In January 2022, Dave Santrella became the chief executive officer after serving 12 years as the president of Broadcast Media for Salem Media Group. Salem is a publicly traded company (SALM) specializing in Christian and content with over 1,400 employees and 3,500 affiliates in 30 markets.
Under Santrella's leadership, Salem has launched digital platform Salem Surround, which has been a powerful revenue growth engine for the company and has dramatically increased Salem's digital abilities and footprint to help their clients. Salem Podcast Network, SalemNOW and the Salem News Channel have also been launched under his leadership.
Throughout his nearly 40-year career in the radio broadcast communications industry, Santrella has provided leadership in promotions, marketing, sales and management. A Chicago native, he worked for NBC's locally owned radio station WMAQ for over 12 years and then for CBS's WBBM for over 8 years.
In 2001, Santrella wanted to use his talents and abilities in a more significant way and joined Salem to manage the Chicago market. He progressed steadily through the Salem ranks, managing both Chicago and Milwaukee assets for Salem and shortly thereafter was promoted to vice president, Operations. He served in that role for just 14 months before being promoted in 2010 to the president of Salem’s radio division and later to president of Broadcast Media, overseeing all local and national business for Salem’s broadcast division.
Due to his depth of expertise in the industry, Santrella collaborates with many industry organizations. From June 2021 until June 2023, he served as the joint board chair for NAB and also served as Radio board chair prior to that. Since terming out as joint board chair, Santrella now sits on the board of the NAB Leadership Foundation. He is also a member of the President's Council and an executive committee member for National Religious Broadcasters (NRB).
He has been featured in Radio Ink’s “The 40 Most Powerful People in Radio” for the last four consecutive years.
Santrella and his wife, Barb, have four adult children and have been married for almost 40 years. They reside in Southern California.
