In August, RBR+TVBR first shared the news that Salem Media Group has agreed to sell its radio stations in the Greenville-Spartanburg market.
Now, the transaction has closed, after gaining FCC regulatory approval. As such, we now know when Salem’s final day of operations will be for the stations.
October 28 is when Salem will officially yield control of the stations to Educational Media Foundation.
This puts WGTK “94.5 The Answer” in Greenville, WRTH-FM in Greer, and WLTE-FM in Powdersville, S.C. in the hands of the No. 2 licensee of FM radio stations in the U.S.
A $6,775,000 purchase price was been agreed upon, with a $338,750 escrow deposit held by Jorgenson Broadcast Brokerage, which represented Salem in the transaction.
In an internal memo received by Streamline Publishing’s Radio Ink, local management said, “I am unfortunately sharing with you the end of WRTH/WLTE(95-5/103-3 Earth-FM) and WGTK-FM/HD1 (94-5 The Answer), which is also parent to HD2 (Earth-FM), HD3 (Rejoice 96-9) & HD4 (Poder 102.9). The new owners have no plans of continuing our programming or content. They are going to program formats unique to them and will not continue with the formats we have been presenting. So, as of Midnight 10/28/23, all of Salem Media Group’s Greenville-Spartanburg stations will cease operation.”
EMF is the owner of the Air1 Worship Music and KLOVE Contemporary Christian Music (CCM) noncomm networks found across the U.S.
What does this mean for current KLOVE listeners in Upstate South Carolina?
Full market coverage is arriving, as the only station presently audible in the market is WLXK-FM in Boiling Springs, N.C., best heard in areas to the north and east of Spartanburg. Air1 does not have a presence in Greenville-Spartanburg.
As such, it is a safe bet that both Air1 and KLOVE will gain on-air homes serving the market upon closing.
The divestment by Salem of the three FMs in South Carolina comes at a fragile financial moment for the company headed by CEO Dave Santrella.
“We have enjoyed our years in the Greenville-Spartanburg market but have made the strategic decision to divest our interests there,” Santrella said in prepared comments distributed in late August, when news of the transaction first emerged. “As we do, we are grateful to be able to place these signals in the hands of Educational Media Foundation, who shares a like-minded mission with Salem through their music programming. We are also thankful to our Greenville-Spartanburg staff for their many years of service.”
For the third quarter of 2023, Salem is projecting total revenue to decline between 3% and 5% from last year. Ex-political, revenue is expected to decline between 1% and 3%. The company is also projecting Recurring Operating Expenses to be between a decrease of 1% and increase of 2% compared to Q3 2022 Recurring Operating Expenses of $60.8 million.
SALM, which trades on the Nasdaq Global Market, was valued at $0.6953 as of 1:20pm Eastern on Tuesday.
