0:00

This

0:00

is episode two of the

0:02

divided dial. Our brand new

0:04

five part series about the power of Talk

0:07

Radio and of one company in

0:09

particular Salem Media,

0:11

a little known but highly influential network

0:14

whose hosts trade and right wing

0:16

conspiracies and election denial.

0:19

In this episode, host Katie

0:21

Thorton is going to un pack how

0:23

the company came to be movers and shakers

0:25

in the political world. But

0:27

honestly, you're gonna wanna go

0:29

back and listen to the first one.

0:32

If this is the first you're hearing about

0:34

the series,

0:35

enjoy.

0:41

Hi, Katie. Hi,

0:42

Adam. How are you? I called

0:44

a reporter Adam Peoria last fall,

0:47

and I happened to catch him just as a storm

0:49

was slamming his home state of Connecticut.

0:51

Good. Although my

0:54

power just

0:54

went out, so my power just

0:56

went

0:56

out. I'm using the personal hotspot.

0:59

Am I

0:59

I wanted to learn more about Salem. And

1:01

Adam, who has written several lengthy articles

1:04

about the company, is a good guy to

1:06

ask.

1:06

The

1:08

way that I found out about Salem

1:11

was I was looking at major campaign

1:13

donors to both Democrats and Republicans.

1:16

At the time for George Bush, I

1:18

kept seeing Salem Communications.

1:20

This was in two thousand and four when George

1:22

W. Bush was running for reelection.

1:24

This will be the beginning of a

1:26

new term to make America a safer

1:29

place,

1:29

stronger place, a better place.

1:33

I knew who many of the donors

1:35

were, the major Republican donors, but

1:37

I never heard of Salem, so I began

1:39

poking around to see what Salem was.

1:43

What Adam found when he was poking

1:45

around was that Salem, though not

1:47

the largest radio network in the country

1:50

and lacking the name recognition of Fox

1:52

News or Bright Park. is nevertheless

1:55

a powerhouse political influencer.

1:57

her

2:01

I'm

2:05

Katie

2:05

Thornton, and this is the divided

2:07

dial. A five part pod cast series

2:09

from on the media

2:10

about how one side of the political

2:13

spectrum came to dominate

2:14

talk radio and

2:16

how one company is using the Airwaves

2:18

to launch a right wing media empire.

2:22

In this episode, we're going to dig into

2:24

Salem's fifty year backstory. from

2:27

their scrappy start to where they are

2:29

today. It's a history that

2:31

paralleled

2:32

the growth of the national religious right

2:34

and led to the company's longstanding involvement

2:37

in a secretive group of powerful evangelical

2:40

leaders,

2:40

big donors, and mainstays of

2:43

both the Republican Party and

2:45

the far right.

2:56

Our story begins fittingly

2:59

in a small

2:59

Southern Virginia town called

3:01

Eira named after the final destination

3:04

of Noah's arc. Here

3:06

in nineteen thirty five, against the backdrop

3:09

of the Blue Ridge Mountains, a

3:11

boy named Stewart Eppersen was born

3:13

into a family of tobacco

3:14

farmers. They

3:15

didn't have electricity in their farmhouse

3:18

No one in the area did back then. But

3:20

the EPerson household was connected

3:22

in a different way. When Stuart

3:24

was a kid, his older brother Ralph had

3:26

fallen in love with the new medium of

3:28

radio. What do you do, everybody?

3:31

And convinced his parents to get a mail order

3:33

Montgomery Studios your

3:36

grand ole upgrade. Without power, he

3:38

set up a windmill on top of the house

3:40

to recharge the device's battery. The

3:42

blades of the mill would cause the house to shutter

3:45

on windy days, but the rudimentary

3:47

generator worked. Thomas on

3:49

the shoes on, done the hurricane count,

3:51

have every time to die. The

3:54

episode's invited neighbors and passersby

3:56

in to listen along. And when their

3:59

house got too full, they would open the windows

4:01

so everyone out there could hear too.

4:03

Kraff's radio set was the neighborhood's line

4:05

to the outside.

4:06

Friends come with us again to the Grand La Prairie

4:09

House and join in another half hour of

4:11

fun music and song. But

4:12

young Stewart's brother Ralph didn't just

4:15

want to listen to the radio. In

4:17

a high school correspondence course, he

4:19

learned via mail letters from instructors

4:22

to build radios. And eventually,

4:24

Stewart Eppersons watched his brother

4:26

use his passion to serve his country,

4:29

and then his community.

4:32

Adam Peori. During World War

4:34

two, his older brother worked for

4:36

the Navy developing radar. And when he

4:38

got home, he built a radio station on the second

4:40

floor of their farmhouse. Just

4:42

two years after getting hooked up to the

4:45

grid, the EPerson's house was transformed

4:47

into an electrical wonderland of

4:49

tubes, gadgets, and microphones.

4:51

Aspiring singers and musicians

4:53

flocked to the home with banjos

4:55

and fiddles, filling the Eppersons

4:57

living room and the local airwaves

4:59

with what they called pill billers.

5:01

Dutton added over. He was his name

5:03

of Simon Slick. He bought that in

5:05

the back series and how that food would kick. He

5:08

took him

5:08

down for the hills and chime out in the

5:10

day. He kicked in a party right all around

5:12

swaddlers. He would say he would say,

5:15

whoa.

5:15

The family would take the mike.

5:17

Okay. Thanks a lot. That was a

5:19

mother who's also known as missus

5:21

AKF. Yes, sir. We

5:23

appreciate that expression.

5:25

and

5:25

preachers were invited to sermonize to

5:28

unseen congregants within the station's

5:30

reach.

5:30

And Stuart Epperson, you know, at the

5:32

age of ten, he read the twenty third

5:34

Psalm over the radio. It

5:36

was

5:36

the essence of a community radio

5:40

Home grown and accessible, beloved,

5:42

a little haphazard, and it must have

5:44

left an impression on Stewart Epperson because

5:47

he went on to study broadcasting at

5:49

the evangelical Bob Jones University in

5:52

South Carolina. He married

5:54

his classmate, Nancy Attzinger, and

5:56

soon started a radio business with his brother-in-law,

5:59

and fellow Bob Jones

5:59

Alarm, Edward Atsinger.

6:02

In nineteen seventy three, they started

6:04

a small FM radio station.

6:06

Anne Nelson is an author and professor

6:09

at Columbia University. She wrote

6:11

about Salem in her book Shadow Network,

6:13

media, money, and the secret hub of the

6:15

radical rights. These brothers

6:17

in law acquired a radio station

6:19

in Bakersfield, California. It

6:21

was almost like a a catch of the south

6:24

that was

6:24

detached and sat down north of

6:26

Los Angeles.

6:27

Bakersfield had been a sort of southern

6:30

outpost since the days of the dust bowl

6:32

when farm workers from Oklahoma and

6:34

other southern states fled there.

6:37

But Apperson and Attzinger didn't just want

6:39

to reach other southern transplants. They

6:41

had a vision. to bring the message

6:43

of their evangelical faith to

6:45

new audiences. Soon,

6:48

they bought a second station,

6:49

KBR in Oxnard,

6:51

California, just outside Los Angeles.

6:54

They realized that Christians wanted

6:56

a platform where they could tune in

6:58

and listen to people talk about bib truth

7:00

and their beliefs. And it's there that

7:02

they began developing the formula that they would

7:04

later replicate so successfully. At

7:07

the time, a lot of Christian radio stations

7:09

were small, not for profit

7:11

educational projects, with non commercial

7:13

broadcast licenses. That

7:16

meant they couldn't take money in exchange for

7:18

running specific programming. But

7:20

Eperson and Atsinger did something

7:22

different. They got commercial

7:24

licenses meaning they

7:26

could sell airtime. And they

7:28

found they

7:29

could charge these creatures a

7:31

fairly substantial fee for

7:33

carrying their programs. For Eperson

7:35

and At Singer, it was a win win.

7:38

They gave a platform to preachers and

7:40

with some money coming in, they were able

7:42

to buy more radio stations and turn

7:44

them into pulpit. They were

7:47

not a lone wolf Christian station.

7:49

They were building a network.

7:51

They mortgaged their homes, and it was

7:53

a scary time they had kind of bet everything

7:55

on this. The

7:56

vehicle for their godly mission was

7:58

a radio format known as Christian

8:00

teach and talk.

8:01

From

8:02

the beginning, they really

8:04

emphasized what they called biblical

8:07

value.

8:07

Love your enemies Matthew five forty four.

8:10

Pray for them who despitefully use

8:12

you in person you you that you may be

8:14

the sons of your father who's in there.

8:17

And

8:17

this was promoting these very

8:19

conservative social values,

8:22

anti LGBT. See, this

8:24

is

8:24

why homosexuality spreads. This

8:26

is why it's not a constant from society

8:29

to society. It varies.

8:31

Favorable Christianity

8:33

over other religions.

8:35

The idea of Christian marrying a non Christian is totally

8:38

in disobedient's description. But

8:40

for

8:40

many who grew up with these radio broadcasts,

8:42

they were more than just socially

8:44

conservative messages. My

8:46

father, he was a contractor, so he was in

8:48

the truck all day, and that his

8:50

radio locked into Christian radio all

8:52

day. This is

8:53

John Fia. Today, he's

8:55

a professor of history at Messiah Christian

8:58

University in Pennsylvania. But

9:00

growing up, John was just another kid whose

9:02

family converted to evangelicalism

9:05

and who heard a

9:07

lot of Christian radio.

9:08

There's some way I'd look at this as kind of

9:10

crazy. Right? Like who does

9:12

this? Who cranks you know,

9:14

John MacArthur at

9:16

maximum volume in the middle of a

9:18

construction site or whatever.

9:21

McArthur is a minister who started on

9:23

Salem's Oxnard station in nineteen

9:25

seventy seven. The idea here is if you're

9:27

playing it on eleven, you know, with

9:29

the doors bigger Trump. America

9:31

seems to be losing its Christianity.

9:33

People are hearing it, and that was a

9:35

way of living out of your faith. Right? One

9:37

of the key components of the evangelical

9:39

Christianity evangelism, right,

9:42

sharing one's faith.

9:43

Fia also remembers hearing a show called

9:46

Focus on the family with James

9:48

Dobson. Some homosexuality begins

9:50

by roommates or Dobson was a

9:52

big name and evangelical radio

9:54

still is. He's known for his

9:56

homophobic rhetoric and for preaching

9:58

corporal punishment and that a

9:59

wife's place is in the home. But in

10:02

the Fia household, the broadcast communicated

10:04

another message.

10:05

My father didn't need James

10:08

Dobson to tell him how to

10:10

be an authoritarian figure

10:12

in the family or that people

10:14

must submit to my father, you know,

10:16

to his will in the family. He

10:18

was doing it well before he became

10:20

an evangelical Christian. So

10:22

when James Dobson came along and

10:25

said, hey, yeah, you have authority.

10:27

Right? People must submit to you, but you have to be

10:29

a person of God that people

10:31

want to submit to. You need to be a good

10:33

husband. You need to be a good father. You

10:35

need to show love. That

10:37

changed my father's life.

10:42

Salem's cofounders were out to save

10:45

souls, so the more people they could

10:46

reach, the better. Their big breakthrough

10:48

was when they acquired KKR. was

10:50

a thousand times more powerful than one in

10:53

Oxnard.

11:00

And

11:00

once they had this blue chip Los

11:02

Angeles area station as collateral,

11:04

they could get a lot bigger loans.

11:06

From eighty six to nineteen ninety

11:08

moved into Chicago, bought two stations Portland, one

11:10

in San Diego. They got a strong signal

11:13

in New York City. In

11:14

a handful

11:15

of years, Salem more

11:17

than worlds of their Studios. And

11:20

they started producing their own religious

11:22

shows too. They would

11:24

tape shows at KKLA and they'd

11:26

beam them out to affiliates. offering

11:28

the company a big advantage over

11:30

single operators. This

11:32

way,

11:32

they could use their own programs to

11:35

fill the airtime that they didn't sell to

11:37

preachers rather than paying a

11:39

whole cast of local hosts in every

11:41

city, you know, economies of scale and

11:43

all that. And to drive home

11:45

just how much this business model

11:47

worked for them. Let me tell you about

11:49

that big New

11:50

York City station they bought.

11:52

Don't let us engage all of

11:54

the

11:54

good guys. Years

11:57

after Salem took over WMCA,

11:59

they still didn't have enough listeners to

12:02

rank among the city's top twenty

12:04

four Studios. That's a key

12:06

metric for advertisers, and

12:08

most commercial stations live and

12:10

die on advertising dollars. But

12:12

with money coming in from paying ministries

12:14

and their homemade shows filling

12:16

some gaps, Salem had built

12:18

a media network that wasn't

12:20

all that dependent on a large

12:22

audience and advertisers. With this

12:25

model, they could broadcast their socially

12:27

conservative religious pro programming to a

12:29

niche audience and still

12:31

get bigger, still

12:32

grow their platform,

12:33

still buy more

12:39

But we need

12:39

to back up a little bit because all of

12:42

this growth didn't happen in

12:44

a vacuum. So let me tell you

12:46

another story about a political movement

12:48

that was gathering steam in America

12:50

and how it came to be intertwined.

12:53

with Salem. In

12:55

the early nineteen seventies, while

12:57

Epperson and Atsinger were sowing the

12:59

seeds of their empire in Cal California.

13:02

In Washington DC, a young

13:04

Republican activist named Paul

13:06

Weinreb was at his wit's end. He

13:08

was a transplant from Wisconsin and

13:10

only thirty years old. But for

13:12

the previous decade, he'd been

13:14

trying and by his later account,

13:16

quote, utterly failing, to

13:18

get conservative Christians to vote,

13:21

and to get Republicans to

13:23

welcome them into

13:24

the party. I remember

13:26

calling the Republican Party,

13:28

Sherman, in nineteen sixty

13:30

two when the ruling came down against

13:32

per in the schools. This is why

13:34

Rick reflecting on his life's work in a two

13:36

thousand five interview with Seaspan. And

13:39

I said the party ought to come

13:41

out really against that. And he said,

13:43

oh, why would we wanna mix up the party

13:45

in in that kind of an issue? And

13:47

I said, well, because it's wrong.

13:49

Why Rick believed

13:50

that evangelicals were an

13:53

untapped voting for the right.

13:55

But try as he might, he could

13:57

not find an issue that got

13:59

evangelicals out from the pews and

14:01

to the poles. not the ban on

14:03

prayer in public school or the women's

14:05

rights movement, not the counterculture of

14:07

the nineteen sixties or pornography,

14:09

not even

14:11

abortion. Good evening. In a

14:13

landmark ruling, the Supreme Court

14:15

today, legalized abortions.

14:17

The majority in cases from

14:19

Texas and Georgia said that the decision

14:21

to end the pregnancy during the first

14:23

three months belongs to the

14:25

woman and her doctor, not the

14:27

government.

14:28

According to popular lore, the Rovi

14:31

Wade ruling in nineteen seventy three

14:33

was the point at which morally

14:35

outraged conservative Christians

14:37

finally entered the

14:38

political fray. Anne

14:40

Nelson, but in terms

14:42

of the protestants, and

14:45

even the conservative sect like

14:47

the Southern Baptist, there wasn't

14:49

a huge diversion from

14:51

mainstream public opinion. which

14:53

was that abortion

14:54

should be available under certain

14:56

circumstances. As of

14:58

the nineteen seventies, the

15:00

southern Baptist Convention was

15:02

far

15:02

more liberal in its

15:04

approach to abortion policy

15:06

than it is now. Southern

15:09

Baptist are the country's largest

15:12

evangelical sect. At the time of

15:14

the row ruling, their official

15:16

newspaper said that, quote, religious

15:18

liberty, human equality, and

15:20

justice are advanced by the

15:22

supreme court abortion decision.

15:24

A lot of other evangelicals just

15:27

didn't have much to say on abortion

15:29

before or after a row. They

15:31

saw it as a Catholic But

15:33

in

15:35

the early nineteen seventies, one

15:38

issue was getting a response from

15:40

some evangelical leaders. When

15:42

the

15:42

schools were integrated over the

15:44

objections of

15:45

search.

15:51

They opened what they called

15:53

Christian schools, also known as

15:55

segregation academies, and

15:57

offered the so called

15:59

religious education as an opportunity

16:02

for white students to

16:04

go to school without any

16:06

black students.

16:08

Citing freedom of religion, some

16:11

religious groups created nonprofit tax

16:13

exempt organizations to run

16:15

these aggregation academies. Since

16:18

nineteen seventy, the IRS had been threatening

16:20

and occasionally cracking down on

16:22

several of these

16:22

schools. And among

16:24

the schools, IRS was

16:26

battling with was Stewart

16:28

Eppersen and Edward Adzinger's alma

16:30

mater.

16:31

Bob Jones University, the

16:35

greatest peril that face America's days

16:37

of religious peril. The

16:38

line of demarcations being

16:41

rubbed out between those men

16:43

that they god, god, and

16:45

man that would trim him down.

16:47

Bob Jones was somebody who

16:49

had a whole theology of segregation

16:51

where he said, the bible said, that

16:53

races should not mix. It's

16:55

against god's law. And

16:58

eventually, the federal government said

17:00

Well, if you do not follow

17:02

our integration requirements, you will lose

17:04

your tax exempt status. In

17:07

nineteen seventy six, that's exactly

17:09

what happened. Bob Jones

17:11

University became the latest victory in the

17:13

federal government's integration campaign.

17:15

And some leaders in the evangelical community

17:18

were not happy. Wirerex

17:21

saw this as a winning campaign,

17:23

but he was politically savvy enough

17:26

to know that Iranian cry in

17:28

opposition to integration wasn't a good

17:30

look. So he hitched the anger

17:32

over the school fight to another

17:34

more palatable cause,

17:37

abortion. Once abortion became

17:39

legal and available, the

17:41

numbers rose precipitously. PEOPLE

17:44

LOOKED AT THE NUMBER OF ABORTIONS AND A

17:46

LOT OF

17:46

PEOPLE FOUND A CONCERNING. forty PEOPLE

17:49

GATHERED OUTSIDE A CLINIC TO DEMONSTRATE

17:51

THEIR OPPOSITION TO ABORTION. while

17:53

the majority picketted peacefully outside.

17:56

Catholics, many of whom were long opposed to

17:58

abortion, spent

17:59

the eve of the nineteen seventy eight midterm

18:02

elections leafletting church parking lots in

18:04

three states: Iowa,

18:06

New Hampshire, and my home

18:08

of Minnesota. trying to get voters

18:10

out for anti abortion senate

18:12

candidates

18:12

there, and it worked. From

18:14

the NBC News election center

18:16

in New York, decision seventy

18:19

eight. In a low turnout

18:20

election, those candidates won.

18:22

In Minnesota, an upset there, our

18:24

projection showed Republican David during

18:26

her. So IIrick took a cue from the Catholics

18:29

and tried the cause again with evangelicals.

18:31

He had a few of his

18:33

fellow Conservative Act this

18:35

teamed up with evangelical pastor, Francis

18:38

Shaffer, who was against

18:40

abortion. Shaffer, his son made

18:42

a series of films, and

18:44

showed them in churches and theaters

18:46

across the country starting in nineteen

18:48

seventy nine. We

18:49

have killing voters for whales and

18:52

purposes but it is always open

18:54

season on unborn babies. While

18:56

we can appreciate this protection of

18:58

our environment, do you wonder why

19:01

I asked whatever happened to the human race

19:03

and to our sense of values. Shaffer's

19:06

son

19:06

recalled that by the end of the film tour,

19:09

They were calling for an anti

19:11

abortion takeover

19:12

of the Republican Party.

19:14

But

19:14

though the abortion issue was getting

19:16

more support among evangelicals, it still

19:18

wasn't crystallizing as the issue. In

19:21

August of nineteen eighty, presidential

19:23

hopeful Ronald Reagan gave

19:26

a campaign speech to ten thousand

19:28

evangelicals at the

19:30

legendary reunion arena in Dallas --

19:31

Nevan chairman. --

19:34

often considered first large gathering of the new religious

19:36

right. I know this is a non

19:38

partisan gathering, and

19:40

so I

19:40

know that you can't endorse me

19:43

but I want you to know that I endorse

19:45

you and what you are doing.

19:47

The candidate

19:47

didn't mention abortion at

19:50

all. but he did mention

19:52

the IRS' center of independent

19:55

schools. The year of

19:57

the

19:57

elections, nineteen eighty,

19:59

you

19:59

had a substantial vote in the

20:02

south for Ronald Reagan against

20:04

the Democrat who was an

20:06

actual evangelical Christian, Jimmy

20:09

Carter, In this burgeoning fusion of

20:11

politics and religion, policies

20:13

trumped faith. Reagan, dragon

20:16

was

20:16

given a pass. A Sports announcement,

20:19

a film actor, governor of

20:21

California, on this

20:23

election tonight, we have projected Ronald Reagan

20:25

the winner. Paul Weinreb's

20:27

work had come to fruition, and

20:29

he wanted to be sure

20:32

there was no going back.

20:34

So in nineteen eighty one, he helped

20:37

found the Council for National

20:39

Policy. The Council Financial Policy

20:41

was founded as a very secretive

20:44

organization that networked

20:47

Big Dog political strategists and

20:50

media operators. The New

20:52

York Times has described the

20:54

CMP as, quote, little

20:56

known club of a few hundred of

20:58

the most powerful conservatives in

21:00

the country. In twenty

21:03

sixteen, the southern poverty Law it

21:05

a key venue where mainstream conservatives

21:08

and extremists mix.

21:11

According to leaked rosters, recent membership in

21:13

the CNP and its lobbying arm

21:15

has included the likes of Ginnie

21:18

Thomas Mike Pence, Morton

21:21

Blackwell, who runs the conservative activist

21:23

training hub, the Leadership Institute,

21:25

and Khita Mitchell, a lawyer who worked

21:27

with Trump to try to overturn the twenty

21:30

twenty election results.

21:32

Anne

21:33

Salem co founders, Stuart Ebersen

21:36

and Edward At Singer. How

21:39

did the Salem leadership come to be

21:41

part of this exclusive network, it was

21:44

all thanks to the power of

21:46

radio. When Paul Weinreb

21:48

helped form the Council for National

21:50

Policy, he knew that strategizing

21:52

among elite leaders wouldn't be enough

21:54

they would need megaphones.

21:56

And he knew how compelling

21:58

radio could be. Before he was

22:00

a political strategist, Wyryrick had been

22:02

an on air host and program director

22:05

at a Conoco, Wisconsin Radio

22:07

Studios. and news director at

22:09

a Denver station. Radio

22:12

was to be a crucial channel for

22:14

the new religious right, and a

22:17

way to help the CNP reach

22:19

a very specific

22:22

constituency. You

22:22

could go after older,

22:25

white,

22:25

protestant voters.

22:27

And if you engage them

22:29

through fundamentalist radio broadcasting

22:33

combined, with

22:34

their churches, and

22:35

you mobilize them around certain

22:39

issues, then you could turn them

22:41

into highly motivated, high

22:43

propensity city voters who could

22:45

really make a difference in

22:48

strategic elections. Strategic

22:51

is the key word here, not

22:53

widespread, get out the vote efforts. How many

22:54

of our Christians have

22:57

what I call the Googou Syndrome.

23:00

Good government. They

23:02

want everybody to vote. Byrick

23:04

explained his strategy in a speech

23:06

he gave to evangelical

23:07

leaders in nineteen eighteen eighty. I don't

23:09

want everybody to vote. Elections

23:12

are not won by a majority of people.

23:14

They never happen from the beginning of our

23:16

country, and they are not now. As matter

23:18

of fact, our leverage in the elections quite candidly goes up as

23:21

the voting populace goes

23:23

down. This was the

23:24

goal of the council for

23:26

national policy to reach

23:29

the right people. And

23:31

around this time, a certain fledgling

23:34

Christian radio network was

23:36

doing just that. That's

23:38

coming up after

23:41

the break.

23:53

WWF Studios is supported

23:55

by the midnight miracle.

23:56

Dave Schappel Schack is packed

23:59

with like Kevin Hart and John

23:59

Stewart, and you're invited.

24:01

Listen to the midnight miracle on

24:03

the luminary channel on Apple Podcasts,

24:06

or by downloading the Luminary app. This

24:07

week on Notes From America, meet a

24:09

climate scientist who happens to be an

24:12

evangelical, how her faith and work

24:14

intersect. Plus actor Omar on

24:16

his new novel, which imagines a world that did

24:18

not address the climate crisis in time.

24:20

Listen out wherever you get your podcasts.

24:23

Listener

24:27

supported. WNYC

24:29

Studios.

24:32

This is Divided I'm

24:35

Katie Thorne. When we left

24:37

the Salem story, Eversen

24:39

and Singer had developed a solid

24:41

business model unencumbered by

24:43

audience preferences or the whims of

24:46

advertisers. In the nineteen eighties, Christian

24:48

radio stations were multiplying.

24:50

And as more and more evangelicals

24:53

became immersed in politics, Salem's

24:56

Copa surrounders were no exception. Stewart

24:58

Eppersons ran for congress twice in the

25:00

mid nineteen eighties. Meanwhile,

25:02

the on air content was getting more political

25:05

too, Their programs, though, socially

25:07

conservative from the start, had been

25:09

Christian first politics second.

25:11

But in nineteen

25:13

eighty seven, There was a

25:15

change on the national radio stage

25:17

that let the political stuff run

25:20

wild.

25:20

The fairness

25:23

doctrine. required that you give airtime

25:25

to the opposing views. Reportor Adam

25:27

Peory. Which, of course, limited

25:30

Salem's ability talk about abortion and

25:32

homosexuality and many of the hot button

25:34

issues that they care about. The

25:36

decades old fairness doc had

25:38

required

25:38

stations to have a degree of ideological balance

25:41

in their coverage and to present

25:43

multiple sides of controversial topics,

25:45

We'll talk about it more in later episodes,

25:48

but the fairness doctrine was declared

25:50

dead by Reagan's FCC.

25:52

And once that was lifted, they were able

25:54

to opine on those

25:57

positions all the time. For

25:58

an increasingly

25:59

politicized Salem The end of the fairness

26:02

doctrine was a godsend. Terry

26:04

Fagey,

26:05

who was the manager for KKLA,

26:07

the Big LA Studios. was

26:09

telling me he recognized the power

26:11

that they had after the fair stock during

26:13

was repealed when Martin Scorsese is

26:15

the last temptation Christ hit the theaters in

26:18

nineteen eighty eight. Oh, that. I'm

26:20

sorry for being too bad. So

26:22

Many evangelicals were upset with how

26:24

the film portrayed Jesus. they felt

26:26

he

26:26

wasn't Christlike

26:27

enough.

26:31

KKLA

26:33

spearheaded demonstration at MCA

26:36

Universal Studios. Protesters

26:38

mobbed the entrance waving signs

26:41

Anybody who mocks the

26:43

crucifixion will burn in

26:45

hell. They blocked Route 101

26:47

Tens of thousands of people participated

26:49

in protests and theaters and videos storms nationwide

26:51

and that I was wanting to realize that

26:53

the radio station did have the

26:55

ability to mobilize. In the

26:57

early nineteen nineties, ATSinger

27:00

formed a political action group

27:02

that was among the largest political

27:04

donors in California. In

27:07

nineteen ninety four, Republicans gained

27:09

control of the status assembly for the first

27:11

time in twenty five years

27:13

after two thirds of the candidates he

27:15

backed won their elections.

27:17

And around

27:18

this time, Stewart Eppersen

27:21

was welcomed into the council

27:23

for national policy, followed

27:25

soon by Edward Atsinger.

27:28

and

27:28

not long after, Salem announced

27:30

a major change

27:32

to their mission. that goes on in the world.

27:34

A station that covers current

27:37

news in-depth and then gives you a

27:39

chance to talk about it at all

27:41

times of the day twenty four hours a day. In

27:43

nineteen ninety five, they

27:45

officially expanded. from

27:47

pulpit

27:47

to politics. So

27:49

let me introduce you to that station. The

27:51

all new AM twelve eighty WWTC

27:55

or as we around here are gonna call

27:57

it the Patriot.

27:59

More

27:59

power than a Tomahawk cruise. So

28:02

e n twelve eighty to patriot. Salem

28:04

started building

28:04

conservative talk stations in cities

28:07

where they already had Christian

28:09

teach and talk stations. They'd

28:11

save costs by

28:13

putting everyone in the same office,

28:15

and then they'd promote

28:16

their new conservative talk station

28:18

on their religious station.

28:20

It was a trans formative step for the ever

28:22

more ideological company. And

28:24

it made good business sense too.

28:27

When they surveyed their listenership,

28:29

and asked their listeners who were

28:32

listening to sermons where

28:34

they were turning the dial after. They found them

28:36

turning the dial radio and people like

28:38

Russia limbaugh. Salem's

28:39

answers to Russia limbaugh were

28:41

hosts like Oliver North of

28:44

Iran contra in for me and

28:46

Alan Keyes, a member of Reagan's

28:48

Cabinet. And some names

28:50

you still hear on Salem

28:52

stations

28:52

or could until recent Michael

28:55

Medved. Put more people in jail

28:57

for longer terms, crime

28:59

goes down. Hugh Hewitt. He was

29:01

an assistant else on the White House, and he's

29:03

just conservative. He's not even

29:05

close to being a member of the far right in his

29:07

prayer. You are saying that

29:09

in in many important

29:11

parts of this world, MAPFIOZY

29:13

RUN THE SOCIETY. Reporter: ON Salem'S

29:15

NEWS TalkstATIONS, THE COMPANY

29:17

TOOK A BIG

29:18

TENT APPROACH. Alan Keyes

29:19

was an early black conservative activist,

29:22

and Prager and Medved are Jewish.

29:24

These new hosts

29:25

weren't necessarily spouting theology, but

29:28

they all communicated what the

29:30

founders saw as the Judeo Christian

29:33

Stance. On political issues

29:35

like abortion, gay marriage, and

29:37

eventually the war on

29:39

terrorism. These

29:39

are all hosts who are sort

29:41

of unified in their belief

29:44

that the secularism that has led

29:46

into mainstream America, that we've kind

29:48

of lost something, that we've lost our moral

29:50

compass has sort of ever since put it.

29:52

All the wild on Salem's

29:55

original Christian teach and talk

29:57

Studios, politics were muscling

29:59

in. What

29:59

this is, is right wing talk

30:02

radio dressed in

30:04

the fundamentalist equivalent of

30:06

priestly robes. Anne Nelson,

30:09

Salem describes its self

30:12

as

30:12

a Christian network. Now they

30:14

monopolized the term Christian. There are

30:16

millions and millions of Christians who would not

30:18

agree with their approach. to Christianity.

30:20

On their religious stations and

30:22

their new secular stations, Salem's

30:25

talk show host built an audience that

30:27

would port the kind of work that episode

30:29

an ad singer and the Council

30:31

for National Policy were doing

30:33

behind the scenes. And

30:35

Salem kept buying up frequencies.

30:38

At a

30:38

certain point, they began bumping up

30:40

against FCC laws, limiting the number

30:42

of stations any one company could own

30:45

nationwide in each market. Since the nineteen

30:47

forties, the FCC had laws to ensure that

30:49

no one company could grow too large.

30:51

But then

30:52

in February of nineteen ninety

30:55

six,

30:55

Today, with the stroke of a pin, our

30:57

laws will catch up with our

30:59

future.

30:59

President Clinton signed

31:01

the telecommunications

31:02

act I thank the vast array of interest

31:05

groups who had sometimes

31:07

conflicting concerns about this

31:09

bill who were able to

31:11

work And

31:11

among the many things it did was eliminate the

31:13

cap on the number of stations, a single

31:15

radio chain could own nationwide.

31:18

Salem gave money to lobby for the bill.

31:20

And between nineteen ninety four and

31:22

two thousand five, Salem grew

31:24

from eighteen stations to

31:26

a hundred and three.

31:29

You know what

31:32

happens next, but their radio

31:34

empire secured Salem looked to digit

31:37

media, buying up conservative

31:39

blogs and news sites, eventually

31:41

launching their podcast network, streaming

31:43

service, and production

31:46

All the while, the company's founders

31:48

were rising in the Council for

31:50

National Policy. By the early

31:52

twenty tens, both Stewart Eversen

31:54

and Edward Atsinger were

31:55

in leadership positions. In

31:57

twenty fourteen, Eprisen was president of

31:59

the

31:59

CNP.

32:00

Overseeing members like Kellyanne

32:03

Conway and Steve Bannon. Aneuver

32:05

cruise, according to the most recently

32:07

leaked roster, is Salem

32:09

host, election denier, right

32:12

wing

32:12

conspiracy theorist, Charlie Kirk.

32:18

Four deck ago, Paul Weinreb used

32:20

radio to help Republicans reach a

32:22

new religious audience and change

32:24

the destiny of their party. Today,

32:27

the right wing talk radio ethos

32:29

is inextricable from the

32:30

party's DNA. Thanks,

32:33

in part, to

32:35

say Lum Media.

32:40

Next time on the divided

32:43

dial, seventeen of of nation's

32:45

top twenty most listened to talk

32:47

radio hosts are conservative.

32:49

Only one is progressive.

32:51

And

32:51

yet, on talk radio, there is

32:54

a hard than refrain of victimhood.

32:56

Salem VP, Phil

32:58

Boyse. And Trump Radio is one of the most

33:01

powerful forms communication of the base

33:03

they do want to kill

33:05

us. And when it comes to claims

33:07

about censorship, they're

33:08

not entirely wrong. In

33:10

the century long history of radio in the

33:12

United States, there has been censorship on

33:14

the air. It just hasn't all

33:17

been directed at

33:19

the right. The

33:24

it

33:27

divided dial is written in report

33:29

read by me, Katie Thorny, and

33:31

edited by Katya Rogers. We

33:33

had help from Max Bolton and Sona

33:35

of Achian. Music and sound designers by

33:37

Jared Paul, Jennifer Munson is technical director.

33:39

This series is a production of on the media

33:42

and WNYC studios with

33:44

support from

33:44

the fund for investigative journalism.

33:47

Listen to the

33:47

upcoming episode series wherever you get

33:49

your podcasts

33:50

and follow my work on Instagram

33:52

at its Katie Dorney. Thanks

33:55

for listening.