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Pledge this
Note: Story updated. Considerably.
It’s one thing to hear rumors of tyrannical management at places like KWMU - stories like that seem a dime-a-dozen, especially in the not-for-profit world, and generally come down to one person’s account versus another - but Chad Garrison’s RFT story on Patty Wente’s tenure as general manager at the University of Missouri-St. Louis-based NPR member station sets my teeth on edge. Wente may not be the kind of person I’d care to work for, but the article’s account of deceptive “challenge grant” fundraising on her watch - blandly waved away by a university administration whose proper job is one of oversight - should infuriate anyone with a KWMU membership card.
I used to be a member, and KWMU hasn’t forgotten. A missive begging for my hard-earned quatloos appears regularly in my mailbox, but the station may as well remove me from its mailing list and save itself the postage. As long as Wente is affiliated with KWMU, and until the station and the university demonstrate a more honest approach to fundraising, I won’t send them one thin liberal dime.
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Thank you Phil for your pledge to not give money to KWMU.
I am the person who ‘tipped’ the University off about the fraudulent fund drive- only to find out- they already knew about it.
UMSL only did something about it because of the Missouri Statute that clearly states that what the station was doing was fraud. But as far as I can tell- the deceptive practices are still in place.
A class action lawsuit would be nice for all the members who gave money under false pretenses.
This is just the tip of the iceberg at the station re: Wente’s “relationship” with UMSL.
This is the damning thing about it, of course: broken trust between the station and its listeners. Given the lack of transparency and the apparently documented reluctance to change a deceptive practice (and the refusal to even own up to having misled listeners) why would anyone take future fundraising efforts at face value?
It will take a long while before that trust is restored. Just how long depends how KWMU and UMSL respond to the findings of the probe.
Laurie, thanks much for dropping by to comment. I welcome any additional insights you may have on the situation.
[...] expect to see some lively commentary on this at Concerned Listeners of KWMU, which linked to my earlier, somewhat caustic reaction to Garrison’s “Radio Active” [...]
20 quatloos that all three are untrainable.
5,000 quatloos that the newcomers
will have to be destroyed!
sorry, couldn’t resist…
and that is a very handsome cat you have there…
+1 for the Star Trek reference, Brian! And Baxter says thank you. :-D
Every public station in the country uses the “challenge grant” vehicle to up the ante for their on air fundraising.
The mistake Patty made was not asking the underwriters for permission to use their names for the challenge grants.
If you really believe that people call up and say, “Why, I challenge everyone in towns that starts with P, and it will be worth an extra ten dollars per pledge” then you must also believe that martians did indeed invade grover’s corner new jersey and Santa Clause is picked up by the NORAD radars every Xmas.
No one will rise to Patty’s defense, though, because she’s an abrasive loud mouthed bully.
But the pompous “why, that’s an outrage!!” reaction to something no more harmful than challenge grants during a fundraiser is probably coming from people who hate to listen to on air fundraisers, anyway.
KWMU is built on an indian burial ground.. that’s why there’s been only two general managers in thirty years, and both came to crashing ends.
Get over yourself, dude.
Amazingly enough, the attorneys for the university system and the auditors from PriceWaterhouse seem to think otherwise. They should get over themselves.
the self righteousness of the so called “alternative” community” is always entertaining.
I bet the auditors are after something else, not the “challenge grants.” I bet there’s whole huge piles of money problems that don’t really include the “challenge grant” situation. You could do some reporting and find out, but why? It’s more fun to take part in the all american pile on rather than look into things and finding facts.
Don’t get me wrong. Patty Wente is a creep, and she deserves what she gets. I’m one of the ones she disappeared during her tenure. It was like being in the old Soviet Union, being led quietly out the door and down the hill.
But KDHX is run with exactly the same sort of management: creepy, insular, and in bed with all sorts of criminal types, but I bet you love your Vintage Vinyl music too much to look into their cooked books.
Oh well… another mediocre day in St. Louis, most mediocre of all midwestern cities.
Devastating insight. I applaud you, sir.
Yes, “I bet” there are other issues involved as well. There. That’s as much actual content as you offered, only with less masturbation. Saves time. And tissues.
zzzzzzzzzzzzz
zzzzzzzzzzzzzz
oh oh… who woke me up? Certainly not this boring blog.
speaking of tissues, how many do you use when you’re writing this page? You, sir, are the most important person in St. Louis, the most important of cities, and I congratulate you for your blazing journalism.
back to sleep now.
I’m going to do you a favor, chief. About the time Wente moved to St. Louis, she was a member of the NPR board. Double Helix was trying to get CPB accredidation for KDHX. That would pave the way for funding a facilities upgrade, training, etc.
There are certain criteria that must be in place before the CPB approves accredidation. Five full time employees, funding requirements all ready in place, two functioning studios that can be used both as air studios and production studios. Types of equipment, EEO requirements, etc.
Patti Wente acted as the site inspector. She passed Double Helix and KDHX, even though they didn’t have the facilities up to standard, and they didn’t actually have five full time employees.. one of them was a volunteer receptionist provided by a senior citizen group in the city.
Wente’s friend and former colleague from Washington was Dave Taylor, who was at the time the station manager. His girlfriend Pat Watkins was the Double Helix CEO. Wente winked and ignored the shortfall. Double Helix then accepted CPB money, and used it in ways that weren’t allowed under the rules.
The current Double Helix board continues to operate in this fashion, under the ham fisted management of Patti Wente Junior.
Look into that, bub. Keep following the money trail. Say thank you when you figure out the real story.
I do not believe that Mr. Barron has professed to be an expert on KWMU or the machinations of KWMU/KDHX/CPB.
He seems to me to be someone shining a spotlight on the goings-on at the station. Providing yet another source of information for the decades-old problems at KWMU.
The more sources the public has, the better…. I don’t see the point in taking blog comments personally -I never do.
Brian, our intrepid troll “Diego” seems to think that whining anonymously at the RFT and posting third-rate bluster here actually amounts to anything. Sad, really. Also hilarious!
Note to “Diego”: Stop hiding behind fake names, build your own platform, and make your case - if you can. Save your future rants for that, because you’re done here.
A little door prize for you on the way out: insults and arrogance are lousy icebreakers when you’re trying to persuade someone. Look into that…bub.
well spoken, sir…
I posted some (informed) comments on the ‘Concerned Listeners of KWMU’ and another blog site and got flamed by someone at CLOK -most likely a disgruntled person at the station or one of their ilk-
Someone with an over-inflated sense of my influence at KWMU responded by ranting and calling me names; I’ve always thought it strange that a reasoned person would resort to name-calling, why not engage one on the substance of the comments in question?
Then I realized that when statements are true, the last thing to do is engage someone on them… thereby drawing attention to them.
Sometimes emotions allow us to do the things that further reasoning would prevent…
An administrator affiliated with the CLOK blog gave their comments the respect they deserved –they were removed.
In the interests of disclosure, I am a former employee of KWMU.
Thanks for the bandwidth, Phillip.
Thank you, Brian, for both the disclosure and the comment overall.
I haven’t been to CLOK in a while and haven’t seen the comments. I’ll certainly take your word on the abusive commenter, and assume this person was anonymous or at least pseudonymous. The things people let themselves say on the web because nobody knows who they really are - it’s incredible.
I think your take on why such people take the ad hominem route is dead on.