12 March 2008
Contact:
SaveWCAL@hotmail.com
http://SaveWCAL.net
SaveWCAL Wins a Victory for Public Radio Supporters and WCAL Donors
Northfield, Minn.—A Special Master report submitted on March 7, 2008 to the Rice County District Court (Minn.) is an important victory for supporters of and donors to public radio station WCAL and St. Olaf College, according to Ruth Sylte, the president of SaveWCAL, an organization representing the donors to WCAL.
"It is a very good day for supporters of public radio and thousands of SaveWCAL supporters!" said Sylte. "The report confirms that listener donations and support do matter."
WCAL 89.3 FM was the first listener-supported radio station in the U.S. and a founding member of National Public Radio (NPR). Until its controversial sale, the station broadcast for more than 80 years from the St. Olaf campus in Northfield, Sylte explained. WCAL's major assets—a 100k watt C-1 FM license, Rosemount broadcasting tower and translator station KMSE 88.7 in Rochester—were sold on November 21, 2004 over the objections of thousands of donors and listeners for a reported $10.5 million by its trustee, St. Olaf College, to Minnesota Public Radio (MPR).
The Special Master's Report, containing more than 130 separate Findings of Fact and making Recommended Conclusions of Law on the subject of the Petition and Amended Petition filed by St. Olaf College regarding the WCAL charitable trust, includes the following highlights:
- The report recognizes that the WCAL donors created a charitable trust throughout more than 80 years of support to the station. This is exactly the position that SaveWCAL has advocated since the beginning of the current proceeding and, indeed, since October 5, 2004 when the organization specifically asked the Minnesota Attorney General to intervene in the sale of the trust's assets and the Attorney General declined. In fact, Special Master Judge Gary Meyer (ret.), specifically noted in his Memorandum that:
"The [Minnesota] Attorney General notes that St. Olaf has not formally petitioned the court regarding the proceeds of the sale of WCAL assets to MPR. But St. Olaf takes the position that none of the proceeds of the sale are subject to any restriction and that St. Olaf is entitled to use the proceeds for any purpose it desires. Thus, it is unlikely that St. Olaf would ever bring a petition asking for direction from the court regarding these funds. Although the Attorney General clearly could have, and perhaps should have, brought a petition to the court, they have not done so. Instead, the court is left with the current petition, which, in the interests of justice, must be expanded to include additional funds not specified in the petition." [Emphasis added by SaveWCAL]
- The report also finds that the assets that currently comprise the trust are far greater than what St. Olaf College had represented to the court in its Petition and Amended Petition. St. Olaf claimed that it held $1.36 million in the WCAL endowment and that it should have unrestricted access to approximately $860,000 of that amount with approximately $500,000 restricted to "Core WCAL Activities." The Special Master has found that the WCAL charitable trust has assets in excess of $5 million and that the use of those assets should be restricted to "Core WCAL Activities."
- The Special Master did not include the value of WCAL's FM license as an asset of the trust claiming that "it is impossible to discern from the record what assets were purchased with which funds or, most likely, combination of funds."Sylte pointed out that the report fails to recognize the fact that the license itself would have been lost long ago but for the support of WCAL donors. In order to renew its license, St. Olaf had to demonstrate to the FCC that the station was serving the public interest. It was able to do so, Sylte asserted, only because of the magnificent support of the WCAL donors. Indeed, the Special Master's Findings of Fact states:
"WCAL and St. Olaf had agreed on a goal of decreasing the St. Olaf cash contributions to WCAL and of eliminating them by 2005. From 1993 to 2004, St. Olaf's contributions to WCAL decreased from $350,000 (which was 21% of the 1993 WCAL operating budget) to $130,000 (which was 5% of the 2004 WCAL operating budget)."
As another example, Sylte related that the station would have been completely lost in 1924 if supporters had not raised the money to save WCAL after the College announced that it did not have the funds to operate the station. The station would have been lost a number of times without the donations of listeners, without which there simply would have been no license and therefore no assets for St. Olaf to sell in 2004.
Sylte also pointed out that St. Olaf College attorneys, in an attempt to prevent information that SaveWCAL supporters (or any member of the general public) might find from reaching the Court and the court-appointed Special Master, have been denying unrestricted public access to the college's archives, in direct conflict to the college's stated policy, since December 7, 2007.
- The report also does not address the trust status of the building in which WCAL was housed that was built, not with funds from St. Olaf College, but solely from the donations of WCAL listeners.
The submission of the Special Master's report is yet another step—a large one—in SaveWCAL's lengthy and continuing journey of more than three and a half years to obtain justice on behalf of the tens of thousands of WCAL donors, living and deceased, who gave millions of dollars to build and maintain a "unique and priceless public radio station" for more than eight decades, said Sylte. "The process is still continuing. We will continue to advocate that the WCAL charitable trust also includes the proceeds from the sale of the broadcast license. "
"Our efforts remain grounded in a deep affection for the college." added Sylte. SaveWCAL's primary goal has been to preserve the WCAL station and/or its charitable trust, preferably to spiritually, financially and educationally benefit its historical home institution, St. Olaf College, she said. "What we have achieved thus far," Sylte continued, "benefits St. Olaf by assuring its donors that they have a right to be heard and that their intentions should continually be honored."
The parties now await instructions from Rice County District Court Judge Gerald Wolf regarding how the hearing on the St. Olaf Petition and Amended Petition will proceed. Judge Gerald Wolf, who is presiding over the case, has the authority to accept or modify the Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law and proposed Order. A hearing is expected to be scheduled soon.
BACKGROUND / TIMELINE
Note: The links in this section lead to blog entries with additional details regarding the events and, in some cases, downloadable PDFs of relevant documents.
- In August 2004 St. Olaf College suddenly announced that its Board of Regents had decided to sell the 100K watt C-1 license and Rosemount broadcasting tower of WCAL 89.3 FM radio station—the first listener-supported radio station in the USA—and its translator station, Rochester's KMSE 88.7, to MPR for a reported $10.5 million. In spite of strong opposition, including a petition to St. Olaf with more than 5,000 signatures and unsuccessful pleadings before the FCC, the station was sold to MPR and ceased broadcasting as WCAL/KMSE on November 21, 2004–just three days after the82nd anniversary of the station's official founding.
- At the time, St. Olaf College was holding at least $2.9 million in endowment funds for the benefit of WCAL radio station.
- On December 28, 2006 St. Olaf College filed a Petition in Rice County (Minn.) District Court seeking a release of all restrictions on two categories of gifts in the WCAL charitable trust endowment that it now classified as the restricted non-endowment gifts and the undocumented gifts. When the gifts were made, the College placed the gifts in both categories in the WCAL endowment. It asserted in its Petition that the donors of the gifts in the first category did not specifically direct St. Olaf to place their gifts in the WCAL endowment. As for the second category, St. Olaf claimed that it was not able to find documents to explain the decision the College made to place the gifts in the WCAL endowment. The College asserted that total market value of the gifts in both categories as of April 30, 2006 was approximately $961,000.00. [This leaves at least $1,939,000 of the WCAL charitable trust endowment funds listed in 2004 still unaccounted for]
- On January 12, 2007 the Minnesota Attorney General's office responded to the filing in a letter to St. Olaf College, raising some technical questions about the Petition. This caused St. Olaf to request a continuance of the scheduled hearing and the hearing was rescheduled for March 8, 2007.
- On February 27, 2007 SaveWCAL attorney Michael McNabb sent a five page Letter Memorandum to the Rice County District Court to inform the Court of issues related to the Petition filed by St. Olaf. The letter stated:
- On March 6, 2007, just seven days after McNabb sent his Letter Memorandum to the Rice County District Court, St. Olaf College suddenly submitted an Amended Petition which completely removed St. Olaf's previous assertions of the WCAL charitable trust funds as a "charitable trust". Also removed was one exhibit previously submitted by St. Olaf after an heir of the donor notified the Attorney General and Court that what St. Olaf had presented in its Petition was not the wishes of the donor.
- On March 8, 2007 SaveWCAL attorney McNabb received the permission of the court to participate in the hearing. Additional hearing sessions were held on April 13 and May 25.
- On October 16, 2007 Rice County District Court Judge Gerald J. Wolf issued two Orders. The first Order and Memorandum indicated that the Judge is reserving a decision on the St. Olaf Amended Petition pending the result of a full investigation by a special master appointed by the second Order to, among other things, "investigate and determine the amount of assets and donations that are attributable to WCAL…" without limitation. The order also confirmed the standing of SaveWCAL as a representative of the WCAL donors. It should be noted that SaveWCAL was the only party in the case to request that a special master be appointed and that a full investigation take place.
- On October 22, 2007 Judge Gary Meyer (ret.) accepted the appointment of Judge Gerald Wolf as Special Master for the St. Olaf College Petition. The Special Master was instructed to report his findings and his recommendation to the Court within 60 days of his appointment. The Special Master was also instructed that he could request additional time in order to complete the investigation. On December 17, 2007 Judge Gerald Wolf issued an Order extending the deadline for the Special Master to submit his report and recommendations to February 15, 2008. On February 15, 2008 Judge Gerald Wolf signed another Order extending the deadline for the Special Master's report to March 15, 2008.
"A thorough investigation will reveal that the court has the facts and the law to declare that the assignment of the license for 89.3 FM to MPR is void on the grounds that (1) it was a breach of its fiduciary duty as trustee for St. Olaf to create the circumstances which rendered it impossible to honor the intention of the donors and (2) St. Olaf failed to obtain the authorization of the court to terminate the charitable trust as required under Minn. Stat. 501B.41 subd. 2 and therefore St. Olaf did not have the lawful authority to assign or sell the assets of the WCAL charitable trust. In the alternative, the court could declare that the WCAL endowment fund (all $2.9 million) and the $10.5 million received from MPR constitute part of a continuing charitable trust and that pursuant to Minn. Stat. 501B.31 subd. 2 the trust must be administered to accomplish as nearly as possible the intention of the donors. "
Documents submitted to the Rice County District Court Special Master by the various parties (Minnesota Attorney General, St. Olaf College and SaveWCAL) are available for download in PDF format at: http://savewcal.net/2008/03/12/savewcal-releases-documentation-submitted-to-special-master/
# # # #
SaveWCAL is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that grew out of St. Olaf College's decision to sell essential and irreplaceable assets of the WCAL charitable trust, thus destroying the first listener supported public radio station in the USA—a founding member station of National Public Radio (NPR) and a leading member of AMPERS (now Minnesota Independent Public Radio).
Since 2004, St. Olaf has been attempting to dismantle the trust and repurpose millions of dollars in funds given to the WCAL charitable trust by tens of thousands of donors over the course of more than 80 years.
SaveWCAL is made up of WCAL donors and listeners, St. Olaf College students, alumni, staff, faculty, parents and friends who care deeply about the station and its service to the college and the community. Our intention has always been to save the station to benefit the college—spiritually, historically, financially and educationally. More than 5,000 individuals signed the SaveWCAL petition in 2004.
For further information, see http://SaveWCAL.net
{ 31 comments… read them below or add one }
..while the charitable trust amount is a big win. However- without a license, you have no station and therefore WCAL still has not been saved.
Where is your plan to use the $5 million in the charitable trust, now re-established, to start a new station? You have no license, no plan to start a new station, and one overblown press release where a single person, who enjoys being in the paper, is the only person quoted.
SaveWCAL responds:
At this point, the Special Master has recommended that the $5 million in the WCAL trust remain with the original trustee, St. Olaf College, to be used for "core WCAL activities."
SaveWCAL's primary goal has always been to ensure that WCAL and/or its charitable trust preferably benefit–spiritually, financially and educationally–its historical home institution, St. Olaf College.
That said, we need to remind readers that a trustee is not allowed, legally or morally, to benefit from a trust that it has destroyed. St. Olaf College has admitted in court documents that, when it became convenient for it to do so, it decided to cash in what it thought it "owned" and to benefit from the windfall it would receive. In legal terms, that's "conversion". In plain English, theft. It remains to be seen how the judge will decide this particular issue.
As for the license, we remind readers of the facts. When MPR bought the WCAL license, it bought the last C-1 100K watt FM license in the region. There are no more available. Period.
This is one of the reasons that SaveWCAL has been advocating for the Court to void the sale, which is a legitimate legal remedy to the current situation (no pun intended):
"A thorough investigation will reveal that the court has the facts and the law to declare that the assignment of the license for 89.3 FM to MPR is void on the grounds that (1) it was a breach of its fiduciary duty as trustee for St. Olaf to create the circumstances which rendered it impossible to honor the intention of the donors and (2) St. Olaf failed to obtain the authorization of the court to terminate the charitable trust as required under Minn. Stat. 501B.41 subd. 2 and therefore St. Olaf did not have the lawful authority to assign or sell the assets of the WCAL charitable trust. In the alternative, the court could declare that the WCAL endowment fund (all $2.9 million) and the $10.5 million received from MPR constitute part of a continuing charitable trust and that pursuant to Minn. Stat. 501B.31 subd. 2 the trust must be administered to accomplish as nearly as possible the intention of the donors."
SaveWCAL believes that any trustee of the WCAL charitable trust (St. Olaf College or any another appropriate entity determined by the court) should not be crippled in its ability and mission to fulfill the intent of the WCAL trust because of the lack of a license, tower and translator/repeater station in Rochester that belonged to the WCAL prior to St. Olaf's illegal and ill-advised sale of those assets. We strongly feel that any true trustee of the WCAL trust would *never* have sold off the most essential and irreplaceable assets of this venerable trust.
As we have stated on many occasions, SaveWCAL is truly a team effort.
The SaveWCAL President is the designated spokesperson for the organization. It is her responsibility to be the public face and voice of SaveWCAL. Our press release was vetted by a number of SaveWCAL legal and public relations advisers. While it may not meet your stringent qualifications, it met theirs. And we're OK with that…
This seems like a very good day for supporters of WCAL. Do you think this will be in the newspapers tomorrow? When is the next hearing?
I moved out of MN a couple of years ago but KUDOS to all of you on this important matter.I was shocked and disgusted by what MPR did and so glad that they aren't going to get away with it!
While attending a concert last evening, my young companion asked me if I listen to something called The Current. My consequent rant probably put that subject permanently on her better-not-mention list but it refreshed my sense of loss about what was once the best classical music and news station in Minnesota. The SaveWCAL announcement today couldn't have come at a better time. It's wonderful news! Thank you, SaveWCAL and Michael McNabb, for your efforts in this worthy cause.
SaveWCAL responds:
The SaveWCAL effort is truly a team effort, encompassing important contributions from many individuals — some of whom, understandably, we are unable to acknowledge publicly at this time. All of us appreciate being appreciated. Thank you. The SaveWCAL board is pleased that we can continue to honestly say in 2008 what was said at the WCAL Service of Thanksgiving in the fall of 2004: "If SaveWCAL was certain that every possible effort had been exhausted, we would tell you that openly and honestly. We once again say to you, 'It is not over, and there is still work to be done.' "
Thank you.
I listened to WCAL for many years all the way back to when I taught at a local college and listened to WCAL every day on my drive to and from work. I was/am very annoyed with St. Olaf for their sellout of WCAL to MPR, another organization of which I'm not too fond.
Like you, the Current is something that is on a "better-not-discuss-it" list for me and those near me. My blood pressure goes up, I feel like vomiting, and I do start yelling at the radio every time I happen to go past that station on the spectrum. As a result of the sale, I have stopped listening to classical music on the radio.
I haven't listened to any MPR related station since WCAL died. And every time I get a "begging" letter from MPR or St. Olaf, I simply write "SaveWCAL" on the pledge card, pop it in the pre-addressed "stamped" envelope (they can pay the postage with the profits of their ill-gotten gains) and mail it back to them. I don't expect it means much to them, but it makes me feel Oh So Much Better.
Thanks for hanging in there.
I've teared up over this. So seldom does justice work and it needs lots of nurturing. In this case, it has had that. Thank you.
Thank you, thank you for all that you have done to help us save our dear WCAL! The Special Master's report is a big step forward. It recognizes the sins that were committed by a money-hungry college president and Board of Regents. Now it is up to Judge Wolf to take it from there and repair the damage.
What a great idea! I'll use it myself!
I like your idea about responding to solicitations from MPR. I feel the same way and will start doing what you do. Maybe if a lot of us do that, it will make a point. I'm sure MPR expected a good share of WCAL listeners to become MPR listeners/supporters. I too feel sick at any mention of or contact with the Current. Kitty
Thanks for keeping on keeping on! Prior to the buy-out/sell-out I contributed quite regularly to both MPR and WCAL; the latter being my preferred station but also a regular listener to MPR. When MPR requested donations on their next annual fund drive I thought: How absurd. MPR can afford to buy my favorite station and now they are asking me to help pay for removing it as a listening option and reducing my classical options from two to one; Thanks but no thanks! Thank you, Save WCAL, for continuing the effort!
I bet St. Olaf will end up wishing they'd negotiated with SaveWCAL to work out a deal. …They're gonna lose millions over this because of their tremendous arrogance.
Now, keep up the fight!
By the way, the main "Core WCAL Activity," the object that devoured the most time and energy and funds, was RUNNING A CLASSICAL MUSIC STATION.
SaveWCAL responds:
As our supporters know, SaveWCAL has tried to open a dialog with St. Olaf on a number of occasions since the sale was announced in 2004. The St. Olaf leadership (both senior administrators and the members of the Board of Regents) have rebuffed or ignored every invitation, save for the almost "infamous" meeting of September 14, 2004 [see http://savewcal.livejournal.com/17162.html.
Our door remains open. And we sincerely mean that.
And yes, you are correct, the "Core WCAL Activity" is running a public radio station. The "Core WCAL Activities" that St. Olaf College has defined in its Petition to the court were defined by a senior St. Olaf administrator who admitted under oath in the courtroom that he had not been a WCAL listener. We wonder how someone so unfamiliar with WCAL could have presumed to define (or, more precisely, produce a "Reader's Digest" version of) "WCAL core activities" for the purposes of a court action…
Indeed, there is a certain irony in the fact that St. Olaf's Petition sought to release funds and keep approximately $500,000 for "core WCAL activities"– but now finds the Special Master's Report recommending that St. Olaf be required to keep more than $5 million in trust for these same and somewhat expanded "core WCAL activities".
St. Olaf College thought that it would be able to use the funds from the sale for its own unrestricted purposes. Instead, it may find a significant amount of the sale profits are now "locked" into a trust that requires St. Olaf to do essentally what WCAL was already doing in 2004 *at no cost to the college*!
However, these are not the only possible results of the judge's decision and, as usual, we prefer not to speculate on what may result from the hearing on St. Olaf's Petition and Amended Petition.
If SaveWCAL wants to continue this fight, so be it…but don't, in the same breath, say that what you are doing "benefits" St. Olaf. Paying legal fees to fight this is in St. Olaf's best interests? Trying to take money from the college's coffers "benefits" St. Olaf? Save WCAL is doing NOTHING that supports the college, and it's disingenuous to claim otherwise. I'm a St. Olaf employee, and would love to see SaveWCAL go away…and at minimum, stop trying to pretend that you're working in concert with and for the benefit of the college. You are not. I'm certain this won't get posted, as only comments supporting your cause are, but the claim that you're benefitting St. Olaf by carrying this on is an out and out lie.
SaveWCAL responds:
We're happy to post your comment because it give us the opportunity to correct fundamental misunderstandings that you (and others) have.
FACT: WCAL always was and continues to be a charitable trust. St. Olaf has admitted to the court that it treated WCAL as a charitable trust until 2004. The Attorney General has determined that WCAL is a trust. The Special Master confirms this.
FACT: There are state laws that govern how a trust (WCAL) must be handled by its trustee (St. Olaf).
FACT: A trust's assets, by law, must be used for the intent of the trust.
Therefore — and this is very important — the WCAL charitable trust and all its assets (and we simply cannot state this strongly enough) *NEVER BELONGED TO ST. OLAF COLLEGE IN THE FIRST PLACE*.
WCAL was not – as St. Olaf has falsely claimed – simply an asset that it could dispose of at will and collect the profits to use for its own purposes. A trustee is not allowed, legally or morally, to use a trust that way. St. Olaf College admitted in court documents that, when it became convenient for it to do so, it decided to cash in what it thought it "owned" and to benefit from the windfall it would receive. In legal terms, that's "conversion". In plain English, theft.
St. Olaf College may be affiliated with a church, but it is not run by divine intervention. It is run by sinful human beings who made a decision based in greed and ignorance, compounded by doing so in secrecy and by violating both federal and state law. These are FACTS, not opinion.
The leadership of St. Olaf College apparently didn't know (or perhaps didn't want to hear) who actually built WCAL:
* St. Olaf didn't create WCAL and relied mainly on donors (not college funds) to maintain and sustain the station.
* St. Olaf contributed $0 to the budget of the station from 1924-circa 1958.
* The entire Skifter Radio building was paid for solely by WCAL donors.
* The Rosemount tower was paid for solely by WCAL donors.
* By 1985, the St. Olaf contributions were less than 50% of WCAL's annual budget. 10 years later, it was less than 25%. In 2005, it was $0.
This matter is before a court because the Petition/Amended Petition was initiated and filed by St. Olaf College (not SaveWCAL), as is required of trustees by Minnesota state law in order to make certain changes to charitable trust assets. This begs the question of why St. Olaf did not file the required Petition when it sold WCAL assets in 2004. This is the proverbial "elephant in the room" around which all the parties are moving.
Are we helping the College? You bet! St. Olaf College made a promise to WCAL donors for more than 80 years to continue the WCAL trust (this is documented) — and then the College decided to break its promise when it was expedient for it to do so. The sooner the college recognizes its grievous error and returns to its own principles, the sooner it can heal the rift with its donors and supporters.
SaveWCAL has been the "whistleblower" in this situation, which is what you would expect of St. Olaf graduates who clearly understand the meaning of the St. Olaf Honor Code.
The St. Olaf College leadership (especially the Board of Regents) have no one to blame but themselves for what is happening. They created this situation, not SaveWCAL. All we can say is: All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. (Romans 3:23)
St. Olaf still has an opportunity – and the power – to redeem itself RIGHT NOW and SaveWCAL has spelled this out in private and public communications to the College time and time again. At this point, St. Olaf is choosing not to engage in any corrective action.
We welcome constructive participation on our blog. Normally, we wouldn't bring this up, but… We note that you're claiming that you're a "St. Olaf employee". However, we note that you are posting your comment from a Carleton College server. We sincerely hope that this is not due to any fear on your part of possible repercussions or reprisals from St. Olaf if you post from their servers.
For those that are interested, SaveWCAL President is currently discussing these issues on Northfield's Locally Grown blog at http://locallygrownnorthfield.org/archives/3136/ and we have used some of her comments in this posting.
SaveWCAL responds with a further clarification:
A clarification for our readers regarding St. Olaf's "ownership" of the WCAL trust.
St. Olaf College may have held legal title to the WCAL trust but like any trustee St. Olaf had a fiduciary, legal and ethical obligation to use the assets for the beneficiaries (the WCAL donors and listeners) and not for its own purposes.
I'm in a cyber cafe in Paris & just forwarded the email.
Was always a huge asset to the college, had a mission of educating listeners about music, and promoted the college far and wide. What is willfully disingenuous is to suggest that SaveWCAL, in trying to restore it, is not actually acting in the best interests of the college.
JB in OH
If MPR bought the last license, and the special master is not willing to recommend voiding the sale, how is the special master's report a big win for SaveWCAL? It is, in fact, a huge loss because WCAL has not been saved.
SaveWCAL responds: The hearing is not over. Judge Wolf, who is presiding over the case, has the authority to accept or modify the Findings of Fact, Recommended Conclusions of Law and Recommended Order.
I'm shocked that a St. Olaf employee would defend the college's illegal actions and attempted coverups. Loyalty over and above legality and ethics? Who is lying? Time to clean house up on the Hill.
Maybe St. Olaf just didn't want to face the music? ;-)
Well,
Seems to me that when someone has purchased stolen property and that property still exists, by law it's returned to the rightful owner.
The case then becomes that the recipient of said stolen property tries to get their monies back from the wrongful seller.
Put WCAL back as it was and let MPR and St Olaf take it from there!!!
Why would anyone fault the party that was defrauded? WHY?
Aren't stolen guns returned to their owners when they prove ownership?
With tears of sadness, an 87 year old Ole remembers getting up Sunday mornings at 4 a.m. to practice the hymns to be sung by the choir at the Norwegian and Swedish worship services. He regrets the day St. Olaf gave away a big part of its heritage.
During the 1948 presidential campaign, Harry S Truman gave a stump speech. Someone in the crowd said "Give ‘em hell, Harry!" and Truman responded:
"I don't give them Hell. I just tell the truth about them and they think it's Hell."
I'm surprised that SaveWCAL hasn't brought this up yet — but has it ever occurred to the above "St. Olaf employee" that St. Olaf would not be "paying legal fees" for this mess at all if they'd honored their responsibilities or done their homework or obeyed the law or listened to their donors in the first place? Be honest, indeed. Put the blame where it really belongs.
Thank you for that touching recollection from WCAL in the past. The Station in its early years and decades later broadcast many hours of "religious" programming, in song and word. The foreign language worship broadcast from the "Mission House" were treasured by listeners, the church and the college of the past.
(Just to help you imagine what would be similar in our time, think of Lutheran services broadcast in the language of Hispanic, Somali, and Hmong immigrants.)
But St. Olaf in 2008 law submitted a memorandum of law ("Forever is a very long time") to the Special Master that pointed to court cases regarding hospitals that sold charitable assets. The memorandum says:
" … although WCAL's broadcasts were certainly an amenity which enhanced the lives of listeners within its broadcast range, those broadcasts were hardly essential to the Minnesota community in the way that health
care services are."
"Health care is obviously an essential community service, so donors from the community should be able to count on the continuation of healthcare services their gifts have helped to provide. In contrast, broadcasts of classical and religious music and commentary are pleasing, informative, and uplifting, but hardly essential"
St. Olaf has declared to the court that all those 80 years of broadcasts from the WCAL studios, from Boe chapel, from from Central Lutheran and Bethany Lutheran in Minneapolis were simply "amenities".
The tears of the now 87 year old choir member are well shed.
Phil, thank you for your to-the-point letter about the "amenities." I wonder if the St. Olaf attorneys consulted the Boe Chapel pastors, the President, or the Board of Regents before they used language suggesting that such amenities are "hardly essential." And St. Olaf is paying huge fees to their attorneys for that language?! If St. Olaf allows that language to go unchallenged what further mayhem will they allow? I suggest that many of the current Regents are "hardly essential" to positive growth and attitude at St. Olaf.
Your letter should be required reading by the ELCA hierarchy, the seminaries, St. Olaf alumni, donors to St. Olaf, the religion faculty, the music faculty, the rest of the faculty, churches which encourage their high schoolers to attend a "church college," parents who foot the bill for a church college education and believe it is an "essential" part of that education.
Your letter should be forwarded to as many people as possible to show where St. Olaf is intentionally putting their money and their mouths.
Will the "Core WCAL Activities" be phased out when "practicable"?
SaveWCAL responds:
We agree. Many people should read the document Phil Voxland references. It is a Letter Memorandum submitted by St. Olaf College to the Rice County District Court Special Master as apart of the investigation.
You can download the full 11 page document, that the St. Olaf attorneys titled "Forever Is A Very Long Time", here: http://savewcal.net/docs/080205_StOlafLetterMemorandum01.pdf
This document is a part of the public record and can be distributed.
Thank you for continuing the fight. I dream of the day when I will have a second classical station. How I miss it.
Having just caught up on the last few months of developments and comments, I applaud your efforts (and am glad to read that Paul Peterson's still in the fray – I was always jealous of that great voice).
But it's probably fair to ask – how DO you plan to carry on the core activites if you prevail? Is there any chance you can establish a station to carry on with the "regained" transmitter and tower? (It would also be great to think the call sign could be restored I suspect that's more nostalgic than it is reasonable or necessary)
Maybe you've addressed these issues and I missed it in my abbreviated reading, but if not, at the risk of planning prematurely for success, I think you should. I think it's clear that St. Olaf college has demonstrated it is an unsuitable trustee of these assets, and trusting them to resume the core activites in light of their track record seems a poor stewardship of the assets if they are recovered.
I nevertheless will keep cheering you on.
Don Huston '80
SaveWCAL responds:
We deeply appreciate the interest and support. However, SaveWCAL believes that it is inappropriate for us to be publicly discussing or addressing any "future plans" when there are current and possible future court proceedings yet to be decided — as well as other possible events or circumstances that may occur — all of which will certainly have an impact on any such future plans. That said, we can assure you that the SaveWCAL board and advisors have discussed a number of possibilities with which we may be presented in the future.