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The WLRN studio in Miami.<\/p>\n
Miami Herald archives<\/p>\n
The future of South Florida\u2019s flagship NPR station is at risk.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s according to a letter signed by more than 30 employees \u2014 the majority of the staff at WLRN \u2014 and sent to the board that manages the station.<\/p>\n
The Feb. 22 letter, obtained by the Miami Herald, accuses senior leadership at South Florida Public Media Group (formerly Friends of WLRN) of taking a \u201cbelligerent combative stance\u201d in an ongoing legal dispute with the Miami-Dade County School Board<\/a>, which holds WLRN\u2019s broadcasting license.<\/p>\n Leadership\u2019s approach, the letter says, \u201chas led to an unthinkable scenario being the most likely outcome of the current conflict: South Florida \u2014 including all of Miami-Dade, Broward and Monroe counties \u2014 could lose its flagship NPR station, a station that has more than 75 years of history in this community.\u201d<\/p>\n WLRN is managed by an independent board of directors and also has internal leadership. WLRN staff called on the board of South Florida Public Media Group to \u201cconduct an immediate and independent review of executive leadership\u201d and to \u201cestablish and implement a formal transitional leadership plan,\u201d among other requests. The letter specifically cites concerns about the conduct of board chair Richard Rampell and CEO John LaBonia.<\/p>\n The dispute with the school board stems from South Florida Public Media Group moving to acquire a new radio station in West Palm Beach last year for $6.5 million, with plans to convert it into a public radio station.<\/p>\n Representatives for the school board and the WLRN board met Thursday for a mediation session, according to court records. The outcome of that session has not been publicly disclosed.<\/p>\n On Tuesday, two WLRN staffers told the Herald that LaBonia\u2019s office at the station\u2019s studio in Miami had been cleared out. Reached by text message, LaBonia told the Herald: \u201cAs we are still in mediation, I have no comment at this time.\u201d<\/p>\n Sergio Bustos, WLRN\u2019s vice president for news, said staffers were \u201cunaware of any changes in management at this time.\u201d<\/p>\n Details of the staff letter were first reported by Axios<\/a>. It was sent three days after an internal town hall at which staff said leadership \u201creinforced perceptions of defensiveness, lack of accountability, and an unwillingness to meaningfully engage with the realities experienced by employees across departments.\u201d<\/p>\n The contract between South Florida Public Media Group and the school board expires in June 2027. If the school board were to terminate it, or choose not to renew it, WLRN would face an uncertain future.<\/p>\n The station has been tied to the county school system since its inception in 1949. In addition to relying on the district for its broadcasting license, WLRN uses an office building in Miami that is owned by the school board.<\/p>\n When workers raised the possibility of losing the school board license during the town hall, Rampell, the WLRN board chair, \u201cstated that he could not imagine such an outcome and referenced ongoing litigation, declining to elaborate,\u201d according to the staff letter. But the 30-plus staffers who signed the letter say they believe that remains a real possibility.<\/p>\n \u201cThis scenario would make the Miami metropolitan area the only major population center in the entire nation without a functioning public radio news station,\u201d the letter said. \u201cIn plain terms, those are the stakes.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018A growing loss of trust\u2019<\/p>\n The Miami-Dade School Board sued South Florida Public Media Group in September, saying money from WLRN\u2019s endowment was \u201cwrongfully diverted\u201d to buy a station that would compete with WLRN for listeners and that the purchase violated a contract with the school district.<\/p>\n South Florida Public Media Group said at the time that the new station, The Flame 104.7, would \u201cbring vital news and information to an unduplicated audience of more than 800,000 residents \u2014 many of whom are currently unserved by robust public media coverage\u201d in Palm Beach County.<\/p>\n READ MORE: Miami-Dade school board sues WLRN\u2019s management over West Palm Beach radio deal<\/a><\/p>\n The town hall was called after a smaller group of WLRN staffers wrote an initial letter<\/a> to the South Florida Public Media Group board in January, saying there was \u201ca growing loss of trust in senior leadership\u2019s governance.\u201d<\/p>\n The more recent letter said that Rampell made incendiary remarks during the town hall about Jose Bueno, the chief of staff to the school district\u2019s superintendent. Rampell said Bueno should be called \u201cJose Malo,\u201d according to the letter, and described him as \u201cthe Superintendent\u2019s Ghislaine Maxwell.\u201d<\/p>\n Rampell also \u201crepeated sexually explicit language in full to the assembled staff\u201d when he referenced a Watergate-era statement<\/a> in which former U.S. Attorney General John Mitchell threatened the publisher of the Washington Post.<\/p>\n The comments \u201cwere offensive, derogatory, discriminatory and inflammatory,\u201d the letter said.<\/p>\n Rampell declined to comment to the Herald for this story.<\/p>\n Regarding the comparison to Maxwell, Rampell told Axios last week that Bueno \u201cdeserved every bit of that accusation,\u201d saying that Bueno \u201cwas nasty to me [and other leadership] and threw a bunch of false accusations at us.\u201d<\/p>\n In a September email, sent one day after the school board authorized its lawsuit, Rampell called Bueno \u201ca petty, small minded, vindictive bureaucrat\u201d and accused him and the school board of perpetuating \u201ca cowardly assault on the free press\u201d by filing the suit.<\/p>\n Rampell concluded the email: \u201cI guess Mark Twain was right when he said that at first God created idiots, that was for practice. Then he created school boards.\u201d<\/p>\n The school district said in a statement Tuesday that Rampell\u2019s comments \u201care categorically unfounded and deeply offensive.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMiami-Dade County Public Schools remains focused on the welfare of our students and the continued excellence of our media programming, and will not engage with rhetoric that serves only to disparage and distract,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n On the same day that he emailed Bueno, Rampell also emailed school board member Daniel Espino and called him a \u201ctwo-faced shamelessly ambitious politician.\u201d<\/p>\n Espino wrote in response that it was \u201cone of the most unprofessional emails I have ever received.\u201d<\/p>\n Attorneys for the school board filed copies of the emails in court<\/a>.<\/p>\n In a statement to the Herald, the school district said it is \u201cstrongly committed to ensuring that the integrity, quality, and good will of WLRN remain strong for our community.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOur priority is to protect the employees and resources that support the high-quality journalism and programming that make WLRN a community treasure,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n Members of the Miami-Dade County School Board during a meeting in Miami on March 19, 2025. Pedro Portal pportal@miamiherald.com <\/p>\n