A private, nonprofit organization manages KEXP, but it is licensed as a public station and is owned by a public institution, which has budgetary authority. Is the University of Washington fulfilling its obligation for transparency? The station will not release precise financial details of the KXOT deal, citing a confidentiality agreement with PRC. Station insiders have felt that even they can't get adequate information. After he was laid off, former Finance Director Grothaus said in an e-mail to Mara, "You and the board have operated largely in secrecy, leaving me with little guidance on how to manage the station's financial crisis." Some at the station wondered if Grothaus and Rubin, both key and well-respected managers on the financial side, were laid off because they had been vocal about the need for transparency. Mara and board Chair Johnson say that is not true but add that they cannot discuss personnel issues.
"We're trying to get more and more communication," says governing board member Kristi Dooley, CEO of the Experience Music Project. She says she has sat in on staff meetings to take questions and provide information. "To say that we do not have transparency is completely inaccurate," Dooley says.
Ron Wurzer
Details
KEXP
- 90.3 FM in Seattle.
- 91.7 FM in Tacoma through December.
- www.kexp.org on the Web.
- Licensee and owner: University of Washington.
- Operator: Friends of KEXP, a nonprofit.
- Governing Board: Ron Johnson, vice president of computing and communications, University of Washington; Louis Fox, vice provost for educational partnerships and learning technologies, University of Washington; Bob Santelli, director of programs, Experience Music Project; Kristy Dooley, CEO, Experience Music Project. (A seat for a public board member has never been filled.)
- Advisory Council: Diane Andolsek (vice president), principal of Weatherhead Experience Design Group and formerly of EMP; Scott Bell, managing partner, Caincross & Hempelmann; Tim Bierman, president, Pearl Jam Fan Club; Charles R. Cross, author; Karen Donohue, major gifts director, King County United Way; Duncan Haas, Phoebe Haas Charitable Trust; Bob Moore, co-president, Publicis West; Jonathan Moore (treasurer), teacher and performer; Oscar Mraz, director of finance, Fluent Communications; Peter Nordstrom (president), president, Nordstrom Full-line Stores; Jonathan Poneman, co-founder, Sub Pop Records; Loren Schwartz (secretary), director of programming, ClassMates.com; Richard Tait, co-founder, Cranium Inc.
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Many governing board meetings, however, have been closed to the public. Johnson, the chair, says that's because they have concerned personnel and other confidential matters; other meetings on nonconfidential matters would be open. Mara says simply, "We're a private nonprofit. We're not required to have public meetings."
KUOW's station manager, Wayne Roth, who once had oversight over KCMU and reluctantly let it go, has another point of view. He thinks public stations should have "open records and open meetings." He reflects on public radio and TV stations that ran into trouble under insular leadership, including KCTS-TV in Seattle, whose finances recently imploded. "It used to drive me crazy that you never knew when Channel 9 was holding its board meetings," Roth says. "When one accepts individual donations, there's a transparency that's just owed. I don't think it's optional."
There is a built-in way of opening up KEXP's governing board beyond UW and EMP: the board's fifth seat, which has never been filled and is designated as a "public seat." Board members say they have tried to fill it but have been unable to get the kind of person they want—someone of a national caliber who has experience in the music business.
"Where the music matters": KEXP's slogan.
(Ron Wurzer) |
In the meantime, they have put off at least one person who has actively sought it. John Goodfellow, a real-estate developer who is a partner in the Russian-style spa Banya 5 and an avid listener of the station since the 1980s, stumbled across mention of the open public seat on KEXP's Web site. "That kind of indicated they are looking for someone to fill it." In the early summer, he went to lunch with governing board member Bob Santelli, program director at EMP, then met with Mara and submitted a formal letter expressing his interest in the seat. "They never really responded to me in any way that felt good," Goodfellow says. He followed up by phone and e-mail but has yet to receive an answer.
"What does being a member mean?" Goodfellow asks, referring to the term for people who donate money to the station. "It kind of implies we're included in the process." But he doesn't believe that's the case. He's also confused by the structure of the station. What belongs to EMP, what belongs to the university, what belongs to the public?
In fact, EMP does not own the station in any way, although executives of Paul Allen's project will continue to sit on the board after his financial contribution has ended. KEXP belongs unequivocally to the university.
In considering recent events, board member Dooley stresses that the station is a "young organization transitioning into a more mature organization." In other words, it's going through growing pains. Now that the weight of KXOT has been lifted, KEXP is likely to continue growing. As it does, it will have to answer not only the concerns of staffers but those of members like Goodfellow, people who want the management of the station to be as good as the music.
nshapiro@seattleweekly.com
