KDHXPledgeStrike

KDHX demands volunteers stop leaking its emails to the RFT, according to new emails that were leaked to the RFT riverfronttimes.com/music/kd…

Stories like this are one of the reasons one feels sad for community radio. Wells and Ann Alquist took over as leadership at KDHX in 2015 after the ouster of Beverly Hacker. Alquist was gone shortly thereafter, and Wells has steered the org for nine years. As someone who's watched community media a LONG time, I can say with some awareness of the space that KDHX hasn't found itself in far better straits than similarly sized stations in such a period. In virtually any other environment (public/community media or nonprofit especially), a board might have observed the bad look all this is for once-loved brand and local relationships and changed leadership course FAST. We've all heard instances of managers stepping down in the face of serious problems. The digging in to defend management, for years at this point, when the common denominator of all the conflicts is management is inexplicable and confusing. Today, a station with interesting 990s is burning whatever financial resources it has left to fight lawsuits, take hits in the media it can't make a persuasive case to counter, and become an example of community radio chaos. But for what? I grew up on community radio. As I told Current in 2017, it changed my life and made me who I am. To see such a colossal community radio fail is truly a heartbreaker. [Sorry if this comes across as tough. I appreciate the difference these stations can make in listeners' lives, and this meltdown dragging on as it has is tragic.]