The owners of KSLM Radio left to right: Amanda Smith, Jaci Smith, Katie Wilson, Cynthia Ramirez.
KSLM Radio is a daily radio station located in Salem. The station, which is a family owned business, was recently passed down in January to four sisters: general manager Jaci Smith, office manager and traffic director Katie Wilson, director of sales Cynthia Ramirez and on-air personality Amanda Smith.
However, the sisters worked behind the scenes at KSLM for years before taking over, which is where they got part of their experience.
The focus of KSLM and the segments talked about have changed a lot over the years. According to Jaci, it used to be a Christian radio station then started to switch to other religions. It then changed during Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.
“We changed the format to political news talk so that we could show our support for a Republican president,” Jaci said.
KSLM now focuses mostly on being a conservative news talk station. They also cover religion, family and lifestyle segments.
Although KSLM has a clear political stance, they welcome anyone to be a guest on the radio and to share their views or information about their small business.
“There’s nobody that we would say that they couldn’t be on. Honestly, we’re very much about hearing different perspectives,” Jaci said.
Jaci mentioned that she thinks people often have the same goal but sometimes disagree in how to reach that goal. Due to that, Jaci and her sisters are very open to other political stances and viewpoints in the community.
As a small business, the sisters are currently trying to focus on being more involved in the community and to help support other small businesses.
“The events are really our main focus right now and getting out there. Now that COVID has kind of died down a little bit and people are having events more often, we really want to be out there and broadcast who we are by putting a face to the radio station,” Wilson said.
KSLM is looking to move locations and rebrand in the near future. They are currently looking to move to downtown Salem, however no decision has been made yet.
“We’ve changed a lot about the station based on what the community has asked for and we will continue taking that feedback and trying to meet them where they are at,” Jaci said.
KSLM’s schedule and additional information can be found on their website at https://www.kslm.news/