Wente Terminated at KWMU

KWMU Radio General Manager Patty Wente was relieved of her management responsibilities on Monday afternoon. The Chancellor of the University of Missouri St. Louis, Tom George,informed the staff of the decision about five o'clock and was accompanied to the station by two university attorney's where he met with employees.

In the meantime, the station reportedly will continue to function as usual until a permanent GM can be hired. George told employees the General Manager at sister station KBIA in Columbia, Mike Dunn, will take the job in an interim role. KBIA plays predominantly classical music, but he is not expected to change the all news/talk format that has been successful at KWMU.

Wente apparently is not yet willing to talk to reporters about the development.

If you would like to read the UMSL media release you can see it by clicking here.

The St. Louis print media played the story as you would have expected. The Riverfront Times which broke the story of the original investigation, splashed the development on it's web site and made reference to it's initial story in saying Wente had been "fired". (The link is below this in my original post).

The St. Louis-Post Dispatch buried the story in it's entertainment section. The logic for this probably being the Post didn't want to admit the weekly "Alternative" newspaper kicked it's butt journalistically with the original feature. And the St. Louis TV stations were out in the cold until they saw it in print.

KWMU Update

KWMU Radio completed the final interview today of the fourth of four finalists to be the station's new General Manager. The successful candidate will succeed Patty Wente who was terminated by the University of Missouri - St. Louis in early June. Mike Dunn of sister station KBIA in Columbia has been serving in the interim.

The four hopefuls are Ben Fry of Little Rock, Dave Ervin of St. Louis, Erik Nycklemoe of St. Paul and Tim Eby of Columbus. An announcement of the station's new boss is expected in the coming days.

In another note, it's a little tardy, but the powers that be at the University have decided the future home of the station will be in St. Louis' Grand Center. The decision was made public by Vice Chancellor Martin Leifeld,

"Over the past months, the station and the university have explored several options in-depth, for the new physical location for the station. After considerable review, evaluation, and the blessings of various stakeholders that include the University of Missouri – St. Louis’ faculty and staff, I am pleased to announce that KWMU and UM-St. Louis will be joining the thriving cultural neighborhood at Grand Center! We are very excited about the new possibilities for collaboration that this alliance will foster and also hope the University and the station can play an exciting role in the continued revitalization of this vibrant area".