A Modest Proposal to Reform Governance at Public Radio Stations Like VPR and NHPR

Vermont Public Radio's board of directors is meeting tommorow in Waitsfield and if you would like to attend the meeting it's open to the public. Just give the station a jingle to let them know you're coming -- they apparently don't like surprises.

How laudable! But, like many laudable ideas, this one doesn't go far enough.

Accountabililty and transparency are good things, particularly for an organization that is owned by the community (as are all nonprofits, held in trust for their communities by the organizations' boards of trustees). They're super good things for vital sources of news, information and culture -- which public radio stations manifestly are, as one of the few successful types of news outlets in a time when the journalism business as we once knew it is inexorably going extinct.

But inviting the public to VPR's board meetings doesn't really accomplish much. For one thing, the seemingly innocuous "call us first" instructions inevitably have a chilling effect. For another, conspicuously missing from the announcement is any indication that the public has the right to do anything at such meetings but observe quietly. And, finally, I'll bet my satellite radio that if anything truly important and controversial were to be discussed, the board would declare an executive session and any visitors would promptly be banished.

So much for transparency. As for accountability, there really isn't much there unless and until VPR, and other public radio stations, allow their members to elect the organizations' boards of directors.

The case for such reform is compelling. For many, many weeks of the year, loyal public radio listeners are forced to endure on-air pledge drives in which the "membership" mantra is repated so often it is imprinted indelibly on the subconscious. But membership implies rights. Here, the implication is false and misleading, because at a public radio station "member" is merely a euphemism for "donor."

There's nothing wrong with raising money. But it is disrespectful to organizations that really are democratically run -- i.e., really do have members -- to usurp the term here.

Even more importantly, as public radio becomes more and more essential in promoting the public good -- indeed, in preserving democracy itself -- it becomes less and less appropriate to people the governing boards of public radio stations exclusively, or even predominantly, with the rich. The chair of VPR's board of directors happens to be the former chair of Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Vermont. And the vice chair? Here's a bio that pops up via Google:

"Nordahl (Nord) Brue is the Chairman of PKC Corporation, the producer of medical software for the diagnosis and management of complex and chronic disease states. In addition he is the Chairman of Franklin Foods and former Chair of Green Mountain Power Corporation and The Trustees of Grinnell College. He is a Board member of Vermont Public Radio, Nueva Cocina Foods, Via Cheese, and was an early investor in Kadoo, Inc and Myxer."

Also on the VPR Board is a president emeritus of Middlebury College, the well-to-do husband of the finance chair of the Democratic National Committee, and one of the nameplate partners from the powerful Burlington law firm of Dinsey, Knapp & McAndrew -- which has detailed him to serve fulltime as general counsel to Fletcher Allen Health Care.

These people are great Vermonters and their mention here is not intended as anything but an expression of gratitude for their service to VPR. Moreover, there is no reason to assume that every member of the VPR board is a card-carrying member of Vermont's power elite. The point is that it is simply unfair, and inconsistent with the public accountability values implicit in VPR's invitation to attend board meetings, to populate that board in whole or in part based on the ability to make or to attract donations to the organization.

Dare we point out, in addition, that generosity starts to look like something other than generosity if it buys voting power on this vital organization's governing board? If VPR deems it important for fundraising purposes to make its major donors feel as if they have special influence, why not create a donors' advisory board? Instead, VPR and every other public radio station, turns this idea on its head -- the wealthy donors are the board and the regular folks populate the Citizen's Advisory Board (CAB), a group that has no power whatsoever (but which federal law requires each public radio station to create, in exchange for federal funding).

Full disclosure time: I happen to serve on the CAB of New Hampshire Public Radio (even though I live in Vermont). NHPR is the region's best public radio service, an early adopter of the notion that if such an organization is really interested in serving the public then maybe it shouldn't alienate most of that public by focussing on la-de-dah classical music broadcasts. VPR has followed suit, but only took that step when it was part of a stampede that stations like NHPR courageously began. Still, even at NHPR, where the CAB gets to meet regularly with that station's cool and innovative program director, Abby Goldstein, you can't escape the notion that the board has all the power and the CAB is just the kids' club.

Full disclosure time, take two: Radio has long been an obsession of mine, and as a consequence I share with luminaries like Governor Douglas and media personality Christopher Graff the distinction of having served as the president of the Middlebury College radio station, WRMC. Douglas and Graff would be walk-ons for the VPR board; meatballs will bounce before I get the call. Am I peevish about that? Well, if you've read this far into such a long post, you deserve a straight answer: Yes.

In any event, VPR is headed in the right direction by inviting the public to board meetings. The next step? Maybe not turning the whole board over to the membership to elect -- but how about just a few seats on that 25 person body? That would make membership really mean something.