In the letter he says, “At this point, this is wage theft, plain and simple.”

April 27, 2015

Accounts Payable
CUMULUS MEDIA INC., CUMULUS BROADCASTING INC.
3280 Peachtree Road, NW Suite 2300
Atlanta, Georgia 30305

CC: Barbara Haynes, General Manager
Cumulus Media Providence
1502 Wampanoag Trail
East Providence, RI 02915

Hello,

My name is Philip Eil and I am a freelance journalist based in Providence, Rhode Island. I’m writing to collect payment for four articles, totaling over 11,500 words, I wrote for 630wpro.com (the website for the Cumulus-owned News Talk 630 & 99.7 FM WPRO, based in East Providence, Rhode Island) in November and December of 2014. The sum of the fees for these articles is $1,350, and my late fees (which I explain at the end of this letter) add up to an additional $684.50. In total, Cumulus Media and/or WPRO owe me $2,034.50, and I am demanding this payment immediately to avoid further legal action.

It’s not customary for me to demand payment from a publicly traded corporation, so some explanation is in order. In October of 2014, the Providence Phoenix (the weekly newspaper where I had worked as news editor) closed. Shortly thereafter, I was approached by WPRO’s Digital Media Director, who was interested in expanding the web content on 630wpro.com. We talked about what he was looking for and the kinds of articles I was interested in writing, and we agreed upon terms that were laid out in a contract that I ultimately signed and submitted on November 17, 2014. On October 31, 2014, 630wpro.com published an article introducing me as a freelance contributor which included a quote from the station’s Program Director: “We are excited to have new, original content from someone as respected as Phil available to us…The original content and perspective he provides will be invaluable to our on-air hosts and online delivery.” That post has since been removed from the website, but I have attached a printed version.

My first article for 630wpro.com, “Campaign 2014: A Look Back,” was published on November 3, 2014, and three more articles followed before year’s end: a 5,000-word interview with the outgoing governor of Rhode Island, Lincoln Chafee; an in-depth report on the state’s use and distribution of the anti-overdose medication, Narcan; and a 3,000-word year-in-review article published in late December. When I still had received no payment after submitting the fourth article, I decided to stop working on new pieces.

So began a still-fruitless quest to be compensated for the contracted work I had done for WPRO – all work that has been published on 630wpro.com alongside ads that presumably generate revenue for the station. Though I had already inquired about the status of my payment in November and December, in January I wrote numerous additional emails and made additional phone calls to various station employees. Despite these repeated inquiries, I received no paycheck.

On January 22, 2015 – more than two months after I had sent my first invoice – I received this email from WPRO’s Business Manager:

Hi Phillip – during the year-end process, payable runs are fewer and farther between as opposed to the normal weekly runs.  We don’t cut the checks here, they are processed at the corporate level.  I only get reports once per week and will know on Monday if they cut your check this Thursday.  If they haven’t, I will get you a cashier’s check and expense it on my monthly expense report.  I apologize but it is beyond my control.  We haven’t had the ability to cut checks locally since Cumulus took over three years ago.

Still, no check arrived. I made more phone calls and wrote more emails. On February 3 – nearly three months after I first sent an invoice to WPRO – I received this email from the same business manager, following up on a phone call in which she said the check was being overnight-mailed to me:

Hi Phil – I just wanted to let you know that due to the storm yesterday the FEDEX package was not picked up.  It is going out today so you should have it tomorrow.

Still, no check arrived. I made more phone calls and wrote more emails. On February 11, I received this note from the Digital Media Director who had initially approached me about working for WPRO:

I was notified that [the Business Manager] is no longer with the company.

There is a corporate business manager in the building and I have reported the missing check to our GM.

Stand by…

Still, no check arrived. I made more calls and wrote more emails. On April 7 – more than four months after I sent my first invoice to WPRO – I received this note from the station’s Program Director.

Hi Phil,

I got your message.  I am so sorry this has happened.  I know [Digital Media Director] mentioned quite a while ago that you were waiting for money. I thought you had been paid.  I will find out what is happening with this and get back to you as soon as I can.

Again, no check arrived. And, as of today, 161 days (5 months, 10 days) after I filed my first invoice, and numerous months after filing invoices for subsequent articles, I still have not been paid for the work I did for 630wpro.com.

While I understand that unforeseen circumstances and personnel issues may have contributed to the delay, I – an independent contractor – should not have to suffer for your company’s internal dysfunction. At this point, this is wage theft, plain and simple. I am not an amateur journalist and my work is not a hobby for me. When I am misled and taken advantage of for nearly six months, I will not remain silent. Last week, after months of private efforts to resolve this situation proved ineffective, I wrote a Facebook post about it, which, in turn, was written about in a local Patch.com article, which, in turn, was picked up by the national media blogger Jim Romenesko, who wrote, “Shame on you, Cumulus Media’s WPRO!” I will continue to tell my story until I am paid.

As you can see, I am CC’ing Barbara Haynes, General Manager of Cumulus Providence, and I will also be simultaneously publishing this letter on the blog rifuture.org. As for the late fees I mentioned, when a client does not pay me within 90 days of receiving my invoice, I assess a fee of one percent of the agreed-upon payment for every additional day that payment is received. In this case, I sent WPRO a $250 invoice for my first article on November 17, 2014. It has been 71 days since the 90-window expired, thus a $177.50 fee has accrued. Add to this the fees from the other three unpaid articles ($260, $160, and $87, respectively) and the total comes to $684.50. Added together, these fees will continue to rise at a total of $13.50 for every day I am not paid.

You will find an invoice for those late fees – as well as my initial WPRO invoices and a printed copy of the 630wpro.com article trumpeting my arrival as a contributor – attached to this letter.

I sincerely hope I receive a check for $2,034.50 as soon as possible. A public apology would be nice, too.

Sincerely,

Philip Eil

Freelance Journalist, Editor, and Teacher
[My email address.]
[My phone number.]

The Providence American

The writer describes tuning into The John DePetro Show and listening to a discussion about Ebola. DePetro’s reports, according to the writer, were “inaccurate and rumor-based.” DePetro suggested that “restrictions be placed on the movement of Liberians coming into RI.”

I have written many times in the past about DePetro’s lurid, misanthropic and hateful rhetoric. The radio host is an embarrassment to WPRO and taints the otherwise fine work being done by WPRO news. Now DePetro is seeking to stigmatize an entire ethnic group here in Rhode Island for ratings and entertainment.

I am beyond being surprised by how low DePetro will go. What does surprise me is the tolerance for DePetro demonstrated by the owners of WPRO who, by providing DePetro a platform for his bile, support racism, misogyny, anti-Semitism, homophobia and intolerance.  WPRO almost single-handedly drags the entire public conversation into the mud, and it’s almost entirely the fault of DePetro.

Fortunately, more and more people are starting to speak out against WPRO and DePetro. In doing so, we are affirming the worth and dignity of the people DePetro attempts to dehumanize. The Providence American piece says it well. “John DePetro is NO more a Rhode Islander than any other member of the Liberian community. He needs to realize this and know that his rights as a citizen ends where the rights and liberties of other Rhode Islanders begin, and that includes members of the Liberian community in RI!”

You can read the entire op-ed here: WHO IS THIS JOHN DEPETRO (JOHN DEPETRO RADIO SHOW ON WPRO RADIO) IN RHODE ISLAND?

“It is incomprehensible to us that he has yet to be fired, and WPRO management should be ashamed that they employ such a person,” said Maureen Martin, chairwoman of For Our Daughters, the group leading the campaign against DePetro.

Martin and other activists organized the For Our Daughters group specifically to target DePetro. By highlighting his often obnoxious and insulting behavior, the group hopes WPRO will take him off the air.

According to a For Our Daughters press release: “The coalition will be distributing the video to WPRO management, Cumulus management, WPRO’s current and potential advertisers, and other state, elected, and business leaders. They also plan to widely distribute the video over YouTube and social media.”

The entire congressional delegation, nearly every statewide politician (with the very notable exception of Attorney General Peter Kilmartin) and more than 70 state legislators have refused to appear on his radio show. You can see the full list here. “We are very proud of the elected officials and candidates who are participating,” Martin said, “and this video will reassure them that they are doing the right thing by taking a strong stance against his vile brand of hatred.”

The boycott has noticeably crippled his show. (Last week he rebroadcast most of RI Future’s entire 25-minute with gubernatorial candidate Clay Pell, presumably because he is unable to book news makers himself. His addition to the interview was teasing the candidate for his effeminate voice and calling him “Clayboy” Pell.)

To date, WPRO has stood by DePetro. The new video, released yesterday, indicates that the For Our Daughters group is not going away for campaign season, a critical time for WPRO to book guests and advertisers.

“The boycotts will continue until John Depetro is off the air,” Martin said. “For anyone who thinks we are going away, we are not.”

Was DePetro’s contention that the Supreme Court decision was a victory of “people” over atheists (not “people”) a fair or complete assessment? Given DePetro’s penchant for playing rather loosely with reality, you probably know the answer. But there was an odious undercurrent to DePetro’s celebratory monologuing that morning, a strain of something far darker and more historically dangerous. As DePetro celebrated the Supreme Court’s decision as a victory for Christianity over atheism, he was also celebrating a victory of Christianity over Judaism.

Susan Galloway, who is named in the case, is Jewish, not an atheist. Linda Stephens, her co-plaintiff, is an atheist. The pair were represented not by the ACLU, but by Americans United for the Separation of Church and State. The American Jewish Committee and the Anti-Defamation League, among other Jewish organizations, filed amicus briefs. If the decision can be celebrated as a victory of “the people” over atheists, it can equally be celebrated as a victory of “the people” over Jews. Moreover, the Supreme Court split along religious lines, as all “five justices in the majority were Catholics, and three out of the four dissenters were Jewish.”

Imagine if DePetro had declared this ruling as a victory of Catholics over Jews. We would have immediately recognized such speech as hateful bigotry. Why is it different when he goes after atheists?

Cranston City Councillor Michael Farina spoke* to Gene Valicenti that morning, and DePetro used the clip endlessly on his show. Farina said, “We don’t typically try to push religion on anybody in the city. That doesn’t mean we can’t. This ruling, I think, will give us the ability, if we wanted to say a brief prayer, we could.”

Which prompted DePetro to say, “You would think that this idiot in Cranston would implement [prayer] right away, instead of cowering like the cowards they are, to the ACLU and the atheists” and “Cranston is the worst. First they fold to the ACLU and the atheists with the banner, and now they’re ‘Oh, we’re not pushing religion.’ No one is pushing religion.”

Try this experiment. Replace the word ‘atheists’ with ‘Jews.’ After all, a Jewish woman was at least 50% responsible for bringing this case, and many Jewish groups were involved.

“Cranston is the worst. First they fold to the ACLU and the Jews with the banner, and now they’re ‘Oh, we’re not pushing religion.’ No one is pushing religion.”

“You would think that this idiot in Cranston would implement it right away, instead of cowering like the cowards they are, to the ACLU and the Jews.”

Using the Greece v. Galloway decision as an opportunity to attack atheists reveals Depetro’s ugly bigotry. By neglecting the facts of the case, and pretending the case was brought entirely by atheists, DePetro omitted the fact that many religious minorities and including Jewish Americans, are equally marginalized by such prayers.

Ignoring the opinions and even the very existence of Jewish Americans involved in this court decision is tacit, if not overt antisemitism. I would be interested in hearing DePetro explain exactly how atheists are “mean spirited individuals” for bringing this lawsuit but Jews are not. I’d be interested in hearing John DePetro explain the opening words of his broadcast, “The people have won. The atheists have lost! The people have won. The atheists have lost!” in such a way as to dismiss the humanity of the atheist woman who brought the suit but not the humanity of the Jewish woman involved.

Atheists according to DePetro, are not people. Following DePetro’s logic, neither are Jews, or any other religious minority, for that matter. After a while, one wonders if there is any group, aside from rich, white, non-union Catholic males, that DePetro considers worthy of consideration and humanity.

John DePetro is contemptible.

You can listen to the entirety of his comments on Greece v. Galloway below.

*When will people learn that there is no difference between going on WPRO News and WPRO Talk? Did Cranston City Councillor Michael Farina know that his soundbite for the Gene Valicenti newscast was going to be played relentlessly by DePetro, or that DePetro would spend a half hour of showtime calling him an idiot? How often do I have to point this out?

You are a pathetic individual . There was nothing racist regarding my comments or conversation on the radio. You seem to think you are so clever titling ” John DePetro is not a racist” on YouTube, to attempt to stick that word with my name,( or a misleading headline I was defending sterling). Just grow up you immature jerk.

You just make things up without any regard for truth.  And I was never suspended( another lie).

Thank you from DePetro.com

To be clear, I never explicitly wrote in yesterday’s post that John DePetro is a racist. I said that he makes racist comments and maintains an atmosphere on his show conducive to racist behavior and talk. Only John DePetro knows what is in his heart.

On the other hand, is there a difference between making racist comments and being a racist? Personally I don’t think so, but calling someone a racist is a big charge, and not one I am all that comfortable making. That is why I very carefully chose my words in yesterday’s post, trying to show that DePetro seems very aware of where the line between talking about race and being racist is, and that he enjoys pushing the boundaries of that fuzzy line as much as he can.

Along the way, racism happens on the John DePetro Show. Callers cross the line (with DePetro’s fully deniable endorsement) and entertainment is had by all. It’s not as if DePetro went after a black caller just because that caller was black, making fun of the person in ways that if not explicitly racist, are at least racial in nature.

Nope. DePetro didn’t do that on yesterday’s show.

He did that last week. The caller was Eric, a naturalized American citizen from Africa.

“Is that what they taught you in Africa, to yell at the white man?”

“Do you hate all white people or just me?”

“Listen, you got to let go of your anger towards the whites. I had nothing to do with the slave trade. I want to go on record right now. I was against it.”

“You’ll be happy to know, Sunday night I watched 12 Years a Slave. Very violent. Very violent.”

Comedy gold, right? Just the kind of thing the Associated Press looks for in its best radio talk show. (And by the way, DePetro is campaigning heavily for Best Radio Show Host on Rhode Island Monthly. A win there should embarrass that magazine greatly.)

The caller, Eric, was trying to make a point in defense of a previous caller DePetro abused because she was a Jehovah’s Witness with a foreign accent. Eric seemed to be trying to say that all Christians, whether Catholic, Jehovah’s Witness or other should stick together. DePetro abused the caller for five minutes before the poor guy finally gave up in frustration, saying “May God be with you” and “Shalom.”

But this is just DePetro being funny. He’s not being a racist, right?

Under Depetro’s careful shepherding, callers were invited to defend Sterling’s comments because he’s a tired, possibly drunk old man who doesn’t fully understand modern society, or more ominously, because Sterling’s a victim of a conspiracy hatched by former basketball player Magic Johnson, who wants to buy the Clippers for himself. See, it’s not the old racist white guy’s fault that he’s an old racist white guy, it’s the black guy’s fault.

Along the way DePetro proved the point I made last week about how there is essentially no difference between WPRO News and WPRO Talk. When Jim Vincent, President of the Rhode Island NAACP appeared on Jim Valicenti’s morning news program, did he know that his words would be used against him repeatedly during DePetro’s broadcast? DePetro hoped that the mere mention of the NAACP would stir the racist “hearts” of his listeners, riling them to say nasty things on the air.

(Vincent’s comments allowed Depetro the opportunity to tell the audience that he didn’t think 12 Years a Slave was Academy Award worthy and that the only reason it was in the running was because it had the word “slave” in the title. A quick look at a list of Academy Award winning pictures show that 12 Years a Slave is the only film with that word in the title to have been nominated for best picture, so make of that what you will.)

The strategy DePetro uses is to phrase every bit of racism and race baiting that dribbles from his mouth as a question. Are old racist people really racists, DePetro asks, inviting his listeners to call in and make excuses for the people in their lives who behave similarly to Sterling. Depetro’s callers respond by excusing Sterling’s racism, picking up on DePetro’s cues that the man was old, tired, possibly drunk, speaking with the expectation of privacy, recorded without his knowledge or the victims of a Machiavellian plot engineered by Magic Johnson. His callers buy into Depetro’s narrative, never once thinking that they are being cruelly manipulated as DePetro consumes the resulting bigotry like a psychic vampire.

Perhaps DePetro’s most interesting critique was his claim that the Democratic Party and local unions were the most racist institutions in Rhode Island. DePetro listed off a series of white male union heads and politicians as proof of his contention. Are minorities under represented in positions of authority throughout Rhode Island? Absolutely. Is John DePetro bringing up this issue out of a deep concern for minority rights and representation? Please.

Following DePetro’s lead, I made my own list of white males:

Gene Valicanti, John DePetro, Dan Yorke, Buddy Cianci and Matt Allen.

Obviously, following DePetro’s logic, WPRO is the most racist radio station in New England. Looking at WPRO’s “Shows and Staff” page, I don’t see a single person of color listed.

DePetro carefully engineers his show to bring out the very worst in his listeners. He has built a show in which anger, confusion, bigotry, intolerance, hatred, racism and misogyny can thrive because, apparently, this is the kind of thing the Associated Press looks for when they give out the award for Best Talk Show.

For Our Daughters, the campaign to have DePetro fired in the wake of his misogynist comments about women union workers, should expand the scope of their campaign to include everyone offended by DePetro’s ugly race-baiting. The show is a blight on the soul of Rhode Island. Removing Depetro from the air would not just be good for our daughters, it would be good for our very humanity.

Lest you think I’m taking DePetro out of context, listen to his full comments on the subject here:

“We’ve appealed to WPRO and Cumulus Media’s sense of decency in requesting that they sever their relationship with a man who degrades women by calling them whores, but it appears the only way to achieve a permanent solution is to further demonstrate just how bad this individual is for business,” said labor leader Maureen Martin, who has been the public face of For Our Daughters, the group that is trying to get DePetro off the air. “We expect others candidates and businesses will join them as our campaign grows in strength and numbers every day.”

In September, DePetro called two female labor activists whores on his WPRO morning radio show. Additionally, he’s made untrue and unfair accusations about many Democrats and left-leaning community and political groups. He was fired from a radio station in Boston for calling a gubernatorial candidate a “fat lesbian.” He and WPRO are bieng sued by a WPRO employee for sexual harassment. His wife took blame for a ratings scandal in which someone from his home address faked industry reporting forms.

Even before this campaign DePetro was widely disliked, untrusted  and often even ostracized among the political class in Rhode Island, as well among almost all of his coworkers at WPRO, but station management maintains that he still draws listeners.

Here’s the list of candidates (and one PAC) who said they will not advertise with WPRO:

• US Senator Jack Reed
• US Rep. Jim Langevin
• US Rep. David Cicilline
• Providence Mayor and Gubernatorial Candidate Angel Taveras
• Gubernatorial Candidate Clay Pell
• Secretary of State and Lt. Governor Candidate Ralph Mollis
• Secretary of State Candidate Guillaume de Ramel
• Secretary of State Candidate Nellie Gorbea
• General Treasurer Candidate Seth Magaziner
• General Treasurer Candidate Frank Caprio
• Providence Mayoral Candidate Brett Smiley
• Providence City Council President and Mayoral Candidate Michael Solomon
• Providence Mayoral Candidate Jorge Elorza
• Providence Mayoral Candidate Lorne Adrain
• American LeadHerShip PAC Chair Kate Coyne-McCoy

Or listen here.

Wednesday Dec 18, 2013
North Kingstown, RI – Good morning, Ocean State. This is Bob Plain, editor and publisher of the RI Future blog podcasting to you from The Hideaway on the banks of the Mattatuxet River behind the Shady Lea Mill in North Kingstown, Rhode Island.

It’s Wednesday, December 18 … there are less than two weeks left in 2013 and the Capital City is making a late run to beat its 103 shootings last year. Yesterday, it recorded numbers 99 and 100 yesterday when a man and a woman were found with bullet injuries after crashing their car while driving themselves to Rhode Island Hospital. According to the ProJo, the man was shot on the same Elmwood Ave corner last year.  Do me a favor and read the Providence Journal story by Greg Smith, and then ask yourself again if taxes are the biggest issue facing the Ocean State.

Rhode Island Catholics are calling on Bishop Tobin to apologize for slamming Nelson Mandela on abortion while the rest of the world was mourning his death. The group plans a news conference today when it will deliver a petition signed by 19,000 people to the dioceses today.

And speaking of influential conservatives who say stupid and hurtful things …. let’s be clear about something else, too: John DePetro indeed does have a First Amendment right to call women whores. And so does WPRO, for that matter … see George Carlin’s famous seven dirty words routine for a list of the words they don’t have a 1st Amendment right to use….

But if you want to make this a First Amendment issue, you better be ready to defend the rights of those who want tell as many people as they can NOT to support businesses that calls women whores. The more relevant question is whose rights will Alex and Ani decide are more important to their bottom line.

…And still on the topic of saying hurtful things, Justin Katz pens a post in which he gives the Humanists of Rhode Island a some nice props. But Katz’s post centers on the Freedom from Religion’s State House decoration which says, “Religion is but a myth & superstition that hardens hearts & enslaves minds.”

In differentiating that banner from the Humanists’, Katz writes, “That message is different in kind, not just content.  It’s an overt (indeed, hard-hearted) attack on what others believe and a short-circuit of a sense of community and spirit of public discourse.” And then he has this asterisk: “Note that venue is important; seasonal decorations merit a different standard than policy debates.”

Right, the venue in question – the State House – is for policy debates. That’s the point. This is a policy debate and sometimes people say hard-hearted things in policy debates. In fact, I dare say no one else in Rhode Island politics takes as hard-hearted a view on policy debates as you … no fair going soft on us when it comes to church and state matters…

So here’s a pretty cool look into how Senator Sheldon Whitehouse is working across party lines to make the world safer and Rhode Island’s economy stronger, all in one tiny piece of what could otherwise be called pork. In the Defense Authorization bill, Sehldon worked with Republican Rob Portman to include a rider for what’s called “asset tracking provisions.” In other words, the bill would require fancy bar codes on military guns and ammo.  Well it just so happens that there’s a Rhode Island company that makes these fancy bar codes: A2B Tracking is located in Portsmouth and employs about 50 people there. Coincidentally or not, A2B’s website says they are hiring!!

Ronnie Biggs died yesterday … he was the world’s last great train robber. In 1963, he and 14 other guys stole $7 million in bank notes from a train in England. Biggs turned himself in in 2001.

December 18th is a giant day in American history … in 1620, the Mayflower made landing in what would later be named Plymouth Harbor. And on this day in 1865, America would abolish slavery.

In less world-changing historical events,   on this day in 1966 Tara Browne, friend of Mick Jagger, was killed in a car wreck … you know her because her accident is the one John Lennon sung about in “A Day in the Life”

…I bet you can guess what our song of the day is!

Three of the four expected candidates for governor said they won’t appear on WPRO until John DePetro no longer works there. And the fourth has said he won’t go on DePetro’s show any more, according to media accounts.

UPDATE: The Associated Press reports that Ken Block said, like Providence Mayor Angel Taveras and General Treasurer Gina Raimondo, he will boycott WPRO until DePetro is off the air. The AP also reported this about Cranston Mayor Allan Fung:

…Cranston Mayor Allan Fung, said he would not appear on DePetro’s show but would appear on other shows on WPRO because he would not interfere in the station’s decision-making process and, ‘‘The unions should not be dictating how a business operates.’’

The Associated Press also reports that three of four members of the congressional delegation. Senators Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse and Congressman Jim Langevin have all “signed on to the blanket boycott of all WPRO shows.” Congressman Cicilline retweeted his support.

DePetro has come under fire recently for calling female activists whores on his morning radio show in November. A union-led effort, called For Our Daughters, is pressuring advertisers and persuading politicians to boycott Cumulus-owned WPRO until DePetro is off the air. Simultaneously, DePetro, WPRO and Cumulus are being sued by a former employee who says DePetro sexually harassed her.

DePetro has been off the radio since the beginning of the month.

Also boycotting the local radio are Governor Chafee, more than 20 state legislators and wide range of other elected officials and candidates, as well as the Rhode Island Republican Party, reports Anchor Rising.

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