{"id":123091,"date":"2024-12-30T21:04:10","date_gmt":"2024-12-31T02:04:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/2024\/12\/30\/salem-sells-remaining-contemporary-christian-stations-to-educational-media-foundation-for-80m\/"},"modified":"2024-12-30T21:04:10","modified_gmt":"2024-12-31T02:04:10","slug":"salem-sells-remaining-contemporary-christian-stations-to-educational-media-foundation-for-80m","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/2024\/12\/30\/salem-sells-remaining-contemporary-christian-stations-to-educational-media-foundation-for-80m\/","title":{"rendered":"Salem Sells Remaining Contemporary Christian Stations to Educational Media Foundation for\u00a0$80M"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n\tSalem Media Group has sold its seven remaining Contemporary Christian-formatted radio stations to the Educational Media Foundation (EMF) for $80 million, the company announced Monday (Dec. 30).<\/p>\n

\n\tThe agreement, which is pending approval from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), will add or expand EMF programming to seven U.S. markets, with stations including KLTY-FM in Arlington, Texas; WFSH-FM in Athens, Ga.; WFHM-FM in Cleveland; KFSH-FM in La Mirada, Calif.; KKFS-FM in Lincoln, Calif.; KBIQ-FM in Manitou Springs, Colo.; and KFIS-FM in Scappoose, Oreg.<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tRelated\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3><\/div>\n

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\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Chris<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tInside Contemporary Christian\u2019s Heavenly Rise to Among the Fastest-Growing Genres In\u2026\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3><\/div>\n

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\n\tEMF \u2014 the parent organization of Christian radio networks Air1 and K-LOVE \u2014 noted in a statement that it intends to launch K-LOVE or Air1 Worship Now programming on those signals according to market needs, pending FCC approval. It indicated that it aims to begin programming the stations via a local marketing agreement on Feb. 1.<\/p>\n

\n\tAlso on Monday, Salem announced that it has entered into an advertising and marketing agreement with EMF for $10 million.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThrough its Air1 and K-LOVE networks, EMF reaches approximately 18 million listeners each week. Its Air1 and K-LOVE radio networks have over 1,100 broadcast signals across all 50 states, with global reach through streaming audio.<\/p>\n

\n\tSalem Media Group\u2019s CCM-formatted radio stations were most commonly operated under the nickname \u201cThe Fish.\u201d Founded as Salem Communications in 1974, the company rebranded as Salem Media Group in 2015. It has since grown to become a multimedia company with properties including talk radio, digital media and book\/newsletter publishing. According to a March 2024 corporate guide<\/a>, the company\u2019s other radio signals include 38 Christian teaching and talk radio stations and 30 news talk stations.<\/p>\n

\n\tSalem\u2019s sale of the seven stations came as part of a group of strategic transactions<\/a> aimed at shoring up the company\u2019s financial security. As part of this effort, the company repurchased all $159.4 million in outstanding 7.125% senior secured notes due 2028 for $104 million cash and $24 million in subordinated unsecured promissory notes. By midyear 2025, those notes are slated to be exchanged for series A preferred stock. Salem also issued $40 million in series B convertible preferred stock to the foundation WaterStone, with proceeds being used to fund Salem\u2019s debt repurchase. On Dec. 23, Salem extended its revolver line of credit with Siena Lending Group for one year.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAs Salem has leaned into its talk and information programming, we are honored to carry the torch and keep Christian music flowing over these frequencies,\u201d said Tom Stultz<\/strong>, EMF\u2019s interim CEO, in a statement. \u201cThese strong stations expand our coverage area and help us deliver on our mission to reach more people with the gospel of Jesus Christ. We feel it is an incredible opportunity to continue serving listeners with Christian music in these important markets.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tEdward G. Atsinger<\/strong>, Salem Media Group\u2019s executive chairman\/co-founder, said in a statement, \u201cWe have made a strategic decision to exit the Contemporary Christian Music format in order to pay off all of Salem\u2019s long-term debt. We could not be more delighted that the buyer is EMF. EMF has demonstrated over many years a unique ability and dedication to creating and distributing the highest quality Christian music content to its listeners in a positive and encouraging way. I am confident that their impact on listeners and their communities will be incredibly effective.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThis isn\u2019t Salem\u2019s first sale to EMF. In March, the company sold its stations in Nashville and Honolulu to EMF for $7 million.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Aller \u00e0 la source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Salem Media Group has sold its seven remaining Contemporary Christian-formatted radio stations to the Educational Media Foundation (EMF) for $80 million, the company announced Monday (Dec. 30). The agreement, which is pending approval from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), will add or expand EMF programming to seven U.S. markets, with stations including KLTY-FM in Arlington, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-123091","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-musique","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123091"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123091\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}