WIND-AM Owner Hands Out 5% Paycuts For All Staff

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: Salem spreads out the pain : by Tom Taylor : Thursday, January 29th 2009 : ----------------------------- : : Salem orders 5% pay cuts starting next week – 10% for the top brass. : The memo from Camarillo says there's "the need to meet certain financial requirements that will become effective in March 2009 under our bank credit agreements." That's presumably a step-down in the leverage ratios under Salem's credit agreement. Vice President/Legal and HR and General Counsel Christopher Henderson warns that there's another one of those events coming in March 2010. Salem's already gone through layoffs - and as T-R-I has reported, they smote the corporate level, too. (Ending the too-brief return of COO Eric Halvorson, for instance.) Henderson says the company's already reduced its workforce by 10%. Now comes the measure they didn't want to take - "Effective February 1, every Salem employee, in every market, both full and part time, will receive a 5% pay reduction in base pay only." That excludes bonuses and commissions. Henderson says CEO Ed Atsinger is accepting a 10% pay cut and so is Chairman and co-founder Stu Epperson. (Ed and Stu are brothers-in-law.) But the memo doesn't end on a bleak note -- : Salem's adding some company holidays, to ease the pain. : It's giving employees Good Friday (April 10) and another date TBD as paid holidays for 2009. General Counsel Christopher Henderson says "while we understand this does not offset the pay reductions, senior management would like to give something back to Salem employees as a small token of appreciation for your patience, as we work together through this season." Salem won't be the only radio group faces these kinds of hard choices.

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