's also on many Salem religion stations. There's also a show for Eric Metaxas but I'm not sure when his show is live.

Most Salem talk stations run Salem's Townhall News on the hour. Salem also has hourly SRN News for its religious stations.
 
And I might add, Salem is a radio company first. They found a niche in Christian programming but in their eyes, it's a format. Salem is not a ministry.
 
b-turner said:
And I might add, Salem is a radio company first. They found a niche in Christian programming but in their eyes, it's a format. Salem is not a ministry.
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Salem is more a media hobby of a millionaire right wing activist named Stuart Epperson. But it isn't afraid to be your ministry. In fact, Salem has quite a line up of people who pay handsomely to be your minister on Salem stations.

Oh but we can't forget about those evil strangers we're supposed to welcome. So a right-wing air siren or two is added in every market where available.

Perhaps the oddest Salem station of the bunch is KKOL-FM "KOOL 107.9" Honolulu. It's a pretty generic Classic Hits station.
 
In Greenville-Spartanburg, Salem has an adult/classic hits simulcast: 103.3/95.9 Earth FM WRTH - Greenville, SC

I do notice despite the music not being programmed for 55+ (it’s mostly 80s and 90s with a lot of 90s alternative and some 00-early 10s) all of the commercials seem to target 55+. Wealth management, retirement homes, class action lawsuits, etc.

WGTK may do well because of its signal and it also carries Hannity live which is by far the biggest host on the station. I’m struggling to think of another Salem conservative talk station that is a class C FM in the center of the market. Many of their stations are on AM, or have a poor AM or FM signal which could also equate to their lower ratings. However, outside of their music stations Salem doesn’t put a ton in to localizing the news/talk stations and don’t generally have as much local news coverage, and not the most entertaining hosts.
 
b-turner said:
Salem is merely a radio company designed to turn a profit. It seems they do quite well. Here's a post detailing this: https://www.radiodiscussions.com/th...-q2-total-revs-up-7-7-to-68-7-million.752582/
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Salem was teetering close to insolvency two or three years ago. I'm not certain what changed. It could have been the sale of several Salem stations to a Catholic network that may have allowed Salem to pay down debts. So now they have less interest due each year. Or maybe the business improved.
 
PTBoardOp94 said:
Salem was teetering close to insolvency two or three years ago. I'm not certain what changed. It could have been the sale of several Salem stations to a Catholic network that may have allowed Salem to pay down debts. So now they have less interest due each year. Or maybe the business improved.
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It could have to do with K-Love cutting into their audience share and therefore, profits.
 
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