Volunteers, board members, and listeners alike gathered as a community yesterday evening to discuss the recent layoffs of three staff positions by Tampa Bay radio station WMNF 88.5. The purpose of the meeting was to provide a forum for those involved with WMNF to discuss what had happened over the past two weeks and how to move forward from what many deemed as a crisis at the radio station.
“I really feel that I should have been proactive in informing our listenership and staff,” said station manager Jim Bennett. “We never want to go where we just went but it doesn’t mean we won’t ever see a financial burden.”
WMNF began to see the signs of financial duress in March and the situation grew worse quickly, according to Bob Soptei, WMNF Board Treasurer.
“April was really the month where things started to unwind,” Bennett said. Once the marathon fell short of the fundraising goal, everyone at the station hoped Heat Wave would bail them out, but they were short $ 80,000 in May for their special events budget. The idea of using next year’s reserves was tossed around but then the station would face a $100,000-150,000 deficit for special events in 2011.
The members of the audience spent the entire three hours allotted for community discussion for just that. Many were saddened and angry about the layoffs and one woman was concerned that the layoffs were decided too quickly and other solutions that could have been utilized were pushed aside.
Bennett and WMNF Board President Julia Morris both apologized and stated how they could have handled the situation better. The station recently received an endowment that allowed them to rescind the layoffs, and although those in the audience expressed relief, they wanted to know what changes were going to be made and how they could move forward.
“Sometimes it takes a crisis to get on a positive path,” said Scott Elliot, chair of the Nominating Committee. Many volunteers expressed ideas about how to attract a new audience and at the same time maintain financial stability. “I need to go on the air on a monthly basis to let people know what’s going on at the station, good and bad,” Bennett said.
Although the discussion became somewhat heated during the three hours, positive solutions for moving forward were discussed and promises made to utilize them.
“Tampa wouldn’t be the same if we didn’t have WMNF,” said Neil Cosentino, independent candidate for Hillsborough County Commissioner.
This article appears in Jul 1-7, 2010.