A year after firing 10 DJs, KDHX is foundering. Can it right the ship?
ST. LOUIS — A year ago, community radio station KDHX fired 10 of its 80 volunteer disc jockeys in one day. Reaction to the move from listeners as well as members of the staff was swift and harsh.
At least 14 other disc jockeys resigned in protest. Contributions from listeners plummeted.
Today, the station is proud of its increasingly diverse look and sound. Nearly 70% of its on-air talent are now members of underserved communities, said Executive Director Kelly Wells.
As a result, the station is picking up younger, more diverse listeners, Wells said, and more listeners from the Metro East. Some longtime listeners say they have been converted. And some new DJs say the working atmosphere is open and welcoming.
But is it far too little? Is it far too late?
Last year, the station, which does not have paid commercials, lost $327,000 on revenue of $940,000. The number of on-air listeners dropped nearly by half, its average Nielsen rating falling to 0.6 — meaning a half a percent of the area's population tuned in — from a little over 1.0 in the three months before the firings.
In June, the station took the unusual step of stopping its subscription to Nielsen.
Wells said, however, that online streaming is up.
"The analytics that we're getting from our other platforms don't indicate that we've had a drop in listenership. And in fact, we're continuing to see that people are listening and that that is increasing in some areas," Wells said.
Still, some of the KDHX critics found it significant and even symbolic that the station's roof began to leak in early July. Repairs should be completed next week, Wells said, more than two months after the problem was first noticed.
No equipment was damaged, she said, adding that the delay in getting the repairs was due to contractors being busy.
And in early June, St. Louis Magazine reported in early July that KDHX had not paid its staff since late April.
"I'm not commenting on staff pay, full stop," Wells said. "We don't talk about staff pay out of (concern for the) privacy of the staff, one way or the other. I'm not confirming, denying or anything else."
The station relies on the services of well over 100 volunteers, but a small number of management positions are paid. In 2023, their salaries, benefits and other compensation amounted to $605,000, a little less than half of the station's total expenses, according to its filings with the IRS.
Although the current controversy came to a head last September, problems had been apparent before then.
The troubles begin
The recent difficulties at KDHX (88.1 FM) began in February 2023, when the station fired disc jockey Tom "Papa" Ray, a popular figure who had been on the air almost since the station's founding in 1987.
At the time, the station said he was released "for a long-standing pattern of bullying, aggression and harassment." A few months later, Gary A. Pierson, president of the station's board of directors, said, "we made some decisions that had to be made if we were going to be a less racist and less sexist organization."
Ray vehemently disputes the charges and the implication that he is racist and sexist.
Other disc jockeys were unhappy with the move. Two, Drea Stein and Andy Coco, were fired in August 2023, for allegedly asking supporters to stop contributing money to the station.
Stein and Coco vehemently dispute the charge.
Some of the volunteer staff were upset at the firings and began to rumble in rebellion. On Sept. 22, 10 DJs were fired, and an additional 12 were told they would have to undergo "mediated discussions" to determine if they could remain on the air.
Over the next few weeks, at least 14 other DJs resigned or went "on strike" in sympathy and solidarity with the people who had been let go.
"We ended up making decisions we didn't necessarily expect to make in that time frame and in that way. I wish so many folks hadn't felt the need to leave," Wells said.
But at the same time, all the newly opened slots on the schedule gave the station the chance to accelerate its plan to bring in DJs from a wider variety of experiences and backgrounds, she said. Thirty-one new shows have sprouted across the 80-show weekly schedule, and many have taken the station in new directions.
One show is devoted to Brazilian pop music, with music from the U.S. thrown into the mix, Wells said. One features a 17-year-old and her father playing classic rock 'n' roll. Another is a talk show from a Black perspective. And many of the shows feature hip-hop, soul and R&B.
Some of the reaction to the new Black voices has been ugly, Wells said, with emails even making frequent use of the N-word.
"We live in a world where people are not necessarily scared to sign their name to something that, in my opinion, a few years ago we would have never done. We have gotten messages that I can't even believe that I'm reading. I can't even believe people are willing to type this stuff out and sign their names," Wells said.
Some of the station's most passionate critics say they welcome the new direction KDHX has taken.
"We want diversity. We want the whole DEI thing," said Len Jewell, an administrator of the Save KDHX 88.1 group on Facebook. "That's an absolute must. And so did the old DJs."
But they still want the station's leaders to leave.
Missing financial reports
Two groups are fighting KDHX management. The Save KDHX 88.1 group on Facebook has 3,500 members. Another organization, the League of Volunteer Enthusiasts of KDHX (LOVE of KDHX), has 1,500.
Len Jewell, an administrator of Save KDHX, said its main goal is to remove the station from the hands of Wells and Pierson, the board president.
"If the board members vote those people out, they will see an immediate resurgence of donations," Jewell said.
"You've got 3,500 people waiting to donate. They're willing to get their hands in their pockets."
In contrast, the station said it has signed up 400 new donors in the last year.
A GoFundMe fundraiser sponsored by LOVE of KDHX has raised nearly $31,000. According to the organization, the money is going to pay its legal fees and other operating costs. If any is left over, it will be donated to KDHX, "if we achieve new leadership," or another nonprofit music or arts organization.
LOVE of KDHX is funding a lawsuit by one of the station's volunteers, Anne Silverstein, who is seeking access to the station's financial statements and other documents that are required to be kept at its office.
According to a court filing, a process server has attempted to serve notice to Wells and Pierson for more than a month and has been unable to do so. The same filing claimed that Silverstein was suspended from her volunteer position after she filed the suit.
In response, Wells said, "Repeated lawsuits by this group are merely a distraction. We continue to focus on creating a station that is reflective of all the voices of community."
Another suit against the station was settled last month. The station agreed to seat two out of three representatives elected by the station's volunteers onto the board of directors.
At about the same time, the station added two other people to the board of directors, Ron Butts and Tamika Harvey. Butts and Harvey are known on air as DJ G. Wiz and DJ Lady Jock, and they share a four-hour Saturday morning show featuring conversation and hip-hop music.
Adding active disc jockeys to the board is an apparent violation of the station's policy. A document called KDHX Board Member Expectations specifies that board members cannot be volunteers at the station in any other capacity.
The same document indicates that the board will meet six times each year, but two of this year's six scheduled meetings have been canceled. The most recent meeting, in July, was a closed executive session.
In addition, the station appears to be in violation of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting guidelines. KDHX is a public broadcasting station and receives funds from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which requires that its stations post an annual financial report on its website no later than May 31 of the following year.
KDHX has not yet posted its annual financial report for 2023. After the station was late in posting its 2022 report last year, it had to pay a $2,500 fine.
A counterpoint: 'Even better than before'
Some critics of the station management trace the beginnings of their discontent back five years, when the station was roiled by charges of racism and many of its Black disc jockeys were fired.
Jeffrey Hallazgo, a doctor and volunteer disc jockey who resigned from the station after last year's firings, said management then made DJs undergo mandatory diversity training. He found the decision "preposterous" because DJs interact with so few staffers and other volunteers.
"They lumped their racism onto us," he said.
Even before the firings in September, Hallazgo said management was difficult to deal with.
"They had such a level of dismissiveness and disrespect for the DJs that it made it hard for us," he said. "The only time they communicated with us was when it was time to raise money."
He stayed at the station until late November, hoping that things would improve. Instead, he said, the atmosphere became "toxic and malignant."
In a February interview, Wells suggested that the DJs who had been fired were among a small group of volunteers who hijacked every staff meeting and would dismiss viewpoints that they did not share. Since their departure, the meetings are freer and more democratic, she said.
Denise Williams came to KDHX in December, using the on-air name DJ Niecy. Although she has only been able to attend three nighttime meetings since then — by day, she is an alderwoman in Fairview Heights — she said the atmosphere is open and welcoming.
Like several of the new hires, Williams has considerable experience. She worked in commercial radio and television for more than 40 years and is a 2023 inductee into the National Black Radio Hall of Fame. She said she appreciates the many genres of music presented by KDHX — her show features "slow jams with a touch of sass" — and especially the freedom that comes with noncommercial, community radio.
"It's very open. I don't have the constraints and parameters that I had in other radio. It's very enjoyable," she said.
And some of the listeners are just as passionate as ever.
Greg Young, of Pacific, has been a listener for perhaps 30 years and a donor for at least 25. He said the station lost people who he "really, really liked," and that he was skeptical about what would happen. And in the first few months after the firings, the station was plagued by technical problems such as dead air, he said.
"But when they came out of it, it took off. Now it's as good or even better than before. The variety has picked up. There is a lot more ethnic (music) going on," he said.
"I'm really enjoying the Black programming. I always liked the Latino stuff. They've got more female DJs now. The pop-up shows are great. It's always great music. I'm enthused."
Many of the disc jockeys who used to work at KDHX are now doing similar shows at other places. Among them, Coco and T.J. Muller are on St. Louis' classical station WFUN (107.3 FM). Hallazgo is on the WFMU streaming service, Sheena's Jungle Room. Rick Comello, Mark Hyken and Stein are on TheRoots.fm streaming service. James Mullins has his own livestream.
Jewell, of Save KDHX 88.1, founded the nonprofit Gyres Society, which produces concerts by local bands, filling a role KDHX abandoned a few years ago.
As for Wells, the whole controversy has been a learning experience.
"Every single day, I try to be better than I was the day before at what I'm doing," she said.
"I care deeply about people. I care deeply about connecting with people and I care deeply about creating an organizational culture where people feel like they belong and where they can thrive."
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