By Jorge Mercado Friday, January 3rd, 2025

Camarillo-based Salem Media Group is looking to strengthen its balance sheet and aim its sights on the future after the company made a series of moves to end 2024.

Announced Dec. 30, Salem Media, which specializes in Christian and conservative content, repaid all of its long-term debt which was at $159.4 million. 

The company accomplished this at a $37.1 million discount, including accrued interest, by agreeing to sell seven of its radio stations and enter into a marketing agreement for $90 million and issue $40 million in new stock.

“Upon the closing of these three transactions, we will have transformed and significantly improved Salem’s balance sheet and capital structure. With the exception of its revolving line of credit, Salem will have no outstanding debt,” Salem CEO David Santrella said in a press release.

Santrella added that with the debt gone, Salem is also bringing in a new strategic investor “who is expected to bring significant new opportunities to the company as well as offer incredible expertise in the area of digital media.”

“As a result of these transactions, our ability to service our national ministry partners and listeners with the important content provided by Salem has been greatly enhanced,” Santrella said.

The investment comes from Colorado-based Waterstone, a Christian foundation founded in 1980 that “provides trusted counsel and innovative giving strategies.”

Waterstone’s investment in Salem Media Group will be overseen by Rick von Gnechten, COO of WaterStone. 

Von Gnechten previously served as CFO for a $2 billion NYSE-listed public company recognized by the Dow Jones survey as one of the top 10 public companies for governance and disclosure practices, according to the press release.

As for the sale of its seven stations, which was completed on Dec. 23, Salem entered into the deal with the Educational Media Foundation, the owner of the nation’s two largest Christian music radio networks (K-LOVE and Air1) with over 1,000 broadcast signals across all 50 states.

The sale was for the company’s Contemporary Christian Music formatted radio stations in Atlanta, Cleveland, Colorado Springs, Dallas, Los Angeles, Portland and Sacramento for a total of $80 million.

The two also agreed to enter into an advertising and marketing agreement for $10 million. 

The sale is expected to close in the first half of 2025.

“We have made a strategic decision to exit the Contemporary Christian Music format in order to pay off all of Salem’s long-term debt. We could not be more delighted that the buyer is EMF,” Edward G. Atsinger, Salem’s executive chairman and co-founder said in a press release.

“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.”

This is the third deal between the groups in the past seventeen months. 

EMF previously acquired three stations in Greenville/Spartanburg SC from Salem in August 2023 and then stations in Nashville and Honolulu in March. 

Shares of Salem, which trade over the counter, closed at 22 cents per share on Dec. 30, but jumped up nearly 200% on Dec. 31, with shares hitting above 60 cents. 

It is the first time in 2024 that shares hit above 50 cents a share.

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