Dear Guests, WYPR's March 12 Board Meeting has been rescheduled for April 15 - it will still take place at 3pm. A location will be posted on the website by March 15. Thank you! ~ Alex Alexandra Price Associate Development Director WYPR 2216 N. Charles Street Baltimore, MD 21218 ph. (410) 235-1446 fax (410) 235-1161 www.wypr.org aprice@wypr.org
-Jessica
I really want to get past this and build a new and creative world for us and for you. We will and we are. We’re going to post a new interview in just a few minutes.
I wanted to write a few words about last night, as well.
The gathering last night was amazing. It was a cold snowy night. A night that saw many events across the community cancelled. But in Charles Village, an auditorium was filled with 300 people or so.
The people there represented our community. It was Black, White, Asian, Latino, elders, youth and middle aged, gay and straight. There were truck drivers from Baltimore, school bus drivers from Bel Air, steel workers from Dundalk, university professors from every discipline, lawyers, nurses, doctors, social works, inner city activists, students, school teachers, filmmakers, journalists, artists and artisans. Some were activists who came as an organized group but most were just folks there to speak there mind.
It was inspiring to hear what my listeners and station members had to say. Sure, on one one level it was about me and about the fact that I have been part of people’s lives in this community for the past fifteen years. But all this was and is much larger and more important than any one man or any show on public radio.
This is about community, about building community and a radio show that drew diverse communities together. It is about the future of public radio and what the public means in public radio.
Speakers stood to tell Tony Brandon, Barbara Bozzuto, Andy Bienstock, the management and board of WYPR that the program gave voice to the voiceless in this community. People testified that they had been introduced to voices, people and ideas from our community that they would never run across in their daily lives. One inner city activist, Dante Wilson, said that all the media shows is negative images of Black communities. He said that our program showed the world that there is a different side to the streets of Baltimore and people who were working to make a difference.
School teachers stood up to say that nowhere else did teachers and regular working people have a forum to speak to the public. Jewish-American and Arab-American leaders were there because our show was a place where ideas were non-threateningly shared.
It became clear that the people in that audience felt that the Marc Steiner Show was a place that built community, built bridges between the diversity we live in, and created communication. One thing was very clear; people understand that and want public media to be a place to build community.
The concept of public ownership of the airwaves was foremost in the minds of those who attended last night. The “your” in Your Public Radio is more than just words. When I came up with those call letters, it meant that it was to be a community owned and run station. I believed it, the people who gave hundreds of thousands of dollars to buy the station believed it, and in the ensuing years those who became members of WYPR believed it. I told them to believe it, and the station during its fund drives told them to believe. We were telling them a lie.
Last night the community demanded that the station management and board include them in the process. People believe that listener-members should have seats on the Board of Directors. They should be part of the process of directing our public radio. Some demanded that the board resign or that Tony Brandon and the management resign or that the board should fire the management and start over.
A theme that was constant throughout the night was people demanding that the public mean something in public radio.
Out of this meeting the CAB will write a report to WYPR’s Board of Directors. The meeting is March 12th. You may attend that meeting. You just have to register with WYPR to reserve a seat.
This is about the ownership and future of public radio.
-marc
Hello everyone,
I have a few short reflections after seeing what I wrote last night. I don’t want to fall into the trap of he said/she said quarrel of inconsequential detail. On some levels I have allowed myself to do that.
First, I realized when I spoke of the $750,000 raised that I inadvertently left out that $70 some thousand dollars of that amount was really contributed or in a sense forgiven by Johns Hopkins University. I realized after I sent it in to my blog that I left that line out.
Second, I want to be clear how grateful all of us should be to the original guarantors. Bill Clarke, Jonathan Melnick, Anne and Jane Daniels, Tony Brandon, Charlie Salisbury, Earl and Darielle Linehan, Tom and Barbara Bozzuto and Albert Williams. Without their guarantees we could not have saved the radio station for Baltimore. I just want to be absolutely clear about that.
Finally, the problems boil down to certain things that leadership of the station just doesn’t get.
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This should have been a partnership between guarantors, contributors and members to create a board to oversee the fiscal and fiduciary responsibilities of WYPR
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Martha Rudski, WJHU Marketing Director, came up with the name Your Public Radio because we believed we could create a truly powerful and unique institution that belonged to this community.
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When we first started, the story around NPR was the amazing marriage between this conservative Republican corporate executive and a community activist talk show host known for his progressive leanings coming together to build a community radio station. My belief in the myth hurt us all.
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All this is madness. There was never any concrete reason for it to happen. They keep changing their story as to what led to the end of my show because they are grasping for straws. There is no reason other than a deep personal and political dislike for me from Tony Brandon and a few others. They could not stand what I stood for, or that I was the face and voice of the station. Ray Blank, the station consultant, has said to me more than once that they see you getting all the recognition. They feel they deserve some. I always gave it to them.
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So, all this is for what?
I have nothing left to say unless they come at me or at the public with more specious comments.
See you tonight.
-Marc
In preparation for Wednesday night’s Community Advisory Board meeting, it is time for a little history to set the record straight.
Tony Brandon and Barbara Bozzuto had already been trying to remove me as a force at our station prior to its official founding in February 2002.
In March of 2001, I along with Martha Rudzki, and our attorney, Scott Johnson, formed a non-profit to buy WJHU from Johns Hopkins University.
We urged listeners to contribute to the effort. We raised $750,000. This has become a bone of contention. Tony Brandon claims we raised less than $250,000. While the money itself is unimportant, in light of the effort I led to unite a community to build a new station, its disagreement is emblematic of the problem.
But here’s the reality:
- One person who later became a guarantor pledged $100,000 the day we started our campaign to buy the station.
- In late summer another family introduced to me by Marilyn Powel gave $250,000. They request anonymity.
- Around that time Albert Williams, who became a guarantor, was introduced to me by Marilyn Powel. He gave $50,000.
- Six people (it may be more, I have to check the records) gave $10,000
- Four people contributed $25,000.
- The rest came in contributions from $10 to $5000.
- We have all the records.
Now we come to the station purchase.
Jonathan Melnick, who became a guarantor, said to me that we can never raise all this money. We needed a bank and guarantors for a loan. He offered to become a guarantor.
It was then that I met Tony Brandon, through a mutual friend. He offered his help. Tony and his brother own American General Media, the largest family-owned radio business in America.
Tony brought in Mercantile Bank. They had been involved as the bank of record for many of his business dealings.
He then brought in Charlie Salisbury, one of his business partners, to be a guarantor. So, we had four people (two of his and two I brought in) and the cash I had raised.
Marilyn Powel introduced us to and brought in as guarantors the Daniels family and Albert Williams.
Charlie Salisbury brought in the Linehans and the Bozzutos.
We had our guarantors. It as at that point Tony Brandon came to me to say that Mercantile would not guarantee the loan as long as I was President of the corporation. He had to be President. I went along. I did not want to manage the station; I wanted to build our broadcasting world.
It was then that it all began to unravel. I saw the danger signs.
Tony Brandon said that if he could not run the station by himself he would leave.
Board Chair Charlie Salisbury in our first board meeting looked at me and said,
“Thank you Marc, but we are the guarantors of the bank’s money and we will take it from here.”
I responded that I was the guarantor of the listeners’ money ($750,000 in contributions) and I wasn’t going anywhere.
From the beginning they tried to marginalize my influence and position at the station. I refused to budge. I demanded to be Exec. Vice President for Broadcasting, a member of the board, and a partner in running the station.
They feared their effort would dissolve. So, Barbara Bozzutto brought in Ray Blank. Ray is a noted business consultant. He has saved and helped build many companies. He is a business therapist.
In the press recently, Barbara Bozzutto said that they brought in a coach for me but it did no good. Well, that was a lie. They are talking about Ray Blank. While he has become a mentor for me in recent years, he was brought to WYPR to help Tony and I manage the company together. Tony wanted to do it alone, I insisted on being part of a team. From 2001 through the end of 2004 Ray met with me and Tony every Friday morning so we could come to management decisions.
The gulf between us was wide.
The make up of the board became a divide. I proposed that some of the $25,000, $10,000, $5,000, $1000, and donors of lesser amounts be made members of the board. I also suggested that members elect people from that community to be represented on the board. That was not accepted. The board became made up primarily of the wealthiest members of part of the community. There are many good people on that board; however, a public radio board needs a balance. We need all sectors of our community represented. It would create a dynamic synergy. Either they thought it would give too much power to me or their conception of a board is people like themselves.
Tony Brandon and Charlie Salisbury insisted that I fire Sunni Khalid as News Director. First, Tony and some board members fought my effort to raise money to start a news department. By that time we had divided up responsibilities. It was my bailiwick so they had no choice, as I had little choice when I disagreed with his management decisions.
I raised over $300,000 to launch the News Department, mostly from the Open Society Institute but also from Town Creek and Goldsecker. The first person I called was Sunni Khalid to be News Director. Then I called Fraser Smith to convince him to come over to us.
They wanted to fire Sunni because he and seven other African-American employees were suing NPR for racial discrimination. He had been black-balled by the industry. I hired him because of his reputation for ethical journalism and because he would build a multi-cultural team that reflected our community.
They asked if my loyalty was to the Chairman of the Board or to Sunni. I told them it was to Sunni and justice. They had to fire me first. Sunni stayed. You see the result. WYPR has one of the best local news departments in the country.
Tony even tried to get me to fire Andy Bienstock. I stood up for him. Things do get convoluted.
Ray Blank witnessed all this and more.
OK, I could go on ad nauseum but let me stop and jump to the nitty gritty of 2004.
2004
We are now three years into the new station and my weekly marathon management session with Tony Brandon and Ray Blank.
Baltimore Magazine’s Best in Baltimore issue came out. In it was a small piece that said “Most Unlikely Media Mogul …. Marc Steiner.” I thought it was hilarious, as did Valerie.
But the next day I go in to see Tony, who slides the piece across the table at me. I quipped how funny it was. He said ‘It was not funny but an outrage.’ He accused me of planting it in Baltimore Magazine. He said it would chase off our biggest corporate and banking underwriters. He wanted me to write a letter to the magazine disavowing the mantle. He said that he and the guarantors deserved recognition, but the only one who gets is me.
Then Barbara Bozzutto said that the station needed a second voice. Someone like Armstrong Williams, the Black conservative talk show host.
She wrote a version of the history of the station that started to write me out of our history. She insisted that there could only be that public line about the station. I refused to sign on to that fabrication.
So, they wanted a “Second Voice.” I began a three month research project that interviewed twenty sister NPR stations who had local programming, and studied the results of our focus group. I came back with a long report suggesting we need an Arts and Culture program. I had production plans in the report. It became Maryland Morning.
I gave Tony the report, but it never got to the board. I was told I could not oversee the development of the new show, because it would be in competition with me. Andy Bienstock would over see it. The unraveling came faster now.
- Tony began lobbying the board that I was a loose cannon, bad manager and a cowboy.
- I put a grant in for our Vietnam Documentary.
- In spite of signing off on it, Tony tells the board it was my cowboy actions. This grant, he says then, has nothing to do with the agenda of the station.
2005
Just two weeks before my departure to Vietnam, Tony sends me an e-mail saying he is vacating the position of Vice President and I have a week to respond.
I reject that, force him to back off, and go to Vietnam.
He says I must have a response by July 15th.
When we get back from Vietnam, an intense battle erupts all summer long over the issue.
The board is convinced that I need to step down so I can pursue my work.
Myth becomes fact. People are convinced this is being done in my and the station’s best interests.
I could either have made this a public fight, which could have destroyed the station, or have negotiated a contract to my liking, so I could focus on my radio and community work.
I chose the latter.
But it did not end there.
- Tony Brandon and Barbara Bozzutto could not stand it that I was the voice and the face of the station.
- Tony kept on about how my shows insulted certain underwriters.
- Andy Bienstock became head of programming and the Vice President.
- My 7 PM repeat was taken off the air.
- My show became promoted less and less on our airwaves.
- There was constant pressure about my agenda not being the station’s agenda.
2006
It is our fifth anniversary year.
- Station spends $20,000 on a new PR firm that writes me out of station history.A station marketing brochure is published which starts with (and I paraphrase) ”several WJHU employees attempted to purchase the station but there no momentum until Tony Brandon came along.”
- 5th anniversary party held. I am not allowed to speak or even be mentioned in the program. Employees are called on the carpet for praising me at the event and allowing me to speak. They are told they cannot play to Marc’s agenda. There are two agendas, they say, Marc’s and the stations.
2008
- So, it went on like this until Thursday January 31st when Ray Blank delivered the message that Tony Brandon and Barbara Bozzutto wanted an amicable separation.
- The next morning Tony delivers a letter of agreement I must sign if I want to get back on the air until May 29th.
- That afternoon they pull the agreement and cancel my show.
Never a word as to why
Except
To the news about ratings (proven bogus), not being a team player (despite my cooperation with the news department and others at the station, as well as the money I helped bring to WYPR not just when it was founded, but through grants and fund drives throughout the past six years) and on and on and on…
That the real reasons both personal and political are clear.
See you Wednesday,
marc
-Marc
First, thanks so much for all the support. In my next post I will respond directly to the thoughts and ideas you all have shared.
I don’t know if you all heard Maryland Morning with Sheilah Kast today. They interviewed me and then they spoke with Tony Brandon, who is president of the station and who led the effort to get of me. Quickly, I want set the record straight on one thing that he said which was a bald-faced lie.
He has constantly attempted diminish what I and our listeners did six years ago in raising funds to purchase what was then WJHU. He said on the air that we raised only 5% of the $5 million to purchase the station. I have all the records, and the old bank statements. We raised close to $750,000 after I send an e-mail asking listeners to support our effort to buy the station. $400,000 of that came in huge contributions of six figure. Four people gave $25,000 and numbers more $15, $10 and $5 thousand dollar contributions. Hundreds more gave everything from$5.00 to $1000.00. None of them (those who gave $25 thousand and less) were ever acknowledged or thanked by the station.
At any rate, in many ways this is beside the point. The money is not important. It is more important to them than to me. But it is important that the efforts of the listeners and early supporters not be diminished.
What is important is the future of public radio. What is important is that this is about integrity of public radio. It is about the corporatization of WYPR and of public radio.
When I raised the money from listeners I said I would return every dime to them if we did not buy the station. You trusted me. I met some people, like Tony Brandon, who I thought would be partners to build our community station. Instead it was hijacked.
There is a history here that I will relate to all of you over the next few days. Right now I have to go off to a lunch meeting so I can continue to ensure coverage of our world in print, audio and video on our blog and the Center for Emerging Media website.
So, I will share with you all our future plans, and my perspective on the history of the past six years at WYPR very soon.
Thank you all so much. I will back at you a bit after lunch and for the next few days.
Take care.. and thanks
Marc