UMSL fires Wente

KWMU employees were called into a meeting Monday afternoon to be informed that Patty Wente is no longer the station's general manager (or CEO, or whatever title she was carrying at the time).

The university released a statement, and news coverage soon followed at:

the Riverfront Times
the Post-Dispatch
KWMU

the Business-Journal

Current.org

KMOX

KMOV

Fearing inconvenient questions from irate employees, Wente scales back staff retreat

With less than 24 hours notice, Patty Wente cancelled a staff retreat scheduled for Thursday. Even though a conference room had been rented outside UMSL and a paid consultant already flown to St. Louis, Wente decided to include only her “senior team” in the gathering.

It is obvious that Wente, who has not yet answered allegations in separate articles by the Riverfront Times, St. Louis Business Journal and the public broadcasting newspaper Current, fears basic questions from her staff, who can confirm the truth of everything in the articles.

This retreat from the retreat is no surprise though. Wente ran and hid from Riverfront Times reporter Chad Garrison when he showed up unannounced at KWMU in April. All Garrison wanted to do was ask a few inconvenient questions of his own about Wente’s use of donor and taxpayer money.

Public broadcasting trade magazine highlights national embarrassment of Patty Wente’s mismanagement

Current, the newspaper for public radio and television insiders, (not to be confused with the UMSL student publication of the same name) ran an article today about Patty Wente’s unethical and incompetent management practices.

Specifically, it focused on her phony pledge matches during membership campaigns, where listeners were led to believe “dollar for dollar” challenges were being met by donations from local businesses. However in reality many businesses had already bought underwriting announcements, and their purchases were passed off as legitimate “challenge” grants, where, for example a $40 pledge would automatically become $80. In many cases Wente perpetrated this scam without the full knowledge of the business owners.

If Patty Wente’s apologists continue to insist she’s “respected” in public broadcasting circles, don’t be fooled. If she were respected at all, a national publication could have certainly found some supporters in the ranks of NPR and its stations. If Wente had any self respect, she would have resigned, now that the university’s “review” is in its fifth week.

Keep in mind, though that this probe is not being conducted by the University of Missouri-St. Louis. Lawyers in Columbia with the University of Missouri system are handling the investigation along with auditors from PriceWaterhouseCoopers.

Wente continues to act like nothing is wrong. However she has not once responded to the serious allegations in the May 7 Riverfront Times article. Staff at KWMU say she has even summoned employees to a day-long “retreat” on Thursday at a rented outside facility, and is paying yet another consultant to discuss the future of KWMU, though it’s doubtful she’ll discuss the present.

If this investigation is indeed legitimate, Wente should be placed on administrative leave immediately, and not be allowed to wantonly spend donor and taxpayer money on consultants.

Be sure to e-mail University of Missouri System President Gary Forsee forseeg@umsystem.edu, and the Board of Curators and demand action immediately!