Salem’s David Santrella Says Going Private Opens Door To Bigger Ambitions.

After years spent navigating the financial pressures weighing on much of the radio industry, Salem Media CEO David Santrella says the company’s sale to WaterStone gives Salem something he believes it has lacked for years.

“It allows us to dream bigger than we’ve been able to dream for the last few years,” Santrella says. In an interview with Inside Radio on Wednesday, he described the transaction as not only ensuring the mission established by Salem founders and brothers-in-law Ed Atsinger and Stuart Epperson more than five decades ago continues, but also serving as a turning point that restores Salem’s ability to pursue new ideas, talent opportunities and longer-term strategic bets.

“Dreaming sometimes requires risk,” Santrella says. “And when you’re in a tougher financial situation, your risk tolerance is reduced greatly.”

Salem has aggressively expanded into digital media in recent years, with its own FAST channel and podcast network. The company has also invested in feature films. While Santrella declined to detail specific future initiatives, he suggests the company is already discussing new talent opportunities and broader cross-platform expansion ideas that may not have been possible without a private ownership structure and mission-aligned investor.

“It allows us to start to think about what this company could look like beyond where it is right now,” Santrella says. He pointed to Salem’s recent partnership with Cumulus Media over conservative commentator Larry O’Connor as an example of the kind of cross-platform talent deals Salem wants to pursue more aggressively going forward.

Colorado-based WaterStone has been involved in Salem since late 2024 with investments that gave it a 49.5% interest in the company. Salem announced Tuesday that WaterStone will acquire the balance of the company in deal that will take Salem private pending approval of shareholders and regulators. WaterStone is a nonprofit, but Salem will continue operating as a for-profit media company.

The move caps off a series of moves that have transformed Salem in recent years, including selling its music stations to K-Love and repaying all its outstanding debt.

“Salem has done some things that are very unique that would be hard for other companies to replicate,” Santrella concedes. But he sees the impact has been more than financial, crediting WaterStone’s involvement for helping Salem formalize its corporate identity around a clearly defined mission.

That statement is now displayed in their Camarillo, CA offices, reading, “Impacting lives and communities by amplifying truth, faith and self-governance through media.”

Where Radio Fits In

Despite Salem’s growing push into digital media, streaming and video, Santrella says radio remains central to the company’s future — and could even become an area for additional investment under private ownership.

“Radio is a huge part of the company,” he says, noting it’s still a significant part of the revenue mix of the company. “We will remain committed to the radio business while we also look at other opportunities.”

That could eventually include upgrading some AM brands onto FM signals in certain markets. Santrella says those conversations have already taken place internally as the broader industry reevaluates station portfolios and ownership structures. But Santrella also cautions that many owners still hold unrealistic valuation expectations tied to radio’s earlier consolidation era, and that means upgrades are unlikely in the near-term.

‘The Next Torch Bearers’

Executives say Salem’s sale to WaterStone was never simply about finding a buyer. Instead, the company’s founders spent years searching for a long-term steward that would preserve the Christian and conservative mission. Santrella describes the transaction as the culmination of years of discussions among Salem’s founding families about succession and long-term ownership.

“For the last decade, that’s been a regular part of the conversation,” Santrella says. While Salem could’ve sold years ago when multiples were much higher, such a money-making move wasn’t considered. “That’s never been the motivation,” Santrella explains. “We were looking for the next torch bearers for the mission of Salem, or for organizations that would take it on and look at it as more than just a financial investment.”

Even as Salem prepares to leave the public markets alongside Cumulus Media, Santrella doesn’t believe the era of publicly-traded radio companies is ending.

“I don’t think one size fits all,” Santrella says. “There’s certainly benefits to being a publicly traded company, and there’s detriments to being a publicly-traded company.”

Instead, he frames Salem’s decision to go private as part of a broader business cycle rather than a permanent shift away from public ownership in radio.

“This is a season where Salem being private makes the most sense,” he says. “Five years or 10 years from now, Salem might become a publicly-traded company again if it’s advantageous to do so.”