Why I can't donate to WHYY

Please note: This article is published as an archive copy from Philadelphia City Paper. My City Paper is not affiliated with Philadelphia City Paper. Philadelphia City Paper was an alternative weekly newspaper in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The last edition was published on October 8, 2015.

A few hundred thousand dollars short, the station should take a look CEO Bill Marrazzo's $538,412 compensation package.

Why I can't donate to WHYY

Michael T. Regan

It's pledge time again at WHYY because the public radio station fell a few hundred thousand dollars short during its winter membership drive. I won't donate, but I do know where they can find that money they want: WHYY CEO Bill Marrazzo's $538,412 compensation package.

That's per their 2012 990 filing with the IRS. WHYY declined to make more recent information available.

I listen to WHYY every day. But many listeners, myself included, refuse to dip into our measly checking accounts to subsidize a rich man's excessive salary. Here's what is at the heart of things: Rich people have too much money, the rest of us have too little and there are far too few reporters employed in this city.

As a reporter, I cannot in good conscience endorse a model that allows one executive to vacuum up money that could be used to hire 10 additional journalists (that's assuming that the average WHYY reporter makes $50,000 or so).

Times are tough for local journalism. Newsrooms are radically downsized, many reporters are out of work and residents have less access than ever to information about their city and state. For WHYY to squander precious donations (and taxpayer dollars) on a fat executive salary is not only ethically troubling, but also a misallocation of scarce resources.

Excessive salaries for executives at non-profits also cheapen the very principle of public service. I know a lot of well-educated, competent and intelligent people who work for modest salaries — including many fine reporters at WHYY. Indeed, many rank-and-file do-gooders get far too little and should be paid more.

Large executive salaries at non-profits are coming under scrutiny at a time of mounting anger over the growing wealth divide. Like out-of-control corporate salaries, excessive non-profit executive compensation is built upon the idea that there are a scarce few smartest-people-in-the-room talented enough to run our radio stations, companies and banks. We treat and pay them like superheroes or wizards. But they are neither.

Marrazzo makes more, in some cases far more, than most of his counterparts in public radio. Putting aside deferred compensation and non-taxable benefits, he made $503,219 in 2011 (from a base salary of $430,000). WETA's CEO made $421,848, Oregon Public Broadcasting's CEO earns $332,893, WGBH's makes $391,499, Public Broadcasting Atlanta's gets $272,758, and KQED's made $360,793.

The only better compensated public radio CEO I could track down is WNYC 's Laura Walker, who makes $530,983. For what it's worth, Gawker has called Walker's compensation "high" and "out of whack with the rest of the station's salary structure."

And Marrazzo's base salary climbed upward from $415,180 in 2010.

WHYY spokesperson Esmé Artz credited Marrazzo for helping them "perform better than many other stations in our peer group" at a time when "the economy is still struggling and the media marketplace is changing almost every week."

I asked Marrazzo about all of this in 2012. He told me that his "compensation is not quote-un-quote rather high," and that it "is set by our board of directors based on what is expected of me in terms of business performance."

He also told me that the station's financial performance was solid, and that its market share grew every year.

"Your questions, frankly, are not questions," he told me. "They are a mixture of rhetoric and statements that are hard to understand."

But Marrazzo's salary is something that many listeners and WHYY staff do have questions about. And this has been true for quite some time. In a 2007 Philadelphia magazine article, writer Steve Volk describes Radio Times host Marty Moss-Coane confronting Marrazzo at a staff meeting the prior year.

"Bill," said Moss-Coane, "one of the reasons morale here is so low is that your salary is so large compared to everyone else's."

"I work very hard for my salary," he said.

"So do a lot of people here," Moss-Coane responded.

At the time, there was an uproar over Marrazzo's salary. But nothing changed, and the outrage passed. Many listeners still refuse to donate, and some staffers are likely still miffed. Marrazzo's compensation is an issue worth bringing up each and every pledge drive.

I could live with Marrazzo making $200,000, and I have a $50 check ready if WHYY changes course. Plus, I want the mug.

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