Minding the store - or milking it? 
Getting rich off the WAMC golden goose --
$500K fund drives don't even pay top six salaries!

Okay, now it's eight days later -- March 3rd -- and that ear-bending, thrice-annual beg-athon begins.  But wait!  Before you go reaching this time for your check book or credit card, you might just want to stop and consider the following tidbits gleaned from WAMC's recent IRS Form 990 filing.  Form 990 is the annual return the IRS requires from so-called not-for-profit organizations exempt from income tax under 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.

The charade
Forget any notions you might have of folks at WAMC struggling to keep the electric bill paid. Or the image of some bedraggled station fundraiser wringing-out a measly commission trying to drum up a few bucks from a corporate underwriter. Or the sound of an announcer pleading for volunteers to help man the phones during the beg-athons.

And how about that picture in your mind's eye of a bake sale being held outside WAMC's front door in order to keep creditors away.  And remember the cry (it's WAMC's mantra): 'Just three months operating expenses in the bank!'

Imagine those bill collectors pounding at the station's front door. Or worse, the image of WAMC going dark: the lightning bolts suddenly cease their loud crackling from atop the Mt. Greylock antenna like some doomed RKO Radio Picture logo out of a King Kong rerun gone bad in the first reel.

It ain't necessarily so!
If these are the images you have of what life is like at WAMC -- a constant struggle to keep the wolves at bay -- then it's time to lift the wool that's been pulled over your trusting eyes. Dear reader, you are in for a bit of a shock. WAMC is NOT on the verge of bankruptcy or collapse. No way! Not this puppy! Errr, Golden Gosling, I should say.

The numbers WAMC reports every year to IRS present a far different picture of the WAMC you think you know. We are talking MILLIONS of dollars taken into station coffers each and every year. In fiscal 1999 alone, it was $4.47 million.

Six figure salaries
And where does all this money go, this font of green mother's milk spewing forth its succor of hard cash?  Who and what is it all spent on? 

The electric bill?  Yeah, RIGHT!  That's takes $79,000 annually according to what WAMC told Uncle Sam. 

And the rest?  Answer: To salaries mostly. $2.2 million of it.  And while WAMC's rank-and-file employee may not be seeing high pay, benefits and perquisites, the upper echelon is certainly getting fat and happy.  The upcoming $500,000 beg-athon won't even cover the top six salaries!

Plus perks!
And talk about perks!  How about a hefty expense and travel account. Not-for-profit WAMC has some wonderful perks if one is a member of 'the inner kingdom,' that circle of loyalists closest to boss you-know-who.

A bureaucracy lovers paradise 
But it's even worse than you think. The whole operation seems geared to just one central concept: Raise more money in order to pay more and higher salaries.  'Public radio' and quality programming seem almost secondary, addressed mostly as an afterthought to the main challenge -- a means to an end. The end being green.  (Remember how quick WAMC was to cancel its Morning Pro Musica contract even before Robert J. Lurtsema's passing?  But hey! It's cheaper to produce a quick-and-dirty classical music program in-house. Just spin some CD's for a couple hours.)
(To read a related story about Morning Pro Musica's cancellation,  Click Here!)

Nearly half of everything received used for salaries
FACT: At WAMC Northeast Public Radio, Inc., close to half of all revenues coming in -- 49.1% of the total monies coming in from direct corporate and public support (you), as well as from government contributions (you, again) -- end up being paid out to management and employees in the form of salaries, pension plan contributions and benefits. Remember that fiscal performance figure, 49.1%!
(To see how WAMC compares to WNYC, New York and WETA, Washington, DC, see Footnote #1 below.)

Local NPR station beats WAMC's fiscal performance
A revealing comparison is provided by a National Public Radio station located right here in the Albany area. Its financial structure and audience are identical to WAMC's. Yet astoundingly, this local station paid salaries to its employees at a rate just 39.6% of its total revenues. How did this local NPR station manage to get by?  How did it manage to pay its bills, pay its staff, provide decent local news coverage, and still offer quality programming?  Not only that, but how did it manage to beat WAMC's fiscal performance by almost 10%?  What station was able to perform these miracles?  Well surprise! The station's call letters are W-A-M-C, and the year is 1989, just ten fiscal years ago. 

Questions raised 
This nearly 10% difference begs several questions:  Why is WAMC paying out A HIGHER PERCENTAGE today -- nearly 10% more -- of its revenues towards salaries, especially fattened managerial paychecks, than it ever did in the past? 

A corollary question: Why has WAMC's fiscal productivity fallen 10% in those ten years, especially when it is bringing in the door more money now than ever before?  (For a brief discussion of  salaries and productivity, see Footnote #2 below.)

What factors at the station have changed so dramatically in the years between 1989 and 1999 to cause WAMC to shell out such a dramatically higher percentage of its revenues for salaries? 

Why does WAMC constantly express need to raise (at thrice-annual fundraisers) ever-increasing amounts of capital, the rate of increase being far higher than that of inflation; and why is the station simultaneously awarding its managers hefty salary increases higher than the inflation rate? 

Minding the store - or milking it? 
Is the answer to all these questions simply 'mismanagement', combined with willful failure to keep expenses in check?  Or could the answer have something to do with simple greed, a conscious decision by those in control to milk the station for all its worth? 

At 1989's level of productivity, WAMC's present salary bloat is $430,000
For WAMC to operate as fiscally efficient today as it did just ten years ago, with a 39.6% ratio of salaries to revenues, means that the station's current payroll is bloated by about $430,000.  In other words, WAMC is doling out $430K more in salaries today than necessary or reasonable, based on its own earlier fiscal performance, and also based on the comparative fiscal performances of other publicly-supported stations in the northeast and mid-atlantic. Simply put, WAMC is on a spending spree with your money, splurging $2.2 million of it on salaries, mostly managerial payroll.  Based on its own performance history, WAMC has already proven that it could get by on a comparative $1.77 million in salaries.

IRS requires names and salaries of paid officers and highest paid employees
So why does bloat exist at WAMC?  Where is all this money going?  (Or rather, where does WAMC tell IRS the money is going?)  Who's making the bucks?  Hint: It ain't the bulk of WAMC's hardworking office staff, engineers and reporters who are receiving on average less than $20K per year. 

To discover answers, we again refer to WAMC's current IRS Form 990. In it, WAMC is required to document for IRS  the names of paid officers and trustees, along with the five highest paid employees for fiscal 1999 (see list below).

Upcoming fundraiser - THE BIG ONE - won't even pay top six salaries!
The most striking revelation upon perusing the list and adding up the compensation reported is that the upcoming $500K fund drive, THE BIG ONE - the highest goal in the station's history for a single fund drive - won't even be enough to pay the top six salaries!  Those total $537,124 - and that figure does not even include the expense and travel accounts and perks.

Why does bloat exist at WAMC?
Why? Why does bloat exist anywhere. When arbitrarily high compensation infects a 'not-for-profit' 501(c)(3) organization, and the salaries-to-revenues ratio jumps, it's a sure bet that things are amiss. When management is chief beneficiary of the large pay increases, it indicates that management is more interested in lining its pockets than with fulfilling the stated goals of the institution. 

Reference United Way of America and its disgraced former chief executive, William Aramony, who was discovered to be living a lavish lifestyle at the expense of United Way's contributors (all with the permission of United Way's board).  Aramony was not fired by his board until there was public outcry brought about by embarrassing revelations in the media.
(To read more about the scandal involving William Aramony and United Way, Click Here!)

Stealing the public's money - WAMC's management can get away with it.
Waste and mismanagement can occur anywhere, and when it occurs within a publicly-supported institution having almost no outside oversight like WAMC (do you really think WAMC's board of trustees - hand-picked by Alan Chartock - is ever going to buck the boss?), then it's the equivalent of stealing from the public - pure and simple. 

Bloat exists at WAMC simply because nobody on the WAMC board stops it, and the station's senior management can easily get away with it. 

IRS asks: Total number of other employees paid over $50K
In addition to those five highest paid employees, WAMC is required to tell IRS exactly how many additional employees, without naming them, are being paid over $50,000 per year. 

WAMC's answer to IRS: Six.

Hell! That's at least another $300,000 WAMC beg-athon right there!
Just make sure you remember the battle cry: 'Just three months operating expenses in the bank!'

Even lower numbers prevail amongst those power-mad party animals south of the Mason-Dixon line where mega-production house WETA-TV & FM in Washington, D.C. pays out in salaries just 25.2% of total revenues to keep its busy bureaucracy functioning.  In other words, ABOUT HALF the percentage that WAMC, in its generosity with YOUR money, sees fit to pay out in compensation. 

Footnote 2:
Salaries and productivity:  WAMC's managerial pay way up, productivity way down 
Payroll in almost any business rises to keep pace with inflation, BUT seen as a percentage of a firm's budget or its revenues, the desired goal is to have that percentage remain relatively stable or even go down -- that is what is called productivity or 'getting the most bang for the buck'.  This of course assumes that the firm's revenues are growing and the company is being run responsibly and prudently.  Firms like General Electric Co. shoot off skyrockets and brag to Wall Street analysts whenever productivity increases, and whenever payroll and managerial salaries, as a percentage of gross revenues, decline.  At WAMC, just the reverse is taking place.  Revenues have more than doubled since 1989, from $1.72 million to $4.47 million, but productivity has shown a steep decline, 9.5% in ten years.  Meanwhile, payroll and managerial salaries have jumped dramatically,  from a payroll of $682,000 in 1989 to $2.2 million in fiscal 1999, a leap from 39.6% of 1989's gross revenues to the current 49.1%. 
(Note: Revenue and payroll figures are shown rounded-off, but percentages are calculated using WAMC's reported figures.)

$99,599^**
Alan S. Chartock
Chairman of WAMC's Board of Trustees,
Executive Director
E-mail: alan@wamc.org

**Ahhh, what more can be said about Mr. Chartock that he himself has not already told us.  This reported figure of $99,599 does not include Mr. Chartock's annual travel expenses. WAMC reported to IRS total travel expenses of $35,201 for fiscal 1999, so it is anybody's guess how much of that is attributable to Mr. Chartock. 

**Also not included in the $99,599 figure above is Mr. Chartock's WAMC expense account, entertainment account, and other perquisites. 

**Also, this $99,599 figure does not include Mr. Chartock's annual salary and employee benefits from The State University of New York where he is employed as a full-time professor of political communication.
.
$129,609
Debera Saglimbeni
Senior Development Associate - Capital Region
E-mail: sag@wamc.org
.
.
$98,030
David Galletly
Assistant Executive Director
E-mail: david@wamc.org
.
.
$71,796
Selma Kaplan
Assistant Executive Director
E-mail: selma@wamc.org
.
.
.
$73,189
Josie Slavinski
Development Associate - The Berkshire Regions
E-mail: josie@wamc.org
.
.
$64,901
Dona Frank
Director of Underwriting
E-mail:  dfrank@wamc.org
.
.

All salary totals displayed above reflect employee 'compensation' plus 'contributions to employee benefit plans and deferred compensation'.  Fiscal data contained in this article is taken from WAMC, Inc.'s IRS Form 990 - Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax - for fiscal 1999, tax period beginning July 1st, 1999 and ending June 30th, 2000.  The document filed with IRS is dated November 10th, 2000, signed by Alan S. Chartock, and was prepared by the accounting firm of Urbach, Kahn & Werlin Advisors, Inc., Albany, New York. 

Other fiscal data contained in this article is taken from WAMC, Inc.'s IRS Form 990 - Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax - for fiscal 1989, tax period beginning July 1st, 1989 and ending June 30th, 1990.  The document filed with IRS is dated November 18th, 1990, and was prepared by the accounting firm of Urbach, Kahn & Werlin PC, Albany, New York.

WAMC's 1999 IRS Form 990 was obtained from the U.S. Internal Revenue Service under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).  By federal law, it is also available for public inspection at the offices of WAMC Northeast Public Radio, Inc. at 318 Central Avenue, Albany, New York during regular business hours, and without advance notice.

WAMC's 1989 IRS Form 990 was obtained from WAMC Northeast Public Radio, Inc..

Also included in this article is fiscal data compiled from IRS Form 990 filings made by the following not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organizations: 
WNYC Radio, Inc., New York, New York; 
The Greater Washington Educational Telecommunications Association, Inc. (WETA), Washington, D.C..