By Francisco Alvarado, FloridaBulldog.org
The jazzy vibes at Miami-based public access radio station WDNA have been less than harmonious the past two years.
Buttressed by a wage-theft complaint filed with Miami-Dade’s Consumer Protection Division, former staffers contend WDNA, 88.9 FM, is engulfed in turmoil over allegations of the misuse grant funds; the public station temporarily losing its state charity status; late payroll and commissions payments; and the combative management style of a WDNA figure who recently retired.
This year, the half-a-dozen employees who quit citing a toxic workplace includes Russell Otway, an ex-WDNA account executive who filed the wage-theft complaint last December.
“At a time when public media is under scrutiny, this station is giving a bad reputation to all public service broadcasters,” Otway told Florida Bulldog. “The community that built and supports WDNA deserves transparency, accountability, and leadership that reflects the station’s public mission.”
In a Sept. 1 rebuttal to WDNA’s July 7 response concerning his allegations, Otway describes a hostile work environment condoned by Cecil Persaud, president of the board of Bascomb Memorial Broadcasting Foundation, the non-profit company that owns the radio station. Otway alleges Bascomb owes him roughly $13,600 for 720 hours he worked between 2022 and 2024, and that the foundation paid him other amounts owed after he initially filed his complaint.
Otway’s allegations largely focus on Howard Duperly, who joined WDNA in the late 1990s, hosting a reggae music show and overseeing sales and marketing for most of his time at the station. Duperly was the station’s interim general manager from 2023 until this February when he stepped down. But he stayed on as a consultant until July, station emails provided to Florida Bulldog show. Duperly authored the station’s July 7 response to Otway’s complaint, denying the allegations.
The station lacks a human resources department for employees to report grievances, Otway said. “Complaints go to Howard or Cecil, and Cecil keeps the board in the dark,” Otway said. “When I raised concerns, retaliation immediately followed.”
Two other former staffers who quit and requested anonymity corroborated some of the allegations in Otway’s complaint. “The culture is not just dysfunctional; it’s secretive,” one ex-employee who worked directly under Duperly said. “I once sent an email to the whole board about financial irregularities, and Cecil walked right into my office to reprimand me. He said I should only raise issues with him, not the rest of the board. There’s no transparency.”
“Russell’s complaint is highly accurate,” added the other ex-employee, who worked in production.
Duperly, Persaud and Gene de Souza, the host of a Brazilian jazz show for the past 25 years who was elevated to WDNA’s general manager in July, declined comment for this story.
WDNA’S SHAKY FINANCES
Founded in 1980, WDNA bills itself as South Florida’s station for “serious jazz,” but also airs other music genres and community programming to its reported more than one million listeners. What’s more, WDNA provides scholarships to high school seniors who want to study jazz in college, and holds concerts and music events featuring local artists.
Bascomb relies heavily on Miami-Dade County and state grants to run the station, according to the foundation’s 2023 federal tax return and 2023 independent auditor’s report, the most recent available. “A significant reduction in the level of this funding, if it were to occur, would have an adverse effect on the organization’s ability to carry out its programs and activities,” the audit report by Miami-based accounting firm Verdeja & Alvarez states.
In 2007, Miami-Dade awarded Bascomb a $500,000 grant to help the foundation purchase and renovate its current home at 2921 Coral Way into a studio. As a condition, Bascomb must use the building as WDNA’s headquarters until 2032, a copy of the foundation’s covenant with Miami-Dade shows.
In addition to the county funds, Bascomb also took out a $1.4 million loan with TotalBank to buy the property for $2.1 million. Over the past 23 years, Bascomb has twice extended the date when the loan was due, with the mortgage’s latest payoff date being in 2026, the audit report states.
As of 2023, Bascomb owed $414,811 on the TotalBank loan after the foundation paid down the note by roughly $157,000 the previous year. Bascomb also owed $300,100 on a loan from the Small Business Administration that the foundation increased by $150,000 in 2020, the audit report shows.
In 2023, WDNA’s parent company generated $1.1 million in revenue with $619,630 coming from grants and the remainder from station underwriters, contributions from listeners and special events. That year, Bascomb’s budget for salaries and employee compensation blew up $457,736 compared to $337,183 in 2022. Meanwhile, the foundation’s cash and savings bank accounts were decreased from $434,287 in 2022 to $72,715 in 2023, the tax return and audit report indicate.
In 2023, Bascomb was awarded a $602,339 Miami-Dade cultural affairs grant, a $193,408 grant from the Corporation of Public Broadcasting and $151,871 in state grants, including $100,000 from the Florida Department of Education. The audit report does not state how much of those grants represented the station’s grant revenue in 2023, and what the funds are earmarked for.
MANAGEMENT IRREGULARITIES?
According to Otway’s Sept. 1 rebuttal, Duperly and Persaud admitted to him and at least three other employees last November and December that $100,000 in grant funds meant for programming and operations had been used to pay down the TotalBank mortgage, “leaving no cash for payroll.”
“Mr. Duperly and Mr. Persaud (WDNA board president) were noted for saying that staff would receive a windfall when the mortgage was paid off,” the rebuttal states. “Meanwhile, commissions and salaries are late, benefits are nonexistent, and veteran employees get pushed out as liabilities.”
In interviews with Florida Bulldog, Otway and the other two employees could not recall if Duperly and Persaud said which grant was used to pay down the bank loan. “[Duperly] told us that they had used most of the grant funds for the mortgage,” said Otway, who started working at WDNA as an intern in 2020. “It was ongoing. I would always be told that we didn’t have money in the budget for sales and marketing because they were prioritizing paying down the principal on the loan.”
Other alleged mismanagement by Duperly and Persaud involved failing to comply with federal regulations for broadcasting and state law for charities, said the ex-employee who reported directly to Duperly. For instance, WDNA has not submitted annual reports regarding its programming to the Federal Communications Commission since 2022, the former staffer said. Duperly also allegedly ignored multiple letters sent last year by the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services warning that Bascomb was in danger of losing its charitable organization status.
When confronted with the correspondence, Duperly got angry and defensive, the ex-employee said: “He threw the letters back at me, yelled at me and just went nuts.” (The former staffer resigned in April.)
WDNA management finally took action after the agriculture department last December notified Bascomb that its charity status had expired and was no longer valid, according to a letter obtained by Florida Bulldog. A month later, Bascomb’s charity status was reinstated after it complied with the state’s registration requirements, another letter from the agriculture department states.
OTWAY’S DEPARTURE
Otway quit this January after Duperly reportedly demoted him from senior account executive in retaliation for filing his wage-theft complaint. Otway alleged that he experienced weeks of work without any pay, delayed commission checks and uncompensated overtime for special events production.
Otway also worked full-time duties in 2023 and 2024 while only being paid as a part-time employee, and his request for work accommodations due to a mental health condition was allegedly weaponized to reduce his pay while he still performed full-time duties, the complaint states.
Duperly, in WDNA’s July 7 response to Miami-Dade investigators, denied the allegations. While conceding commissions had been delayed, Duperly blamed “accounting flaws” rather than intentional violations and claimed he corrected the problem by restructuring payment timelines. Duperly asserted that the station owes Otway nothing, and painted the ex-account executive as an unreliable employee who failed to meet sales goals and frequently requested time off.
“Howard created an environment where people were gaslit, underpaid and pushed beyond reason,” Otway said. “Six full-time staffers, including me, resigned earlier this year because of Howard’s abrasive, isolating leadership style.”
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