Salem Media Group is revising its syndicated Conservative Talk lineup as its Salem Radio Network will debut “America First with Sebastian Gorka” starting January 1, 2019 in the 3-6pm eastern/12-3pm pacific timeslot.
Previously one of Donald Trump’s advisors, Gorka currently serves as Fox News Channel’s National Security Strategist guesting regularly on that network. While Medved will leave the national lineup offered by Salem, he will continue to host his show locally in Seattle where it is based at Bonneville Conservative Talk “770 The Truth” KTTH and plans on “making it available to our devoted listeners in an exciting new format”.
Salem Media Group announced today that Salem Radio Network is launching a new talk show hosted by Dr. Sebastian Gorka. The show—“America First with Sebastian Gorka”—will debut January 1, 2019 and will air daily in the 3pm to 6pm ET daypart on the SRN platform, replacing the Michael Medved show.
“I couldn’t be more pleased to have talent like Sebastian Gorka joining the Salem lineup,” said Salem Media Group’s CEO Edward Atsinger. “He’s a perfect fit. Brilliant, insightful, educated and uniquely experienced. A great addition to the best faculty in Talk Radio.”
Michael Medved commented, “I feel grateful for the more than 21 years I’ve worked with Salem Media Group, and I wish continued success to my friends and colleagues at the network. Together with my team of producers here in Seattle, we’ll be continuing our daily broadcast with no interruption, making it available to our devoted listeners in an exciting new format. We’ll also move forward with our emphasis on history programs and commentary to encourage public appreciation of the real blessings of this amazing country. Stay tuned.”
Gorka is Fox News Channel’s National Security Strategist and is a regular guest on Hannity and the FOX Business Network. He writes for “The Hill” and is the nationally bestselling author of Why We Fight: Defeating America’s Enemies—With No Apologies (Regnery) and Defeating Jihad: The Winnable War (Regnery). Gorka was an advisor to candidate Donald Trump and served on the staff of the White House in 2017 as Deputy Assistant to the President for Strategy.
“Radio has always been my first love, since I listened to talk radio late at night on a transistor radio as a child,” said Gorka. “America is finally recovering its rightful place as the shining city on a hill after 8 years of liberal self-loathing.” Gorka added, “Salem’s broadcasts are essential to that recovery and I am honored to join Salem’s team, the greatest lineup in talk radio with true patriots like Prager, Gallagher, Hewitt, Elder, and Metaxas.”
“There is a culture war going on in this country, and Dr. Gorka is uniquely qualified to take this fight to talk radio,” said Salem Radio Network Senior Vice President, Phil Boyce. “His program will deal with the hot breaking news stories of each day, and help listeners understand what to make of it.”
Gorka has a unique story. His father was imprisoned in communist Hungary, because he was a freedom fighter against Communism. He was sentenced to life in prison for his views and escaped to the United Kingdom. He escaped with a young woman whom he would later marry, and they became Gorka’s mother and father. Gorka was raised in London and was groomed on London talk radio from an early age. He obtained his doctorate in Political Science from Corvinus University in Budapest in 2010, was a fellow at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, served as Associate Dean at National Defense University, and has also taught at Georgetown University.
“The Listener feedback we receive each time Dr. Gorka fills in for one of our Network hosts is overwhelming,” added Salem Broadcast Division President David Santrella. “I think Dr. Gorka is the right person at the right time and the Salem Radio Network is definitely the right place.”
homerjay 
Nathan Obral 
Marshall 
Kill off the one marginally sane show on the network. Sigh.
Yeah, Joe Walsh is now the closest thing to a host on there who isn’t totally betrothed to Trump.
I agree completely. That’s what you get for being too thoughtful, too reflective, too cerebral. Sadly, come January I’ll have to turn off my local radio station and turn on my iPhone to listen to my favorite talker.
Salem’s logo in MSP is “Intelligent Radio.” But, Dennis Prager is really the last show that can be called such. (As a daily listener, I’ve noticed he has become more of a Trump sycophant than he was a year ago, so his survival instincts have kicked in.)
My first act at my first N/T PD gig was to add Michael Medved as the station’s first syndicated show (St. Cloud, small market 186-a blast to host a show in!)
I think I understand Salem’s rationale. If you don’t buy the book and rarely rate in any market, one option is to move as far to the right as possible. Whether far right or far left, those listeners are the hyper-active “red meat” lovers who can sustain a low budget radio station with the revenue to survive.
(On a lighter note, I once had a friend refer to stations with wall to wall syndication as “closet radio stations.” The idea being that that an all syndicated station simply needed a PC in a closet to operate! Cracked me up, because I have worked for clusters that was that EXACTLY the case!)
History’s judgement on the Trump Administration is yet to be written. The decision by many talkers to so fully embrace Donald Trump is unique. The Fairness Doctrine hasn’t been gone that long (and I don’t want it back) and modern one side opinion talk is only a few decades old. Only hindsight will reveal whether so fully embracing a single person–the very definition of populism–was the right choice.
Gorka won’t draw anything beyond hash marks on any affiliate he’s on, and there will be inevitable advertiser boycotts because of Gorka’s (very) public viewpoints, but that’s not even the point. Since the beginning, Salem has operated their conservatalkers to spread ideology, ratings don’t matter one bit. It was true in 2004, it is true today.