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.