Most non-profits have very thorough and specific bylaws. In addition to working for an NPR member station, I'm Vice President of Western Automotive Journalists, a 501(c)3. Nothing gets made up on the fly.
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KRTY-FM Los Gatos has been sold
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There are plenty of good, worthwhile non-profits that run ethical operations but there are also some that do not. Just because they have "very thorough and specific bylaws" and publish public financial reports doesn't always mean they are truthful.
Even the Red Cross, long considered by many to be one of the world's most credible nonprofits, was caught in a huge scandal after a 2015 NPR-ProPublica investigation exposed its misuse of funds meant for Haiti relief. The organization had a stellar reputation and published all the required financial disclosures but it took a major investigative journalism operation to uncover the real story.
In Search Of The Red Cross' $500 Million In Haiti Relief
All this is to say things aren't always what they seem. Evangelical super-churches, televangelists and broadcasters have an especially notorious reputation for getting caught in scandals. It's fair to look at these organizations and the executives who run them with a healthy amount of scrutiny. There are certain questions that should be asked of any non-profit and the answers don't always deserve to be accepted at face value.
Even the Red Cross, long considered by many to be one of the world's most credible nonprofits, was caught in a huge scandal after a 2015 NPR-ProPublica investigation exposed its misuse of funds meant for Haiti relief. The organization had a stellar reputation and published all the required financial disclosures but it took a major investigative journalism operation to uncover the real story.
In Search Of The Red Cross' $500 Million In Haiti Relief
All this is to say things aren't always what they seem. Evangelical super-churches, televangelists and broadcasters have an especially notorious reputation for getting caught in scandals. It's fair to look at these organizations and the executives who run them with a healthy amount of scrutiny. There are certain questions that should be asked of any non-profit and the answers don't always deserve to be accepted at face value.
Which no one argued. The issue was a complete misrepresentation of what EMF does that also managed to malign non-profits in general.
I'm not going to wade into that except to note that several people have jumped to EMF's defense by pointing out that they just air benign music programming. That simply ignores the psychology behind soft-pedaling religion as a strategy used by the church to indoctrinate people for centuries.
I believe the poster also accused EMF of spreading hate which may not be true in the literal sense, but what is true is that many of the people who do engage in acts of hate hide behind religion. It's also true that religion has been behind most wars in history and that the church is the driving force behind far-right initiatives like abolishing abortion, gay marriage, etc. We're not going to settle these kinds of subjects in an internet radio forum but it's clear that religion is highly divisive no matter how nicely and benignly it may be presented.
Non-profits most certainly don't deserve to be maligned as a category but due diligence is always required when deciding to support one. Earlier I said this...
It wasn't just rhetoric. Sometimes discovering that someone lives in an excessive home with exotic cars in the driveway and a yacht at the marina, is the first indication that something doesn't smell right. Televangelist Kenneth Copeland claimed God told him he needs a private jet – specifically, a Falcon 7X, and he showed off a photo of the three planes owned by his ministry that bore the caption "It's not about possessions, it's about priorities." Megachurch pastor John Gray gave his wife a $200,000 Lamborghini SUV for their eighth anniversary. I don't know whether EMF executives engage in this kind of personal excess but I do know the organization seems to be absolutely swimming in money. That always presents a risk for corruption -- and there is a pattern seen in this field -- so honestly it's a fair question.
The salaries are listed in the public financial reports.
In general, management at EMF makes less than what might be considered a comparable commercial broadcast position. The rest of the staff seems to make comparable fair wages and they get a nice benefit package.
Compared to even single market NPR management positions, the EMF people make lower executive salaries. Of course, NPR executives are expected to do local fund raising with corporate and big-donor candidates and that is a very separate skill which can merit high 6-figure incomes.
That may be true but please see my comments in post #402 regarding public financial reports, even from one of the most highly regarded non-profits.
The EMF reports are audited by a very respectable CPA firm. And, independently, I have heard that historically the EMF management lives quite conservatively and in line with the reported reasonable and low salaries.
One bad case out of millions of non-profits, ranging from hospitals to museums to things like the Elks and Masons, does not incriminate the entire group of organizations.
In fact, even the evangelicals who have planes and big houses disclose this to their followers and those who donate know that they are enhancing the lifestyle of the preachers and they are fine with that. The money they donate was already taxed as income by the donors, so what they do with it is, basically, "whatever they want to".
I never said it did, and I hope you're not suggesting that I'm trying to do that because I already stated earlier i believe in good nonprofits.
OK well I guess you win. I suppose I shouldn't find it surprising that sort of behavior passes for acceptable ethics in a radio forum.
This is not about relative perspectives on ethics. It's about the fact that those preachers who live excessive lifestyles are not hiding it from the donors... so those donors are choosing to reward their favorite preacher through their donations.
It seems bizarre to me. But if someone things that their tele-evangilist should live a regal lifestyle, I guess I could say "it's their money".
The music itself is already commercially successful. Major labels publish it. They simply play it the way a mainstream station would play Hot AC, AC, etc. They got so big because they have been more successful doing it. They don’t need to indoctrinate anybody. If anybody listening has been indoctrinated, it’s already been done.
20 years ago these were both pretty small, humble little networks. They had to merge Air1 and K-LOVE into EMF in order to carry on. That happened in 1999. Neither of them had many stations outside of Calfornia. I never would have imagined them growing as big as they did but it happened. They found a formula that people liked. People donate more money than they need, they use the excess to buy new stations. They tell them this “Because of your donations, we are now on in…” People are happy to hear this, and it continues.
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Exactly. Contemporary Christian music alone isn’t gonna indoctrinate anyone.
My only problem with EMF is that they have found a loophole to take away what would otherwise be at least partially local programming on thousands of stations but compared with the constant threat of losing our democracy, I'm willing to live with it!
It's not really a loophole. It's clearly stated in the law.
Who says another buyer if it wasnt EMF buying WFLO or what was WAAF, would keep local programming? There's no guarentee, and people seem to think anyone else who buy it would keep it local.
I very very rarely see any hate directed towards the seller in cases where EMF is buying.. its always EMFs fault, cuz you know, they held a gun to the sellers head LOLOL
From what I understand, the sellers approach EMF almost every time.
That is the case. They are the ones who will take stations off their hands quickly. Often when stations merge into other companies and they have to drop one because of limits, they go straight to EMF.
I'm not entirely sure what the story was in Chicago. Chicago was one of, if not their first major markets. The station was a suburban signal (Now WAWE) The owner at the time had shifted the station from AC to brokered Talk and Sports in the late 90s. Most of the schedule was leased out to One On One Sports (Now Sportsmap) Rest was leased out to other random programmers, and they would still fill unleased airtime with ABC Starstation. In early 2001, One on One Sports shifted to an AM signal fulltime (The current 820 WCPT) and the FM signal needed someone to replace the programming. The owner leased the station to EMF for K-LOVE with an 8 year lease with the option to buy. They simply ran EMF's satellite feed in the local studio. EMF bought the station in 2007, about year before that option would have been up. By 2007, EMF had already grown much bigger than it had been when they first went on the air in Chicago.
When they bought out 97.9, the owner (Merlin Media, Randy Michaels) was LMAing it to Cumulus who was in bankruptcy at the time. He wanted payments, they were not giving him what he wanted. So he went straight to EMF and sold the station. It went to K-LOVE, the suburban signal went to Air1.
About a year later, Alpha Media had to get rid of a shadow company that owned a pair of their suburban signals. They were at their limit, so they bought both of the stations owned by the shadow company and immediately sold one to EMF. That is the current WAWY.
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As BigA stated, there is no "loophole". Stations don't have to have a local studio any longer, and non-commercial translators don't even need a local station to translate. It is 100% legal to run a multitude of stations as repeaters for a "master" station.
I never said that loopholes weren't legal and in my way of thinking, if it doesn't apply to everyone, it's a loophole but apparently, that's not correct terminology. Let's try this tact: Are there local employees at any of their stations? Here's another: How do they justify operating in places with established commercial CCM stations?
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