The Most Influential Christian Talk Radio Network You've Probably Never Heard of

Summary

On the Media: The Most Influential Christian Talk Radio Network You've Probably Never Heard of

Podcast Episode Summary | Release Date: March 10, 2023

Introduction

In this episode of On the Media, hosts Brooke Gladstone and Micah Loewinger delve into the powerful yet often unnoticed realm of Christian talk radio, focusing on Salem Media Group—the largest conservative Christian multimedia company in the United States. Through investigative reporting by Katie Thornton, the episode explores how Salem has shaped the political and cultural landscape of American talk radio, its strategic growth, and its profound influence on politics and society.

Salem Media Group: Origins and Growth

The story begins in 1935 in Ararat, Virginia, where Stuart Epperson was born into a family passionate about radio. Inspired by his older brother Ralph, who built and operated a community radio station in their farmhouse, Stuart pursued broadcasting at Bob Jones University. Together with his brother-in-law Edward Atsinger, Stuart co-founded Salem Media Group in the 1970s.

Salem's early strategy involved acquiring commercial radio licenses, allowing them to sell airtime to preachers and broadcast their own religious programs. This business model enabled rapid expansion, with Salem acquiring multiple stations across major cities like Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York. By the mid-1980s, Salem had grown from a single station to a national network, capitalizing on the repeal of the Fairness Doctrine in 1987—a regulatory shift that removed requirements for balanced ideological coverage on radio stations.

Key Figures and Strategic Decisions

Phil Boyce, a seasoned talk radio programming veteran, played a pivotal role in Salem’s expansion. In 2018, speaking at a conference, Boyce highlighted the transformative impact of Donald Trump's candidacy on talk radio:

"We call him the gift that keeps on giving. This guy right here is a game changer for our format and you can take advantage of this every single day." [10:32]

Eric Metaxas, a prominent Salem host, exemplifies the network’s intertwining of religion and politics. Initially known as an evangelical public intellectual, Metaxas transitioned into a staunch supporter of Donald Trump, using his platform to promote conservative agendas and election fraud conspiracies:

"I'm genuinely convinced that that means voting for Trump. It doesn't mean that." [16:07]

Influence on American Politics

Salem Media Group has been instrumental in shaping the political narratives within the Republican Party. Through strategic programming and influential hosts like Dennis Prager, Hugh Hewitt, and Mike Gallagher, Salem has cultivated a loyal listener base that aligns with conservative and Christian values. The network's influence was particularly evident during the 2020 election, where Salem hosts amplified unfounded claims of election fraud, contributing to the political polarization that culminated in the January 6th Capitol riot.

Katie Thornton recounts how Salem media pushed the narrative of a stolen election:

"In 2021, Salem released a film hosted by far-right activist Dinesh D'Souza... 2000 Mules claims to prove election fraud in 2020. The movie is rife with shortcomings and outright falsehoods. Regardless, the film was a hit." [21:46]

Salem’s synergy with political entities is further underscored by its connection to the Council for National Policy (CNP), a secretive organization that networks conservative leaders and strategists. Founders Stuart Epperson and Edward Atsinger held leadership roles within the CNP, ensuring that Salem's media strategies were closely aligned with broader conservative political objectives.

Business Model and Media Strategy

Salem’s success can be attributed to its efficient business model of centralized programming and strategic acquisitions. By producing their own shows and syndicating them across over 3,000 stations, Salem minimized costs and maximized reach. This approach allowed Salem to maintain consistent messaging and expand its influence without relying heavily on local audience preferences or advertising revenues.

The repeal of the Fairness Doctrine in 1987 was a significant turning point for Salem. Freed from the obligation to provide balanced viewpoints, Salem capitalized on promoting a singular conservative perspective. Phil Boyce noted the newfound freedom:

"Terry Fahey, who was the manager for KKLA, the Big LA station, was telling me he recognized the power that they had after the Ferris Doctrine was repealed..." [46:04]

This regulatory change enabled Salem to become a dominant force in talk radio, promoting conservative ideologies without the need for opposing viewpoints.

Expanding Influence: Beyond Radio

Beyond traditional broadcasting, Salem has diversified its media presence through podcasts, internet television (Salem News Channel), streaming services, and a robust publishing arm (Regnery). Salem’s integration into various media platforms ensures comprehensive coverage and continuous reinforcement of its conservative and Christian messaging across multiple channels.

Current Landscape and Continued Dominance

As of the early 2020s, Salem Media remains a cornerstone of conservative talk radio, with influential hosts like Charlie Kirk integrating Salem’s messaging into broader political movements. The network’s ability to adapt and expand into digital media has solidified its position as a central player in shaping American conservative discourse.

Brooke Gladstone highlights the asymmetry in today’s talk radio landscape:

"As of today, 17 of the nation's top 20 most listened to talk radio hosts are conservative. Only one is progressive." [52:20]

Conclusion

Salem Media Group's strategic growth and unwavering promotion of conservative Christian values have cemented its influence in American media and politics. By leveraging talk radio and adapting to regulatory changes, Salem has created an extensive network that not only disseminates specific ideologies but also mobilizes a significant portion of the electorate. This episode of On the Media sheds light on the often-overlooked power dynamics within Christian talk radio and underscores the critical role Salem Media plays in shaping the cultural and political narratives of the United States.

Notable Quotes with Timestamps

• Eric Metaxas [10:32]: "We call him the gift that keeps on giving. This guy right here is a game changer for our format and you can take advantage of this every single day."
• Eric Metaxas [16:07]: "I'm genuinely convinced that that means voting for Trump. It doesn't mean that."
• Katie Thornton [21:46]: "In 2021, Salem released a film hosted by far-right activist Dinesh D'Souza... 2000 Mules claims to prove election fraud in 2020."
• Phil Boyce [46:04]: "Terry Fahey, who was the manager for KKLA, the Big LA station, was telling me he recognized the power that they had after the Ferris Doctrine was repealed."
• Brooke Gladstone [52:20]: "As of today, 17 of the nation's top 20 most listened to talk radio hosts are conservative. Only one is progressive."

Final Thoughts

This comprehensive exploration by On the Media unveils the substantial yet understated influence of Salem Media Group in shaping American public opinion and political landscapes through Christian talk radio. For those seeking to understand the intricate links between media, religion, and politics in the United States, this episode provides an enlightening and detailed analysis.

Transcript

[Brooke Gladstone]

On this week's on the Media. While engaged media consumers fret over who said what on Twitter or the latest Fox host's outrages, is anyone paying close attention to the radio waves?

[Eric Metaxas]

I believe that this bottleneck is intentional. To try to create an argument for mass immigration. We're going to draw the connections between the environmentalist lobby, the Greta Thunbergs of the world, the AOCs and Covid. Nothing Americans could do would help this country as much taking their kids out of the schools of America.

[Katie Thornton]

We disagree vehemently with the lie of transgenderism and the lie that marriage can be redefined. You have to listen to it live in order to capture what's being said. And so it just operates out of sight. Nobody pays any attention, and it has so much power.

[Brooke Gladstone]

This week we're listening to talk radio. It's all coming up after this.

[Katie Thornton]

Hi, I'm Willa Paskin, the host of Decoder Ring, Slate's podcast about cracking cultural mysteries. On Decoder Ring, we dive down rabbit holes and obsessively explore questions hiding in plain sight, like why has slow dancing gone out of style? And when did we all become obsessed with hydration? And where did the word mullet, you know, to describe a hairstyle come from? That's Decoder Ring, named one of the best podcasts of 2023 by the New York Times. Listen to new episodes every two weeks and make sure to follow us so you never miss one.

[Brooke Gladstone]

From WNYC in New York, this is on the Media. I'm Brooke Gladstone. Are you one of our million something listeners a week who catch OTM on the radio? Do you listen to any other stations on the dial other than public radio? Because a lot of people are listening to the radio and they're tuning in in huge numbers. And the content is almost all conservative.

[Eric Metaxas]

The vast majority at this point of gender confusion is being driven by societal mania. Racial profiling is good for your health. It could save your life. I know a lot of people. Oh my God. This is racist. No. No, it's not. No, it's not. Drill, build the Keystone pipeline. Deport illegals. Build the wall. I don't want to hear about the EPA or the Department of Energy. I don't want to hear about Biden's overreach. Defy the federal government.

[Brooke Gladstone]

While engaged media consumers may fret over who said what on Twitter or video clips of the latest Fox hosts outrages, is anyone paying close attention to the radio waves?

[Katie Thornton]

You have to listen to it live in order to capture what's being said. And that gives a lot more freedom to people who are on radio to say things that aren't true.

[Brooke Gladstone]

Nicole Hemmer is the author of Messengers of the Right, Conservative Media and the Transformation of American Politics.

[Katie Thornton]

So not only is it largely unseen and understudied, but it's not taken seriously, even though it has very serious consequences for culture and politics in the United States. And so it just operates out of sight. Nobody pays any attention. And it has so much power, it.

[Brooke Gladstone]

Can move the political needle across the country. And that's why OnTheMedia decided to investigate the most powerful Christian media company you probably never heard of and how the landscape of talk radio came to be so politically one sided. Our guide on this expedition is reporter Katie Thornton. Here's Katie.

[Katie Thornton]

A few weeks after the 2020 election, radio host Eric Metaxas had one of his frequent guests back on the air, Colonel Doug Mastriano.

[Eric Metaxas]

This man is an American hero.

[Katie Thornton]

Doug Mastriano, freshman Pennsylvania state senator and recently defeated 2022 Republican nominee for governor, was at the vanguard promoting allegations of widespread fraud right after the 2020 election. And so was conservative Christian talk show host Eric Metaxas. So this was familiar fare to his listeners.

[Eric Metaxas]

What happen, Please, people, don't join you in this. You could kiss fair and free elections goodbye.

[Katie Thornton]

Mastriano had a plan to get the state's General assembly to intervene in the election results. It was a legal long shot, or more accurately, an impossibility. Even the plan's creator, Trump lawyer John Eastman, said it wouldn't hold up in court. But Metaxas and Mastriano begged listeners to get their senators on board.

[Eric Metaxas]

I just want to say to my audience, if you live in Pennsylvania and you don't do this, when things go to hell, which they will, I want you to know you're responsible.

[Katie Thornton]

But right before this interview with Mastriano, something unexpected happened, something that Eric Metaxas called divine intervention. Mastriano got a call.

[Eric Metaxas]

Hey, sir, I'm here with Eric Metaxas. He wants to know if you want any message to go out on his.

[Katie Thornton]

Show today from lame duck President Donald Trump. Seeing how the attempt to change the Pennsylvania election results was going. And Trump was happy to get on speakerphone with Metaxas.

[Eric Metaxas]

Can you hear him, Eric? Yes, I can hear the President. Mr. President, I want to know what can I do? Fantastic. Your whole show and your whole deal is great. So just keep it up. We're making a lot of progress, actually.

[Katie Thornton]

With a cleanly parted shock of salt and pepper hair, sports coats over button down shirts and Bookish round glasses, Metaxas style suggests more Manhattan dandy than would be crusader. But when it came to defending Trump's seat against a supposedly stolen election, Metaxas was ready for battle.

[Eric Metaxas]

I'd be happy to die in this fight. This is a fight for everything. God is with us. Thank you, Mr. President. God bless you. Yep, they stole an election, but we're not gonna. We're just not gonna let it happen. No, we're not.

[Katie Thornton]

A fight for everything with God on our side. A fight worth dying for. It's a sentiment that many on the right became convinced of and that some took to the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. Spoiler alert. Metaxas did not die in this fight, but he fired off many of the lies that fueled the attack. Metaxas is not a fire breathing talk show host on some fringe local radio station. His show is beamed from the heart of New York City out of a corner office radio studio in the Empire State Building to cities and towns across the United States. One estimate puts his audience at 8 million listeners each week. I've worked and volunteered in radio since I was a teenager, doing everything from hosting music shows to legal and operational support to selling ads. I love radio. In an era so driven by distant virtual connection, it's a medium that's so intimate and immediate and so inherently local, delivering information that's relevant to my community, at least in theory. But flip around through the AM&FM dial and you notice that radio writ large is pretty homogenous. And that's especially true on talk radio, where one political and religious perspective reigns. I wanted to know how we got to this divided dial. How rhetoric like Metaxases, far right conspiracies and incitements to violence has found a comfortable home on the public airwaves. And how many talkers who have been deplatformed on social media still have a haven on the radio dial? As it turns out, radio is still really influential and a crucial component of the American far right movement. And getting here didn't happen by accident. But let me finish telling you about Eric Metaxas.

[Eric Metaxas]

Welcome Eric Metaxas.

[Katie Thornton]

To a lot of people who knew him a decade ago, his current role as spokesperson for election fraud conspiracies and an evangelist for a politicized God who would support going to battle for Donald Trump came as a surprise.

[Eric Metaxas]

That is idolatry. Thank you very much. Thank you. If you don't know what idolatry is, you're probably not saved.

[Katie Thornton]

Ten years ago, Metaxas was known as an up and coming evangelical, public intellectual type of. He wrote a book about Martin Luther and one about German anti Nazi pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer. He hosted a Manhattan lecture series called Socrates in the City, where he interviewed people like Malcolm Gladwell about faith and public life. Before all this, he was a writer on Veggie Tales.

[Eric Metaxas]

Have we got a show for you.

[Katie Thornton]

The Evangelical Kids show featuring talking vegetables and life lessons.

[Brooke Gladstone]

We know that God's word is for.

[Katie Thornton]

Everyone and now that our song is done, we'll take a he that's cold. Metaxas was even a featured speaker at President Barack Obama's prayer breakfast in 2012.

[Eric Metaxas]

I'm the son of European immigrants who met in an English class in New York City. My mom is German, hence my deep love for Siegfried and Roy.

[Katie Thornton]

Two years later, he came out with one of the Wall Street Journal's most engaged with articles ever called Science Increasingly Makes the case for God. And when businessman and reality TV star Donald Trump entered the presidential race halfway through 2015, Metaxas poked fun at Trump's plea for Christian votes. He wrote satirical tweets mocking Trump's lack of understanding of Christianity, calling it Trumpbible. Things like, Jesus went out into the desert, but he should have invested in hotels there. I mean, I'm killing it in Vegas. Trump Bible was featured twice in the New Yorker. But as the 2016 election season bore on, Metaxas changed his tune. And it all started not long after he was recruited to have a radio show by this guy.

[Eric Metaxas]

How about this? Hey, look, I'm a program director. What do I know about microphones?

[Katie Thornton]

This is Phil Boyce, a talk radio programming veteran speaking here in 2018 to a group of industry professionals.

[Eric Metaxas]

So we're going to talk a little bit about what's going on in talk radio and how the news talk format continues to make a difference in America. Notice I resisted the urge to say make America great again. But I did come up with kind of a cool, sexy secondary title, how to take advantage of the biggest boon to talk radio to come along since Monica Lewinsky wore a blue dress.

[Katie Thornton]

Boyce was talking about, you guessed it, Donald Trump.

[Eric Metaxas]

We call him the gift that keeps on giving. This guy right here is a game changer for our format and you can take advantage of this every single day.

[Katie Thornton]

Boyce spent 14 years programming WABC, one of the most listened to talk radio stations in the country. He discovered Sean Hannity and put him on the air.

[Eric Metaxas]

I'm sitting there in November of 2016 thinking, it's all over for me. I really thought Hillary was gonna win. How many of you thought Hillary was gonna win? Come on, be honest. Okay. And if she had, I was fearful it was going to be damaging to our format. She might try to hurt talk radio, knowing her well, guess what? 2017 was a great year because of Donald Trump winning that election.

[Katie Thornton]

Salem Radio Network is part of the larger Salem Media Group. And Salem just may be the most influential media entity you've never heard of. Named after a biblical title for Jerusalem, Salem is the country's largest conservative Christian multimedia company. Phil Boyce has overseen all national talk programming there since 2015. From my home in Minneapolis, I can tune into four different Salem stations, Philadelphians and New Yorkers. You have two apiece. Portland, Oregon has six little rocks. Sacramento, Atlanta, four each, five in Dallas. And that's only a fraction of Salem stations. They have conservative talk stations on Philadelphia's AM 990.

[Eric Metaxas]

The answer, Atlantis home for conservative talk. Right here on 1280 the Patriot.

[Katie Thornton]

They have Christian talk stations.

[Eric Metaxas]

AM980, the Mission, the Twin Cities Christian Boy, KDAR 98.3 FM, the word you.

[Katie Thornton]

Are on the men's show and Christian music stations 104.7 the Fish. In addition to the stations they own, Salem syndicates their talk shows on over 3,000 other stations. In some cases, they give their shows away in exchange for nothing other than advertising time, so Salem hosts can be heard on stations across the country. One of the first things Phil Boyce did in his new role at Salem was to bring in up and coming evangelical celebrity Eric Metaxas. Metaxas, who'd never worked as a radio host before, was eager. But not long after Boyce hired him, there was a shakeup on the company's airwaves. Conservative commentator Alicia Krause was the first to go. She co hosted the morning show on Salem's Los Angeles station with Ben Shapiro, now one of the country's most popular conservative podcasters. Kraus, then an anti Trump conservative, said staff pressured her to cover Trump more favorably during the 2016 election. She didn't, and she said she felt she was fired because of it. The company said it was because she didn't have great chemistry with one of her co hosts, who was a very rare liberal voice on the station, but who was also eventually let go back in 2016. Their other co host, Ben Shapiro, didn't support Trump either. When he sent Phil Boyce an email asking how to cover the candidate, Boyce responded with a message saying Salem didn't have an official position, but that the CEO of the company had argued that beating Hillary would mean supporting Trump. Boyce wrote, I suggest that you become a trial lawyer. You suspect your client is guilty, but you are paid to get him off. Shapiro left of his own accord, and the weeding out continued into 2018. Here's Phil Boyce at that conference again.

[Eric Metaxas]

I've got a host right now. I'm coaching him out of bad habits. He understood that Trump is good for our audience, but there's some days he just can't bring himself to say good stuff.

[Katie Thornton]

Former Republican congressman and Salem host Joe Walsh was fickle on Trump and I.

[Eric Metaxas]

Said, what are you doing? Your listeners rely on us. We are the antidote to the mainstream media. If you align yourself with them, you'll eventually lose.

[Katie Thornton]

Salem pulled the plug on Walsh's show shortly after, though they said it wasn't because of his stance on Trump. That same year, host Michael Medved, also an anti Trump conservative and who had been with Salem for more than 20 years, was let go too. Salem said it wasn't because of his politics, but a lot of company staff who were fired around this time went on the record saying there was a purge of anti Trumpers at Salem. Eric Metaxas, though, was safe despite his earlier wavering. By 2016, he was committed to the Salem company line, even writing an op ed for the Wall Street Journal arguing that Christians needed to throw their support behind Donald Trump.

[Eric Metaxas]

If you care about America, sometimes you have to hold your nose and vote for the person who's going to do the least damage or who's going to maybe pull you back from the br. I'm genuinely convinced that that means voting for Trump. It doesn't mean that.

[Brooke Gladstone]

I think Metaxas was an early recruit to Voice's new national radio team, but there were more to come after the break. We meet the lineup.

[Katie Thornton]

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[Eric Metaxas]

You could save when you bundle your.

[Katie Thornton]

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[Eric Metaxas]

Try [e-mail], progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. Potential savings will vary.

[Katie Thornton]

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[Brooke Gladstone]

The election has come and gone. Now we're in a new era. It can be easy to get discouraged, frustrated, but you can't afford not to pay attention. You need trustworthy, independent journalism to cut through the noise and hold power to account. Mary I'm Mary Harris, host of What Next from Slate.com we are a daily news podcast with a kind of transparent, smart yet tongue in cheek analysis. You can only find at Slate. Follow and listen to what next. Wherever you get your podcasts, this is on the media. I'm Brooke Gladstone. Before the break, we learned that Salem CEO Phil Boyce had cleaned house and was replacing old hosts with new ones. Now let's meet the lineup.

[Eric Metaxas]

The number is 83333GORKA. But don't call us on a cell phone that's connected to one of the big cell phone providers because they are utterly woke and they hate you.

[Katie Thornton]

They have Sebastian Gorka, host since 2019. He was an anti terrorism advisor to President Trump, but failed to get the necessary clearance to actually work on national security issues. He's been shown to have ties to a Hungarian far right neo Nazi group that's on a U.S. department of State watch list. And there's Charlie Kirk.

[Eric Metaxas]

Let's talk about this war on white people. That's a thought crime. Douglas, you're not allowed to say it. Oh yeah, you're obviously welcome to say it here. We agree.

[Katie Thornton]

Kirk runs the ultra conservative anti higher ed youth organization turning point USA. Boyce brought him on in mid 2020 along with Long standing Salem hosts Dennis Prager, Hugh Hewitt and Mike Gallagher. These new voices make up the core of Salem's national talent, a sort of B list of right wing celebrities who don't get reported on the same way your Alex Joneses or your Tucker Carlsons do. And by the time the 2020 election season came around, listeners across the country heard a unified message from Donald Trump and Salem talkers alike.

[Eric Metaxas]

This is going to be a fraud like you've never seen. All run by Democrats. President Trump's election. If we lose, if the President loses, they will come for us all. They will come for your children, they will come for your schools. They will come in every fashion and they won't stop.

[Katie Thornton]

And on January 4, 2021, Salem host Charlie Kirk used his radio show to lay out a roadmap to a second Trump term.

[Eric Metaxas]

Believe it or not, there is a almost guaranteed way that Donald Trump serves four more years. Mike Pence says based on the power and the authority granted to me as President of the United States Senate and my oath to the Constitution of the United States, I refuse to certify at this very moment the election results of Arizona, Nevada, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan.

[Katie Thornton]

This is not true. But it was an idea that was making the rounds in right wing circles. Two days later, that's exactly what the crowds on the steps of the Capitol were calling for. Complete with a hangman's noose and chants to string up the vice president. As protesters poured into the Rotunda, Salem host Sebastian Gorka celebrated live on the.

[Eric Metaxas]

Air as we saw a protester just moments ago on television say, to the shock and the chagrin of Fox News, that's our house.

[Katie Thornton]

It's hard to remember now, but right after January 6, there was a brief moment of almost unity. Even many in the broader right wing media ecosystem, like hosts on Fox News, said that maybe the falsehoods about the election had gone too far.

[Eric Metaxas]

I want to be clear. The actions at the United States Capitol three days ago were deplorable, reprehensible, outright criminal. And I don't care whether those who did it think the election was stolen.

[Katie Thornton]

Though no one from the company confirmed it, there were reports that Cumulus, one of the biggest radio chains in the country with tons of conservative talkers, sent a memo to their hosts. It said, the election is over. If you suggest otherwise, you can expect to be fired. At Salem, There was no January 6th memo. The lies about the stolen election continued and soon the rest of the right wing media ecosystem caught up with Salem, followed closely by a large contingent of the Republican Party. In the midterms last fall, well over half of all Americans had a 2020 election denier on their ball. At least 170 of those candidates were elected to state and national offices. Some of those winners will be in charge of future elections. A favorite piece of evidence of election deniers was brought to the public by Salem Media.

[Eric Metaxas]

We must now face the chilling reality. The Democrats conceived the heist. They funded it, they organized it, then.

[Phil Boyce]

They carried it out.

[Katie Thornton]

In May of last year, Salem released a film hosted by far right activist Dinesh D' Souza.

[Eric Metaxas]

They rigged and stole the 2020 presidential election. We cannot be okay with this. We cannot simply move on.

[Katie Thornton]

The film 2000 Mules claims to prove election fraud in 2020. The movie is rife with shortcomings and outright falsehoods. Regardless, the film was a hit. Trump himself held an early screening at Mar a Lago where the likes of Marjorie Taylor Greene, Rudy Giuliani and Kenosha Wisconsin shooter Kyle Rittenhouse all came to watch. 2000 Mules has a 100% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. According to Salem, the film grossed $10 million in under two weeks. In 2021, Salem launched their own podcast network and the Dinesh D' Souza podcast was their debut feature. They've added over a dozen daily conservative podcasts since then, often featuring young hosts who vie for a new generation of listeners. Every Salem radio host can also be found as talking heads on the company's new 24.7internet television station, Salem News Channel, which they launched a couple years ago. Salem also has their own movie streaming service and production house, a rapidly growing conservative Christian influencer network, a series of Christian websites like Christianity.com and GodTube, and a long running conservative publishing house called Regnery. They even run a service that sells sermons to pastors. And for over a decade, they've been quietly purchasing some of the biggest conservative news sites, Town Hall, Hot Air and Red State. But for all of Salem's varied media strategies, broadcast radio is still central to their operations. According to Nielsen, broadcast radio has a higher reach than television. Pew Research says it's nearly neck and neck with social media for how Americans get their news. Surveys repeatedly show that Americans trust radio over any other medium. Now that I've brought you up to speed on where Salem is today, let's go back to where they started. Our story begins, fittingly in a small southern Virginia town called Ararat, named after the final destination of Noah's Ark. Here in 1935, against the backdrop of the Blue Ridge Mountains, a boy named Stuart Epperson was born into a family of tobacco farmers. They didn't have electricity in their farmhouse no one in the area did back then. But the Epperson household was connected in a different way. When Stuart was a kid, his older brother Ralph had fallen in love with the new medium of radio.

[Eric Metaxas]

What do you do, everybody?

[Katie Thornton]

And convinced his parents to get a mail order Montgomery Ward radio set. Without power, he set up a windmill on top of the house to recharge the device's battery. The blades of the mill would cause the house to shudder on windy days, but the rudimentary generator worked.

[Eric Metaxas]

God, my Sunday shoes on got my hair stick down. Happy would be time tonight.

[Katie Thornton]

The Eppersons invited neighbors and passersby in to listen along, and when their house got too full, they would open the windows so everyone out there could hear, too. Ralph's radio set was the neighborhood's line to the outside.

[Eric Metaxas]

Friends, come with us again to the Grand Ole Opry house and join in another half hour of fun music and.

[Katie Thornton]

But young Stewart's brother Ralph didn't just want to listen to the radio. In a high school correspondence course, he learned via mailed letters from instructors to build radios. And eventually, Stuart Epperson watched his brother use his passion to serve his country and then his community. Adam Peori is a reporter who's written several lengthy articles about Salem media over the years.

[Phil Boyce]

During World War II, his older brother worked for the Navy developing radar. And when he got home, he built a radio station on the second floor of their farmhouse.

[Katie Thornton]

Just two years after getting hooked up to the grid, the Eppersons house was transformed into an electrical wonderland of tubes, gadgets and microphones. Aspiring singers and musicians flocked to the home with banjos and fiddles filling the Eppersons living room and the local airwaves with what they called called hillbilliery.

[Eric Metaxas]

Johnson had an old gray mule his name was Simon Slick he'd want his eyes in the backstairs and how that poo would kick.

[Katie Thornton]

The family would take the mic.

[Eric Metaxas]

Okay, thanks a lot. That was mother who is also known as Mrs. A.K. epson. Yes sir, we appreciate that expression.

[Katie Thornton]

And preachers were invited to sermonize to unseen congregants within the station's reach. It was the essence of a community radio station, homegrown and accessible, beloved, a little haphazard. And it must have left an impression on Stuart Epperson because he went on to study broadcasting at the evangelical Bob Jones University in South Carolina. He married his classmate Nancy Atsinger and soon started a radio business with his brother in law and fellow Bob Jones alum Edward Atsinger.

[Stuart Epperson]

In 1973 they started a small FM radio station.

[Katie Thornton]

Ann Nelson is an author and professor at Columbia University. She wrote about Salem in her book Shadow Media. Money and the Secret Hub of the Radical Right.

[Stuart Epperson]

These brothers in law acquired a radio station in Bakersfield, California. It was almost like a patch of the south that was detached and set down north of Los Angeles.

[Katie Thornton]

Bakersfield had been a sort of southern outpost since the days of the Dust bowl when farm workers from Oklahoma and other Southern states fled there. But Epperson and Atsinger didn't just want to reach other southern transplants. They had a vision to bring the message of their evangelical faith to new audiences. Soon they bought a second station, KDAR in Oxnard, California, just outside Los Angeles.

[Phil Boyce]

They realized that Christians wanted a platform where they could tune in and listen to people talk about biblical truth and their beliefs. And it's there that they began developing the formula that they would later replicate so successfully.

[Katie Thornton]

At the time, a lot of Christian radio stations were small, not for profit educational projects with non commercial broadcast licenses. That meant they couldn't take money in exchange for running specific programming. But Epperson and Atsinger did something different. They got commercial licenses, meaning they could sell airtime.

[Stuart Epperson]

And they found they could charge these preachers a fairly substantial fee for carrying their programs.

[Katie Thornton]

For Epperson and Atsinger it was a win win. They Gave a platform to preachers. And with some money coming in, they were able to buy more radio stations and turn them into pulpits.

[Stuart Epperson]

From the beginning, they really emphasized what they called biblical value.

[Eric Metaxas]

Your enemies, Matthew 5:44, pray for them who despitefully use you and persecute you that you may be the sons of your Father who's in heaven.

[Stuart Epperson]

And this was promoting these very conservative social values. Anti lgbt.

[Eric Metaxas]

See, this is why homosexuality spreads. This is why it's not a constant. From society to society, it varies, favoring.

[Stuart Epperson]

Christianity over other religions.

[Eric Metaxas]

The idea of a Christian marrying a non Christian is totally in disobedience to scripture.

[Katie Thornton]

But for many who grew up with these radio broadcasts, they were more than just socially conservative messages.

[Eric Metaxas]

My father, he was a contractor, so he was in the truck all day and had his radio locked into Christian radio.

[Katie Thornton]

This is John FIA today he's a professor of history at Messiah Christian University in Pennsylvania. But growing up, John was just another kid whose family converted to evangelicalism and who heard a lot of Christian radio.

[Eric Metaxas]

Someone look at this as kind of crazy, right? Like, who does this? Who cranks, you know, John MacArthur at maximum volume in the middle of a construction site or whatever?

[Katie Thornton]

MacArthur is a minister who started on Salem's oxnard station in 1977.

[Eric Metaxas]

But the idea here is if you're playing it on 11, you know, with the doors open in the truck, America seems to be losing its Christian orientation. People are hearing it, and that was a way of living out your faith, right? One of the key components of evangelical Christianity. Christianity is evangelism, right? Sharing one's faith.

[Katie Thornton]

Fia also remembers hearing a show called Focus on the Family with James Dobson.

[Eric Metaxas]

Some Homosexuality begins by roommates.

[Katie Thornton]

Dobson was a big name in evangelical radio, still is. He's known for his homophobic rhetoric and for preaching corporal punishment and that a wife's place is in the home. But in the FIA household, the broadcasts communicated another message.

[Eric Metaxas]

My father didn't need James Dobson to tell him how to be an authoritarian figure in the family or that people must submit to my father, to his will in the family. He was doing it well before he became an evangelical Christian. So when James Dobson came along and said, hey, yeah, you have authority, right? People must submit to you, but you have to be a person of God that people want to submit to. You need to be a good husband, you need to be a good father, you need to show love. That changed my father's life.

[Katie Thornton]

Salem's co founders were out to save souls, so the more people they could reach, the better their big Breakthrough was.

[Phil Boyce]

When they acquired kkla, which was a thousand times more powerful than the one in Oxnard. And once they had this blue chip Los Angeles area station as collateral, they could get a lot bigger loans. From 86 to 1990, they moved into Chicago. They bought two stations in Portland, one in San Diego. They got a strong signal in New York City.

[Katie Thornton]

In a handful of years, Salem more than doubled their stations. And they started producing their own religious shows, too. This way, they could use their own programs to fill the airtime that they didn't sell to preachers, rather than paying a whole cast of local hosts in every city. You know, economies of scale and all that.

[Phil Boyce]

They would tape shows at KKLA and they'd bean them out to affiliates, offering the company a big advantage over single operators.

[Katie Thornton]

And to drive home just how much this business model worked for them, let me tell you about that big New York City station they bought.

[Eric Metaxas]

Wmca, home of the good guys.

[Katie Thornton]

Years after Salem took over wmca, they still didn't have enough listeners to rank among the city's top 24 stations. That's a key metric for advertisers. And most commercial stations live and die on advertising dollars. But with money coming in from paying ministries and their homemade shows filling some gaps, Salem had built a media network that wasn't all that dependent on a large audience and advertising. With this model, they could broadcast their socially conservative religious programming to a niche audience and still get bigger, still grow their platform, still buy more stations. But we need to back up a little bit because all of this growth didn't happen in a vacuum. So let me tell you another story about a political movement that was gathering steam in America and how it came to be intertwined with Salem.

[Brooke Gladstone]

That's coming up after the break. This is on the Media.

[Katie Thornton]

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[Eric Metaxas]

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[Katie Thornton]

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[Katie Thornton]

Potential savings will vary. Not available in all states.

[Brooke Gladstone]

The election has come and gone. Now we're in a new era. It can be easy to get discouraged, frustrated, but you can't afford not to pay attention. You need trustworthy, independent journalism to cut through the noise and hold power to account. I'm Mary Harris, host of what next? From slate.com, we are a daily news podcast with a kind of transparent, smart, yet tongue in cheek analysis you can only find at Slate. Follow and listen to what next. Wherever you get your podcasts, this is on the media. I'm Brooke Gladstone. We've heard how Salem went from a single station to a growing network. Now let's dive into a nascent political movement that was also gathering momentum. Here's Katie.

[Katie Thornton]

In the early 1970s in Washington, D.C. a young Republican activist named Paul Weyrich was at his wit's end. He was a transplant from Wisconsin and only 30 years old. But for the previous decade, he'd been trying and by his later account, quote, utterly failing to get conservative Christians to vote and to get Republicans to welcome them into the party.

[Eric Metaxas]

I remember calling the Republican Party in 1962 when the ruling came down against prayer in the schools.

[Katie Thornton]

This is Weyrich reflecting on his life's work in a 2005 interview with C SPAN.

[Eric Metaxas]

And I said, the party ought to come out really against that. And he said, oh, why would we want to mix up the party and that kind of an issue? And I said, well, because it's wrong.

[Katie Thornton]

Weyrich believed that evangelicals were an untapped voting bloc for the right. But try as he might, he could not find an issue that got evangelicals out from the pews and to the polls. Not the ban on prayer in public school or the women's rights movement. Not the counterculture of the 1960s or pornography. Not even abortion.

[Eric Metaxas]

Good evening. In a landmark ruling, the Supreme Court today legalized abortions. The majority in cases from to time, Texas and Georgia, said that the decision to end a pregnancy during the first three months belongs to the woman and her doctor, not the government.

[Katie Thornton]

According to popular lore, the Roe v. WADE Ruling in 1973 was the point at which morally outraged conservative Christians finally entered the political fray. Anne Nelson.

[Stuart Epperson]

But in terms of the Protestants and even the conservative section, like the Southern Baptists, there wasn't a huge diversion from mainstream public opinion, which was that abortion should be available under certain circumstances. As of the 1970s, the Southern Baptist Convention was far more liberal in its approach to abortion policy than it is now.

[Katie Thornton]

Southern Baptists are the country's largest evangelical section. At the time of the Roe ruling, their official newspaper said that religious liberty, human equality, and justice are advanced by the Supreme Court abortion decision. A lot of other evangelicals just didn't have much to say on abortion before or after Roe. They saw it as a Catholic issue. But in the early 1970s, one issue was getting a response from some evangelical leaders.

[Stuart Epperson]

When the schools were integrated over the objections of certain communities.

[Eric Metaxas]

Let us go to our neighborhoods where our Kids are safe.

[Stuart Epperson]

They opened what they called Christian schools, also known as segregation academies, and offered the so called religious education as an opportunity for white students to go to school without any black students.

[Katie Thornton]

Citing freedom of religion, some religious groups created nonprofit tax exempt organizations to run these segregation academies. Since 1970, the IRS had been threatening and occasionally cracking down on several of these schools. And among the schools the IRS was battling with was Stuart Epperson and Edward Atsinger's alma mater, Bob Jones University.

[Eric Metaxas]

The greatest peril that faces America today is a religious peril. The line of demarcations being rubbed out between those men that would exalt God and men that would trim him down.

[Stuart Epperson]

Bob Jones was somebody who had a whole theology of segregation where he said the Bible said that races should not mix. It's against God's law. And eventually the federal government said, well, if you do not follow our integration requirements, you will lose your tax exempt status.

[Katie Thornton]

In 1976, that's exactly what happened. Bob Jones University became the latest victory in the federal government's integration campaign, and some leaders in the evangelical community were not happy. Wyrick saw this as a winning campaign, but he was politically savvy enough to know that a rallying cry in opposition to integration wasn't a good look. So he hitched the anger over the school fight to another, more palatable abortion.

[Stuart Epperson]

Once abortion became legal and available, the numbers rose precipitously. People looked at the number of abortions and a lot of people found it concerning.

[Katie Thornton]

Catholics, many of whom were long opposed to abortion, spent the eve of the 1978 midterm elections leafletting church parking lots in three states, Iowa, New Hampshire and my home of Minnesota, trying to get voters out for anti abortion Senate candidates there. And it worked.

[Eric Metaxas]

From the NBC News Election center in New York, decision 78.

[Katie Thornton]

In a low turnout election, those candidates won.

[Eric Metaxas]

In Minnesota, an upset there, our projections show. Republican David Durenberg.

[Katie Thornton]

So Weyrich took a cue from the Catholics and tried the cause again with evangelicals. He and a few of his fellow conservative activists teamed up with an evangelical pastor, Francis Schaeffer, who was against abortion. Shaffer and his son made a series of films and showed them in churches and theaters across the country. Starting in 1979.

[Eric Metaxas]

We have killing quotas for whales and porpoises, but it is always open season on unborn babies. While we can appreciate this protection of our environment, do you wonder why, I ask, whatever happened to the human race and to our sense of values?

[Katie Thornton]

Schaeffer's son recalled that by the end of the film tour, they were calling for an anti abortion takeover of the Republican party. But though the abortion issue was getting more support among evangelicals, it still wasn't crystallizing as the issue. In August of 1980, presidential hopeful Ronald Reagan gave a campaign speech to 10,000 evangelicals at the legendary Reunion arena in Dallas, often considered the first large gathering of the new religious right.

[Eric Metaxas]

Now, I know this is a non partisan gathering, and so I know that you can't endorse me, but I want you to know that I endorse you and what you are doing.

[Katie Thornton]

The candidate didn't mention abortion at all, but he did mention the IRS's censure of independent schools.

[Stuart Epperson]

The year of the elections, 1980, you had a substantial vote in the south for Ronald Reagan against the Democrat who was an actual evangelical Christian. Jimmy Carter.

[Katie Thornton]

In this burgeoning fusion of politics and religion, policies trumped faith. Reagan was given a pass.

[Eric Metaxas]

A sports announcer, a film actor, governor of California. On this election night, we have projected Ronald Reagan the winner.

[Katie Thornton]

Paul Weyrich's work had come to fruition and he wanted to be sure there was no going back. So in 1981, he helped found the Council for National Policy.

[Stuart Epperson]

The Council for National Policy was founded as a very secretive organization that networked big donors, political strategists and media operators.

[Katie Thornton]

The New York Times has described the CNP as a little known club of a few hundred of the most powerful conservatives in the country. In 2016, the Southern Poverty Law center called it a key venue where mainstream conservatives and extremists mix. According to leaked rosters, recent membership in the CNP and its lobbying arm has included the likes of Ginni Thomas, Mike Pence and Cleta Mitchell, a lawyer who worked with Trump to try to overturn the 2020 election results, and Salem co founders Stuart Epperson and Edward Atsinger. When Paul Weyrich helped form the Council for National Policy, he knew that strategizing among elite leaders wouldn't be enough. They would need megaphones. And he knew how compelling radio could be. Before he was a political strategist, Weyrich had been an on air host and program director at a Kenosha, Wisconsin radio station and news director at a Denver station. Radio was to be a crucial channel for the new religious right and a way to help the CNP reach a very specific constituency.

[Stuart Epperson]

You could go after older white Protestant voters, and if you engage them through fundamentalist radio broadcasting, combined with their churches, and you mobilize them around certain issues, then you could turn them into highly motivated High propensity voters who could really make a difference in strategic elections.

[Katie Thornton]

Strategic is the key word here, not widespread get out the vote efforts.

[Eric Metaxas]

How many of our Christians have what I call the goo goo center drone, Good government? They want everybody to vote.

[Katie Thornton]

Weirich explained his strategy in a speech he gave to evangelical leaders in 1980.

[Eric Metaxas]

I don't want everybody to vote. Elections are not won by a majority of people. They never have been from the beginning of our country, and they are not now. As a matter of fact, our leverage in the elections quite candidly goes up as the voting populace goes down.

[Katie Thornton]

This was the goal of the Council for National Policy to reach the right people. And around this time, a certain fledgling Christian radio network was doing just that. When we left the Salem story, Epperson and Atsinger had developed a solid business model. Unencumbered by audience preferences or the whims of Advertisers. In the 1980s, their Christian radio stations were multiplying. And as more and more evangelicals became immersed in politics. Politics. Salem's co founders were no exception. Stuart Epperson ran for Congress twice in the mid-1980s. Meanwhile, the on air content was getting more political too. Their programs, though socially conservative from the start, had been Christian first, politics second. But in 1987, there was a change on the national radio stage that let the political stuff run wild.

[Phil Boyce]

The Fairness Doctrine required that you give their time to opposing views.

[Katie Thornton]

Reporter Adam Peori.

[Phil Boyce]

Which of course limited Salem's ability to talk about abortion and homosexuality and many of the hot button issues that they care about.

[Katie Thornton]

The decades old Fairness Doctrine had required stations to have a degree of ideological balance in their coverage and to present multiple sides of controversial topics. But the Fairness Doctrine was declared dead by Reagan's fcc, and once that was.

[Phil Boyce]

Lifted, they were able to opine on those positions all the time.

[Katie Thornton]

For an increasingly politicized Salem, the end of the Fairness Doctrine was a godsend.

[Phil Boyce]

Terry Fahey, who was the manager for kkla, the Big LA station, was telling me he recognized the power that they had after the Ferris Doctrine was repealed. When Martin Scorsese's the Last Temptation of Christ hit the theaters in 1988.

[Eric Metaxas]

Father, I'm sorry for being a bad son.

[Katie Thornton]

Many evangelicals were upset with how the film portrayed Jesus. They felt he wasn't Christlike enough.

[Eric Metaxas]

Father, stay with me.

[Katie Thornton]

Don't leave me.

[Phil Boyce]

KKLA spearheaded a demonstration at MCA Universal Studios. Protesters mobbed the entrance, waving signs.

[Katie Thornton]

Anybody who mocks the crucifixion will.

[Phil Boyce]

They blocked Route 101. Tens of thousands of people Participated in protests at theaters and video stores nationwide. And that was when they realized that the radio station did have the ability to mobilize.

[Katie Thornton]

In the 1990s, Salem announced a major change to their mission.

[Eric Metaxas]

A station that covers the current news in depth and then gives you a chance to talk about it at all times of the day. 24 hours.

[Katie Thornton]

In 1995, they officially expanded from pulpit to politics.

[Eric Metaxas]

So let me introduce you to that station, the all new AM 1280 WWTC, or as we around here are going to call it, the patriot. More power than a Tomahawk Cruise Diesel EM 1280 the Patriot.

[Katie Thornton]

Salem started building conservative talk stations in cities where they already had Christian teach and talk stations. They'd save costs by putting everyone in the same office, and then they'd promote their new conservative talk station on their religious station. It was a transformative step for the ever more ideological company. And it made good business sense, too.

[Phil Boyce]

When they surveyed their listenership and asked their listeners who were listening to sermons where they were turning the dots, While after they found them turning the dial to talk radio and people like Rush Limbaugh.

[Katie Thornton]

Salem's answers to Rush Limbaugh were hosts like Oliver north of Iran Contra infamy and Alan Keyes, a member of Reagan's cabinet. And some names you still hear on Salem stations or could until recently.

[Eric Metaxas]

Michael Medved, Hugh Hewitt, Dennis Prager, Michael Savage. Don't give me that liberal double talk.

[Brooke Gladstone]

I asked you.

[Katie Thornton]

Alan Keys was an early black conservative activist, and Prager and Medved are Jewish. These new hosts weren't necessarily spouting theology, but they all communicated what the founders saw as the Judeo Christian stance on political issues like abortion, gay marriage, and eventually the war on terrorism.

[Phil Boyce]

These are all hosts who are sort of unified in their belief that the secularism that has bled into mainstream America, that we've kind of lost something, that we've lost our moral compass, as Stuart Epperson put it.

[Katie Thornton]

On their religious stations and their new secular stations, Salem's talk show hosts built an audience that would support the kind of work that Epperson and Atsinger and the council for national policy were doing behind the scenes. And Salem kept buying up frequencies.

[Phil Boyce]

At a certain point, they began bumping up against FCC laws limiting the number of stations any one company could own nationwide.

[Katie Thornton]

In each market since the 1940s, the FCC had laws to ensure that no one company could grow too large. But then, in February of 1996.

[Eric Metaxas]

Today, with the stroke of a pen, our laws will catch up with our future.

[Katie Thornton]

President Clinton signed the telecommunications Act.

[Eric Metaxas]

I thanked a vast array of interest groups who had sometimes conflicting concerns about this bill who were able to work.

[Katie Thornton]

Together, and among the many things it did was eliminate the cap on the number of stations a single radio chain could own nationwide. Salem gave money to lobby for the bill, and between 1994 and 2005, Salem grew from 18 stations to 103. All the while, the company's founders were rising in the Council for National Policy. By the early 2000 and tens, both Stuart Epperson and Edward Atsinger were in leadership positions. In 2014, Epperson was president of the CNP, overseeing members like Kellyanne Conway and Steve Bannon. A new recruit, according to the most recently leaked roster, is Salem host election denier and right wing conspiracy theorist Charlie Kirk. Four decades ago, Paul Weyrich used radio to help Republicans reach a new religious audience and change the destiny of their party. Today, the right wing talk radio ethos is inextricable from the party's DNA, thanks in part to Salem Media.

[Brooke Gladstone]

Next week we take a detour from Salem's story to look at the landscape of talk radio writ large and shine a light on the bigger history of the ascendancy of the right on the air. Because as of today, 17 of the nation's top 20 most listened to talk radio hosts are conservative. Only one is progressive. How did the public's airwaves come to be so politically lopsided? We had a set of guidelines about how to serve local communities.

[Eric Metaxas]

It was an entire regime that enforced local service. You get rid of all that and the result is Rush Limbaugh.

[Brooke Gladstone]

This week's show was written and reported by Katie Thornton with production help from Max Bolton and fact checking by Tom Colligan and Sona Avakian. Music and sound design is by Jared Paul. Jennifer Munson is our Technical director. The show was edited by OTM Executive Producer Katya Rogers. This series is a production of on the Media and WNYC Studios with the Fund for Investigative Journalism. I'm Brooke Gladstone. NYC now delivers breaking news, top headlines and in depth coverage from WNYC and Gothamist every morning, midday and evening. By sponsoring our programming, you'll reach a community of passionate listeners in an uncluttered audio experience. Visit sponsorship wnyc.

[Stuart Epperson]

Org to learn more.