Lauren Hafeman
A listening session at the WORT vinyl library, with the WORT board of directors, and a television screen with ZOOM attendees.
Board members, seated around a table, did not respond to comments or questions at a Nov. 19 listening session at WORT.
Meeting Wednesday night in a room holding the community radio station’s vast vinyl record collection, WORT-FM’s board of directors heard heated feedback from volunteers upset at the loss of two longtime staffers and other decisions made without consulting or informing them.
“There should have been four meetings before any of these capricious actions took place,” said JoAnne Powers, a Madison musician and longtime WORT volunteer. “The entire way it’s been done, behind closed doors and in secret, is antithetical to what the entire station stands for.”
The session was the board’s first public meeting since the announcement last week that cuts to staff and operations — including the cancellation of the annual WORTstock festival event — were necessary to deal with a “substantial” budget deficit due, in part, to federal cuts from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
Established 50 years ago, in the aftermath of the Vietnam War, the community radio station is known for its eclectic lineup and internal struggles. In a 2005 Isthmus story on the occasion of WORT’s 30th anniversary, Susan Kepecs wrote, “In the beginning WORT was people’s radio — unpolished, hippie-trippy, sometimes Marxist, often plagued with technical nightmares and shaky finances.”
The station has been operating since 1995 without a general manager, instead run by a staff collective, and that topic was discussed Wednesday, with some attendees expressing caution about entrusting a manager with too much decision-making power and concern about the burden on union employees.
The board announced last week that it was bringing on former news director Molly Stentz as a consultant. Several speakers asked for more clarity on the details of her job description. Stentz is also a member of the Isthmus Community Media board.
About 40 WORT staff, volunteers and listeners joined the meeting in person, with an unknown number logging on to a Zoom stream. Comments were generally critical of board decisions and cited a need for greater transparency and more democratic action surrounding decisions with station-wide impact.
Many speakers expressed dissatisfaction with the board’s private conversations about the station’s budget and layoffs, and felt communication with staff, volunteers and listeners alike came too late.
To the chagrin of some, board members did not respond to comments or questions. An FAQ handed out at the beginning of the meeting stated that the board could not discuss “individual personnel matters or closed-session deliberations.” It also reiterated that “a reduction in staffing was unavoidable in order to stabilize our finances.”
“I’m very disappointed that we’re not going to have some feedback from you all,” said one speaker. “You’re just going to sit up there and look at us.”
Other speakers defended the board’s actions.
“We all have the same desire for this place to grow, to evolve, to have the same opportunity we were given and sometimes that calls for tough decisions,” said Chali Pittman, former news director and board member at the station. “We did not get into this because we want to fire anyone. Nobody wants to fire anyone! No one wants people who are good people to leave. But I also trust that the people who have signed up to do the job of the board, the consultant, the staff, to take a hard look at the numbers and decide what is most and least critical to our operations right now are making the right decisions.”
Others suggested that an “us versus them” mentality was not the goal of the listening session. Former music director Sybil Augustine, one of the staffers who was laid off, noted that she had not been aware of her termination before an announcement on Nov. 7, but that “it’s in the past and we’re moving forward.”
One speaker suggested bringing back WORT’s “State of the Station” broadcast, a show where board members, staffers and volunteers aired candid round-table conversations about the goings-on of WORT.
“I would really encourage everyone to look very carefully at what was actually said here, the concerns that were actually raised, and the very specific suggestions that a number of people have made,” said Brian Standing, host of WORT’s Monday 8 O’Clock Buzz show. “We all want the station to succeed.”
“WORT will survive,” said another speaker.
After the listening session, the board’s regular meeting included the election of Grant Foster, a former Madison alder, as the new president, succeeding Stuart Levitan, who stepped down on Nov. 6. Former board vice president Tanya Graham succeeded Foster as treasurer, and Carlos Dávalos was elected vice president.
[Editor's note: This article was corrected to note that a staff collective has been running the station since 1995.]
