By Ronald S. Glover
WBGO 88.3 FM is a cultural institution that was founded in Newark as a manifestation of the 1967 rebellion. For four decades, the station has filled the airwaves with prolific jazz programming. Jazz is the contribution of Black people to the shaping of America.
As a native son of the city of Whitney Houston, Imamu Amiri Baraka, Shaquille O’Neal, and Queen Latifah, I acknowledge that New Jersey’s largest city also has a heritage that speaks of Hannibal Goodwin, Seth Boyden, Jerry Lewis, and Philip Roth. However, as the African proverb states, “until the lions have their historians, the history of the hunt will always glorify the hunter.” You cannot tell the story of jazz without John Coltrane, Miles Davis, or Ella Fitzgerald. Similarly, you cannot tell the story of WBGO without mentioning the Newark rebellion of 1967, the influence of its founders — such as Dorthaan Kirk — on our city’s narrative, and the impact of WBGO on shaping the cultural heritage of not just Newark, but the country.
Recently, it was suggested that WBGO has moved away from its founding roots and is now governed and managed by an elitist white faction with little to no ties or commitment to be a voice of the community. This has left me deeply unsettled.
Currently, only five of the 15 members of WBGO’s Board of Trustees are people of color or women. The rest of the board is comprised of white men who, quite notably, have no cultural heritage or links to the city of Newark. Equally alarming, the senior management of the station is composed of white men and women, and their signature program, Jazz Night in America is run and operated by an all-white staff. The sanitization of the history of this institution is happening right before our eyes and ears, and I am sounding the alarm before we have nothing left of its story for the history books.
I am calling for full accountability of WBGO: financial, personnel, board appointments, the Community Advisory Board appointments; as well as how internal and external decisions are made. This is a public institution. It accepts public monies. Nothing should be private from the community. We demand transparency. Corporate and individual donors should demand an investigation of the financial records, vendor lists, decision-making policies, fiscal policies, and the treatment of employees and volunteers.
I am a contributing member to the station and was recently caught unaware of WBGO’s 40th Anniversary Gala, which was held at Capitale in New York City on Nov. 6. Is it because I am not a “high-end donor?" Apparently, however, I was not the only one who was slighted. Alexandra Hill, WBGO news anchor, reporter, and producer of Newark Today who’s worked at the station for more than seven years -- was also intentionally “uninvited” or excluded from the $1,200/ticket event. Other on-air hosts and selected staff were invited to participate in this historical moment, but not Ms. Hill and several other Black staffers.
The intentional exclusion of these employees is emblematic of deeper issues. This leaves us with a perceived stench of racism on the part of WBGO. While not calling out anyone in particular as a racist, the act of omission of a noted Black female news anchor and other Black staffers is questionable at the very least.
I believe that WBGO owes its listeners, and the Black community at large, an explanation. WBGO has to answer to the public on many levels and many issues. If the station can, seemingly with a voice of integrity, seek donations from its audience members, then it should also be held accountable to that same standard of integrity in providing an answer to this outrageous perception of racism on the part of its largely white management team. Newarkers will be tuned in.
Ronald S. Glover is a community activist who is closely associated with the NAACP, Seton Hall Preparatory School, Newark Symphony Hall and Essex County Regional School. He lives in West Orange.
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