Whether Ms. Niles, her management team and the station’s board of trustees were paying adequate respect to WBGO’s legacy was at the heart of the conflict. WBGO, which has an annual budget of about $5 million, recently focused on expanding the station’s editorial content. Nate Chinen, a former jazz critic for The New York Times, was hired by Ms. Niles in 2017 to be the head writer. The criticisms from the community, though, were less about the product and more about workplace culture and the role of the station in Newark. In the op-ed from November, the community activist Ronald Glover raised concerns that the station’s board and management were elitist and disproportionately white.

Source: New York Times January 29, 2020 22:41 UTC