KLOVE CEO Mike Novak makes $557,362

For several years I've blogged about KLOVE's finances. KLOVE is classified as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization and is the dominant Christian radio station in America operating "non-commercial" and listener-supported radio stations across the country.

I make no editorial comment about KLOVE's finances and how the organization spends its money. This information is only in the interest of transparency. We're all familiar with the fall and spring KLOVE pledge drives and here's a brief look at where the money goes. KLOVE is run by the non-profit Educational Media Foundation (EMF) that is based in Rocklin, Calif., according to annual Form 990 records filed with the IRS. Educational Media Foundation operates the KLOVE and Air 1 radio stations broadcast across the country and over the internet.

According to records filed with the IRS here's a comparison of the company's finances
Total revenue
2013--$141 million
2014--$155.3 million

Expenses
2013--$81.6 million
2014--$91.1 million

Net Revenue
2013--$59.5 million
2014--$64.2 million

Net Assets
2013--$290 million
2014--$353.5 million

Grants to tax-exempt organizations for Christian evangelism, edification and values
2013--$156,077
2014-- $208,303

Here's the compensation of the top employees, according to the IRS records:
1) Mike Novak, CEO/President/Director: $557,362 (including bonus of $157,500)
2) David Pierce, chief creative officer: $309,726
3) Alan Mason, COO: $299,378
4) Dan Antonelli, VP International: $295,135
5) Kevin Blair, General Counsel/Secretary: $285,317
6) Joe Miller, VP Signal Development/Asst. Treasurer: $272,941
7) Eric Moser, CFO: $259,749
8) Brian Burger, VP of Human Resources: $245,566
9) Randy Rich, VP of Philanthropy: $240,279
10) Brian Gantman, Govt Affairs Director/In-house counsel: $220,046
11) Sam Wallington, VP of Engineering: $213,362
12) David Atkinson, VP of Finance/Treasurer: $211,890
13) Randall Badaeux, Director of Programming: $207,830
14) William Lyons, Principal Data Scientist: $188,4592
15) Chuck Pryor, KLOVE Programming Director: $187,708
16) Scott Smith, Air Talent: $178,104
17) Ed Lenane, Director of Events: $176,687
18) Frank Maranzino, Director of Studio Technology: $176,375
19) Virginia Walker, VP of Listener Services/Asst. Secretary: $163,501
20) Richard Allison, Business Manager: $155,302
21) Stacie Ford, Assoc. General Counsel/Asst. Secretary: $118,506

Total fundraising expenses for KLOVE were $5.9 million.

ShareMedia Services, of Eden Prairie, Minn., was paid $306,773 by EMF for consulting work, which includes "pledge drive coaching," IRS records show. ShareMedia describes itself as the "experts in broadcast fundraising." Gross receipts from pledge drives involving ShareMedia were tabbed at $32 million, records show.

KLOVE Feels The Love: Mike Novak Gets $140,000 Bonus

Raise your hand out there if you listen to KLOVE. That's a lot of hands. Mine was up. In a lot of places in this country KLOVE is the default Christian radio broadcast station, often due to limited options. And certainly when King and Country's "Fix My Eyes" or Chris Tomlin's "Waterfall" starts flooding the van via KLOVE, my 3-year-old son Judah goes all karaoke and starts belting out the lyrics. He's even been known to break out in song in the grocery store, restaurant or other public places. It's pretty cool, I have to admit, to see a 3-year-old so passionate about music, much of which he hears in a vehicle on KLOVE.

That said, here's an insider's peek into KLOVE's finances. I make no editorial comment; this information is only in the interest of transparency. We're all familiar with the fall and spring KLOVE pledge drives and here's a brief look at where the money goes. KLOVE is run by the non-profit Educational Media Foundation (EMF) that is based in Rocklin, Calif., according to annual Form 990 records filed with the IRS. Educational Media Foundation operates the KLOVE and Air 1 radio stations broadcast across the country and over the internet.

According to records filed with the IRS in late July, in 2013 EMF had total revenue of $141 million, an increase over the $133 million of the previous year. EMF had total expenses of $81.6 million, for net revenue of $59.5 million, records show. The company reported net assets of about $290 million. EMF provided grants of $156,077 to tax-exempt organizations that "support and promote Christian evangelism, edification and values," according to the records filed with the IRS.

Here's the compensation of the top employees, according to the IRS records:
1) Mike Novak, CEO/President/Director: $557,669 (including bonus of $140,000)
2) David Pierce, chief creative officer: $297,023
3) Alan Mason, COO: $280,628
4) Eric Moser, CFO: $238,828
5) Kevin Blair, General Counsel/Secretary: $259,144
6) Brian Burger, VP of Human Resources: $231,051
7) David Atkinson, VP of Finance/Treasurer: $208,835
8) Joe Miller, VP Signal Development/Asst. Treasurer: $275,537
9) Dan Antonelli, VP International: $295,135
10) Virginia Walker, VP of Listener Services/Asst. Secretary: $147,451
11) Randy Rich, VP of Philanthropy: $230,854
12) Sam Wallington, VP of Engineering: $206,247
13) Brian Gantman, Govt Affairs Director/In-house counsel: $217,515
14) Chuck Pryor, KLOVE Programming Director: $187,708
15) William Lyons, Principal Data Scientist: $179,702
16) Frank Maranzino, Director of Studio Technology: $176,375
17) Richard Allison, Business Manager: $155,302

Total wage and compensation expenses were $30.2 million, according to the records.  EMF also spent $211,725 on online radio programming in France, records show.

Other expenses included $531,000 to a company operating a call center,  $507,000 to a Washington D.C. law firm for legal work, $441,000 to Covenant Capital Partners for consulting work and $405,000 to a Florida broker for the purchase of a radio station, records show.

ShareMedia Services, of Eden Prairie, Minn., was paid $340,180 by EMF for consulting work, which includes "pledge drive coaching," IRS records show. ShareMedia describes itself as the "experts in broadcast fundraising." Gross receipts from pledge drives involving ShareMedia were tabbed at nearly $34 million, records show.

KLOVE also purchased $109,402 in products from Be One Sportswear, a company based in Sacramento, Calif., that's a Christian-based promotional marketing company. The company is owned by a spouse of one of the EMF officers, according to the records filed with the IRS. EMF also spent $1.9 million on travel.

Guidestar, an online source of financial information on non-profit organizations, has copies of the EMF financial records filed with the IRS. To see the IRS Form 990 records for EMF via Guidestar, go here: KLOVE financial information

One thing to note, EMF gets very high scores from Charity Navigator -- a four-star rating with four stars being the highest score.

Burying Lizards Alive And Getting Rich Quick

                        Lizard/amphibian thought bubble: "Don't bury me alive!"

If someone told you to bury a lizard and you would get rich, would you do it? Perhaps on the surface it sounds silly to you. Or does it?

My day job as a missionary is communications manager for Transformational Education Network, an organization dedicated to bringing Christian education and computer skills training to young adults in Africa and the Caribbean. In that capacity I get emails from around the world and came across one yesterday that got me chuckling. Christie Dasaro, our TEN3 director in Nigeria, wrote about an ongoing "Computer Holiday Adventure" computer training outreach session that is being held at our TEN3 school in Jos, Nigeria. The session has 16 students, some of them touching a computer for the first time, she wrote.

Some good news out of the session is that two of the students gave their lives to Christ and six students rededicated their lives to Christ after a Bible lesson of, "What do you believe and why the Bible?" Christie wrote that she has "never been excited teaching CTO Bible like yesterday. To God alone be the glory."

She relayed one interesting story as the students shared beliefs in their culture. One student said, "If you catch a lizard alive and bury it, after three days you will become wealthy." That sounds patently ridiculous to us in America, eh? Not so fast. We have plenty of strange cultural beliefs: The pot of gold at the end of the rainbow; Santa Claus; The Tooth Fairy (who, by the way, needs an income-generating strategy because the Sabo household has lost an amazing amount of teeth); Affordable health care. Coming from a culture in which a survey several years ago showed nearly 40 percent of lower-income people believed buying lottery tickets was a good wealth-building strategy, we better not judge.

The manager at the local convenience store near my house said she has many customers who spend hundreds of dollars a day on the lottery. I was in there once clutching Seth in one arm and a pop in the other and the dude in line in front of me dropped $600 cash on scratch tickets. I blurted out, "Feeling lucky today?" He looked at me and shrugged. When he left the clerk said he usually spends more. Wow. Just wow.

Christie ended her email about the student's lizard story by writing, "Thank God, the lesson opened his eyes to see the lies of the devil and know the truth." It's a small thing to have this child's eyes opened about a faulty community cultural belief. But in the big picture, through the TEN3 session his eyes are being opened to a much greater truth: the gospel of Jesus Christ.

When I quit my newspaper job in May to work with TEN3, I left the relative security of more than two decades of work as a reporter knowing that in four years of missionary support raising through Serving In Mission, I had built up only about a year's worth of funds. I felt strongly the Lord's leading in becoming a missionary with TEN3, affirmed through much prayer and confirmation in Scripture, and have faith the Lord can supply the funding to continue beyond next summer. My faith isn't in burying lizards alive, or the lottery, or some other scheme, but it's in the God who has provided for me and my large family for the past 20 plus years. We lack nothing and have been blessed tremendously.

One other thing moves me to work with TEN3 and see lives transformed around the world. Our schools are open to anyone of any beliefs, but the gospel is proclaimed unashamedly. In her email, Christie asked for prayer for one of the 16 students, who is Muslim and is hearing in the class about the hope of salvation through Jesus Christ. In a world that seems to be coming unhinged, riven by violence, hopelessness, warfare, disasters and unfathomable turmoil, the only true peace is in Jesus. One of my favorite verses is John 14:27, where Jesus says, "Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid."