After selling off its suite of Christian AC stations to K-Love Inc. at the end of 2024, Salem Media Group has reported a 10% revenue drop from $237.6 million in 2024 to $212.7 million in 2025.
Salem’s year end report noted a new loss of $34.6 million in 2025 following income of $16.2 million in 2024 with an operating loss of $39.7 million and a $25.2 million impairment charge. Salem noted that the $80 million sale to K-Love inc resulted in a pre-tax gain of $11.1 million and the buyer also entered into a $10 million marketing agreement to promote its stations and events on Salem platforms for 5 years. The company also noted that the $2 million sale of its Honolulu cluster resulted in a pre-tax loss of $4.1 million,
The biggest drop in Salem revenue came from spot advertising. Local spot advertising revenue dropped from $33,173,000 in 2024 to $17,800,000 in 2025. National spot advertising dropped from $11,852,000 to $4,868,000. Network advertising fell from $18,602,000 to $18,082,000. Total Broadcast Advertising Revenue was down from $63,627,000 to $40,750,000. Digital advertising gains from $47.1 million to $54.1 million helped counter a bit of the drops.
Salem also noted total operating expenses rose to $252.4 million from $243 million in 2024 as selling, general and administrative expenses declined slightly year over year, but were offset by restructuring costs and the asset impairment.
In regards to its $25.2 million impairment charge, Salem said, “As a result of the impact of the recent sale of our CCM format radio station, changes in macroeconomic conditions and media industry reforecasts, we performed an interim review of broadcast licenses for impairment at June 30, 2025. We performed an assessment of the amount by which the prior year estimated fair value exceeded the carrying value of the broadcast license and the year to-date market revenues as compared to the forecasted market revenue used in the prior year valuation under the start- up income approach. Based on our review and analysis, we determined that the carrying value of broadcast licenses in eleven of our market clusters were impaired as of the interim testing period ending June 30, 2025. We recorded an impairment charge of $25.2 million to the value of broadcast licenses in Atlanta, Boston, Cleveland, Colorado Springs, Dallas, Detroit, Los Angeles, Miami, Philadelphia, Phoenix, and San Francisco. The impairment charges were driven by decreases in revenue growth rates over those used in the year-end valuation forecasts. We believe that these factors are indicative of trends in the industry as a whole and not unique to our company or operations.”
As of December 31, 2025, Salem reported total assets of $315.5 million, down from $423.1 million a year earlier. Cash and cash equivalents totaled $2.4 million, compared with none reported at the end of 2024.
