The alternative weekly in Pittsburgh interviewed me for a story this week. The headline:

“Mugged: The deal for WDUQ could leave employees and jazz fans feeling robbed”

Beneath the headline was a picture of a broken WDUQ coffee mug.

The story by Chris Young explores the sequence of events that led Duquesne University to sell its radio station to a new entity known as Essential Public Media. This entity was formed in secret by Public Radio Capital and WYEP, a Pittsburgh community radio station, so as to present a viable alternative to the group formed by current WDUQ employees and supporters, Pittsburgh Public Media (PPM).

As Young reports, before Public Radio Capital made a competing bid, it was initially contracted to help the PPM group:

To negotiate the bidding process, PPM hired Colorado-based Public Radio Capital in December 2009, shortly after Duquesne put the station up for sale. 

PRC, which served as PPM’s broker, worked on a contingency basis, getting paid only if a deal is made. But in early May, the Heinz Endowments and the Pittsburgh Foundation had purchased a 60-day option on the station, freezing the bidding process so they could determine the best use of the station. And PRC terminated the contract soon after.

In a June 2 letter to PPM, PRC managing director Marc Hand wrote, “PRC must be able to work with the local foundations and public broadcasters outside the confines” of its existing agreement.

“[T]he only viable strategy for acquiring WDUQ is to work with Pittsburgh’s foundation community,” Hand added.

News that PRC was involved with other bidders, however, came as a surprise to WDUQ staff, which learned of it only at the Jan. 14 announcement. That’s when they discovered PRC had created a new operating arm, Public Media Company, that teamed with WYEP to purchase their station.

via www.pittsburghcitypaper.ws

The story later quoted me as raising a conflict-of-interest question about Public Radio Capital now that the Colorado outfit has gone from brokering deals to actually owning and running stations in other states.

I want to make it clear that I have no axe to grind in any of this. I know some of the actors involved but this isn’t personal. What I care most about is the reputation of our public radio stations.

Those reputations are based on their trusted relationships in their communities. In Pittsburgh, WDUQ, an established brand brimming with love and support, has been hurled under the bus.

WDUQ, an established brand brimming with love and support, has been hurled under the bus.

Who did the hurling? A small group of power-brokers who are charged with carrying out the public service missions of various non-profit institutions.

It’s not clear to me why WDUQ had to die to be saved. Too many decisions behind closed doors. At least PPM ran a transparent campaign and counted on community good will to carry the deal.

Has the greater good been served? Perhaps. In all honesty, I don’t know but I hope so. Even the losing band of WDUQ employees isn’t going to fight this — in fact, with great decency and decorum, they have wished the new owners well. They may also be hoping to be rehired. After more than a year of stress and anxiety, who can blame them for wishing to get on with their lives… even if their radio careers are now in doubt.

There’s more to say about this case and I hope our system will find a way to discuss it openly. I’m told it has been difficult to get public media leaders to do that.

The Pittsburgh case might teach us things if we can wrestle with the questions raised. Here are a few I’m asking.

• How much influence should foundations and major funders have on stations? In Pittsburgh, it appears the foundations weighed in on the news versus jazz discussion. And they certainly took sides in the bids for ownership.

• How ready are we to aggregate ownership in the hands of fewer but larger non-profit organizations? As Pittsburgh shows us, money and power talk. If we want a robust NPR news system in this country (perhaps with no government support), must we create the Clear Channel version of public radio conglomeration? Would the benefits outweigh the risks?

• While many welcome the opportunity to free stations from university ownership, how might universities set the terms and conditions of who shall buy and what shall be programmed? Clearly, Duquesne was not motivated purely by the money (they accepted the lower bid) so what other factors may communities expect to be included?

• And what about the less popular formats — such as jazz — which don’t do well in the marketplace but have significant cultural value? The mission of public broadcasting was to protect and curate such creative forms. Does Pittsburgh show us that the jazz format is doomed?

As a proponent of strong local news, I would like to be able to rejoice over the Pittsburgh case. Here’s station that is out from under its university master and now committed to news with strong backing. But it feels like a pyrrhic victory in which the loser was the nobler combatant.

Still, I’ve been an advocate for pushing local journalism up into the mission statements of public media organizations, and I’m glad to see that Essential Public Media seems to have news as its mission.

It will be interesting to see how it evolves and I do hope it succeeds… for the good people of Pittsburgh.