[Kzyxtalk] Some NPR salaries

Fri Feb 20 04:09:37 PST 2015

Dear KZYX folks,

I didn't find any comparison of commercial to public radio, yet, but  I was more than a little surprised at the salaries of NPR execs and on-air personalities. No wonder we pay so much for their programs... 

See http://www.economicpopulist.org/content/beggar-wears-prada-or-why-i-stopped-giving-public-radio-5558

It's a long interesting article. Here's a comment about one of NPR top execs, whose base salary is $450,000:

> Despite chronic budget deficits, onetime NPR CEO Vivian Schiller, whose initial base salary was $450,000, received a bonus of $112,500 in May 2010, about 17 months after she was hired, according to the Washington Post. She was characterized as being very likable, but so are we, and we don't ask people to give us hundreds of thousands of dollars for it.  The nonprofit watchdog group Charity Navigator lists her compensation for FY 2011, the most recent year for which IRS data are available,  at nearly $573,000, before she was ousted after a series of gaffes (she currently works at NBC, and will leave at the end of the year to become "head of news" at Twitter).

The NPR execs salaries are out of sight, but what about the salaries of NPR on-air folks:

>     Earlier this year, the Newsbusters and Daily Finance web sites listed some of the most recent NPR salary information available (2010-2011) for the hothouse flowers known as the "talent." The data, from IRS 99 forms, included:
>     Robert Siegel, cohost of “All Things Considered,”  $375,652;    
>     Melissa Block, cohost of "All Things Considered," $299,229
>     Steve Inskeep, co-host of NPR’s “Morning Edition,”  $373,097; 
> Renee Montagne, co-host of NPR’s “Morning Edition,” $405,140;
>     Scott Simon, "Weekend Edition" Saturday host, $364,465; 
>     Terry Gross, host of WHYY’s “Fresh Air,” $256,611.
>     (Now that "Morning Edition" has three anchors, with the addition of David Greene, it must cost nearly a million dollars annually just for the big stars, not to mention the behind-the-scenes workhorses. I guess the same must be true for "All Things Considered," which has three now as well. I recently heard Siegel do the whole show all by himself, and he did just fine!)
On Feb 20, 2015, at 3:12 AM, King Collins wrote:

> A quick look on the web indicates that the median salary for General Managers  is $96K; for engineers, $80K. --king
> 
> On Feb 19, 2015, at 10:47 PM, Douglas wrote:
> 
>> Marco (and you,D.McKenty) Can you give us an idea of what the pay rate is for Station Manager and Program Director in the FM broadcasting industry?  Is there a difference between the pay scale of commercial vs public stations?  What are the parameters?
>> Thanks - Douglas
>> 
>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: Marco McClean <memo at mcn.org>
>>> Sent: Feb 19, 2015 2:53 PM
>>> To: MCPB Board <BOD at kzyx.org>
>>> Cc: scamp1104 at comcast.net, kzyxtalk at lists.mcn.org, discussion at lists.mcn.org
>>> Subject: [MCN-Discussion]- Regarding the opaque board and bad management of	KZYX.
>>> 
>>> Okay, whew.
>>> 
>>> Two weeks ago I wrote a note to the KZYX board members. Not having any 
>>> other way to reach them I used the form on the website, which I 
>>> suspected doesn't go to the members but simply to /board liaison/ Stuart 
>>> Campbell. Among other things I wrote (including that station manager 
>>> John Coate has personally sucked out of KZYX' revenue stream half a 
>>> million dollars in his tenure there in payment for doing some basic 
>>> required tasks that other radio stations' managers accomplish in like a 
>>> lazy afternoon per month), I had asked Stuart Campbell personally these 
>>> questions:
>>> 
>>> (*1) Stuart, is your show worthwhile and interesting and an asset to the
>>> station? Are you good at it, and are you proud of the show? Now, try to
>>> put yourself in my shoes. Imagine you weren't on the board of directors,
>>> that you brought your show as a finished proven product to KZYX, and you
>>> waited and waited --waited for years-- and when you asked what progress
>>> was being made to put your show on the schedule you got no answer at
>>> all. And when you wrote to the manager, he told you /he/ wasn't the
>>> program director. And when you asked, "What do I have to do to get my
>>> show on KZYX?" the manager said, "I guess you have to convince Mary."
>>> And when you stopped by the station to talk about it you were treated as
>>> though you were an unwanted intrusion and told to use the telephone next
>>> time. What would you do then? Go to the board of directors? They'd tell
>>> you they have no control over who's on the air and who's not. Then what
>>> would you do?
>>> 
>>> Here is the entire and only response that I got yesterday (two weeks 
>>> later) from the board, or rather from Stuart Campbell, marked /From: 
>>> MCPB Board <BOD at kzyx.org>/
>>> 
>>>> Dear Mr. McClean,
>>> 
>>>> As a Board, we support John Coate's and his staff's management of the 
>>> day-to-day operations of KZYX&Z. We have also voted unanimously to 
>>> approve the current operating budget.
>>> 
>>>> Stuart Campbell
>>>> Board Liaison
>>> 
>>> And I wrote this back immediately:
>>> 
>>> I want a response from the board members, not just from you. Did you 
>>> even pass my message along?
>>> 
>>>  And you didn't even answer what I asked you specifically. Here, I'll 
>>> ask you again in case you misplaced the earlier message:
>>> 
>>> (*1), look up)
>>> 
>>>  Now I have another couple of questions for you and for the other 
>>> board members: How do you feel when you hear people on the air on KZYX 
>>> lie that the members and the community control the station? when in fact 
>>> the board has given complete control of every aspect of the station to 
>>> John Coate and Mary Aigner, and they don't feel like they have to answer 
>>> to anybody?
>>> 
>>>  And do you really think it's wise to pay just John and Mary and 
>>> David Steffen the equivalent of more yearly $50 memberships than you 
>>> even have members? Especially now that the CPB grants will be less this 
>>> year and every year from now on, and keeping in mind how little is 
>>> actually required of John and Mary in between pledge drives, and also 
>>> that David Steffen's "business coordination" barely brings in enough 
>>> money to offset his pay?
>>> 
>>>  Really, Stuart, pass messages like this along, unchanged. When I and 
>>> others write to the board members we expect what we write to reach them. 
>>> I'm sure keeping [the message] to yourself would be breaking the law.
>>> 
>>> To which Stuart Campbell replied, marked /From: scamp1104 at comcast.net  :
>>> 
>>>> To: Marco McClean
>>> 
>>>> Every member of the Board received your communication and your request 
>>> unchanged. They may choose to respond to you individually or not--that's 
>>> up to them. I WAS RESPONDING FOR THEM AS A WHOLE BOARD [emphasis mine 
>>> -Marco (*2)] and THE MESSAGE I SENT WAS AGREED TO BY 8 OF THE 9 OF US. 
>>> One Board member did not communicate one way or the other.
>>> 
>>>> I consider being a KZYX programmer an honor and a privilege, not a 
>>> right. If I was removed from the air, I might be saddened but not offended.
>>> 
>>>> Stuart Campbell
>>> 
>>> And I wrote just now and am sending to scamp1104 at comcast.net, 
>>> BOD at kzyx.org, kzyxtalk at lists.mcn.org and discussion at lists.mcn.org:
>>> 
>>>  Unlike you, Stuart, I consider it a right to be on the public 
>>> airwaves. Because it is a right, and should be considered so at KZYX. 
>>> The management of KZYX that you claim is doing such a great job is so 
>>> bad at it and so overpaid that KZYX requires taxpayers to pay in federal 
>>> grants the entire /real/ operating budget of the station, and that's 
>>> been the case since the beginning. I was there.
>>> 
>>>  But you don't consider it a right, so, okay, how about if you were 
>>> kicked off the air in 1989 and then blackballed and ostracized by KZYX 
>>> for a quarter of a century, during which you started and ran a 
>>> countywide newspaper and did 17 years of successful radio, 15 of them 
>>> commercial, while considering it a right for others to be printed and 
>>> aired on equal 
>> 
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