On August 9, 2004, the WCAL Board met for a regularly scheduled business meeting, with no awareness by most of those present that the entire meeting was meaningless.
At that time, the WCAL Board is believed to have included:
- Board President John Sandbo of Minneapolis, Minnesota
- Board Vice President Phillip Gainsley of Minneapolis, Minnesota (Attorney-at-Law)
- Dixon Bond of Northfield, Minnesota (Northfield City Council Member)
- Judith Cederberg '66 of Northfield, Minnesota (Associate Professor of Mathematics, St. Olaf College )
- Dayna Deutsch of Saint Paul, Minnesota (Vice President / Director of Special Projects and Community Affairs, KSTP-TV)
- John Gaddo of Northfield, Minnesota (General Manager, WCAL)
- Laura Langer '73 of Minnetonka, Minnesota (Director of Marketing & Communications, Barrett Moving & Storage)
- Jan McDaniel of Prior Lake, Minnesota (Vice President for College Relations, St. Olaf College)
- Eric Molho '93 of Saint Paul, Minnesota (Marketing Manager, 3M)
- Walter Ringer III of Minneapolis, Minnesota (Vice Chairman & CEO, The Foley Companies and Member, St. Olaf College Board of Regents)
- Gloria Sewell of Minneapolis, Minnesota
- Steven Smith, M.D. of Rochester, Minnesota (Associate Professor of Medicine, Mayo Clinic)
- Lynn Stranghoener '76 of Plymouth, Minnesota
Two members of the board were going off the board at the time of the meeting (perhaps Smith and Sewell). Two new members had been appointed, composer Libby Larsen and Minnesota Orchestra President Richard Cisek.
As former long-time General Manager Paul Peterson '56 stated in his November 18, 2004, email to the St. Olaf Regents:
It is my understanding that the President of the WCAL Board, the WCAL General Manager and new appointees to the WCAL Board were told in confidence of the decision to sell prior to the August 9 meeting but were bound to say nothing prior to the executive session. The new appointees were apparently given the courtesy of this information in case they would not want to spend their time in a make-believe session. One of the new appointees nevertheless attended–perhaps out of curiosity about such an extraordinary situation. Members of the WCAL Board can verify this account concerning the WCAL Board's exclusion from any consultation prior to August 5.
The WCAL board was allowed to meet and conduct business as usual for more than an hour (a totally useless exercise considering the announcement that St. Olaf administrators were about to make),before the executive session was called. At the end of the meeting, the board was called into executive session and Jan McDaniel, St. Olaf Vice President for College Relations, informed the board of the sale of the station. The WCAL Board was in no way brought into a discussion of this issue. It was simply informed of the decision to sell–case closed.
It should be noted that McDaniel and Ringer, by virtue of being members of the WCAL Board, may have been in breach of their fiduciary duties as directors of WCAL by being involved with the sale of the WCAL charitable trust assets.
