Essential pull-quote:
www.capradio.org
The dispute between CapRadio, KVIE and the Capital Public Radio Endowment stretched back to the beginning of the radio station’s financial crisis in 2023, following the release of a damning audit by the California State University’s Chancellor’s Office.
The audit flagged the relationship between the endowment and CapRadio, labeling the former organization “unauthorized,” and recommended integrating the endowment with a Sac State auxiliary meant for investing and distributing funds.
CSU auditors had previously raised concerns about the “interrelationship” between CapRadio, the Capital Public Radio Endowment and another nonprofit as far back as 2011. In 2013, the endowment also changed its bylaws to no longer solely provide funding to CapRadio, but to also support similar entities.
The endowment’s board released a public letter on March 19, 2024 addressed to Sac State President Luke Wood and senior advisor Mark Wheeler calling for a merger between CapRadio and KVIE. The organization also said it discovered “significant deferred maintenance” at the CapRadio broadcasting tower in Elverta. Sac State and CapRadio ultimately refused to budge.
Just over a week later the endowment donated the tower and land to KVIE. CapRadio had maintained its ownership of the tower and land, pointing to a 1990 lease agreement.
Station officials said days later the endowment had “overstepped in concerning ways” in an attempt to “publicly force an ill-planned merger.”
CapRadio, KVIE receive payouts from tower settlement
Sacramento’s NPR and PBS affiliate stations received a combined $2 million from the Capital Public Radio Endowment. CapRadio also received the title for an Elverta property housing its main broadcasting tower from KVIE.