WLRN board chair resigns amid dispute with Miami-Dade school district
Miami Herald | By Aaron Leibowitz |
Richard Rampell, the board chair at South Florida’s flagship NPR station, has resigned amid a legal battle with the Miami-Dade County School Board, which holds the station’s broadcasting license.
Rampell, the chairman of South Florida Public Media Group, resigned Tuesday in a strongly worded letter to his fellow board members overseeing WLRN, accusing the school board of attempting to negotiate a settlement with the station that would “emasculate our journalistic independence and steal our money.”
“I resigned of my own accord because I do not want to be an accomplice to the sellout of our station,” Rampell told the Miami Herald.
A spokesperson for the school board did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday.
The school board sued the radio station in September, saying South Florida Public Media Group, which manages WLRN, violated its contract with the school board when it moved to acquire a radio station in West Palm Beach.
The school board said money from WLRN’s endowment was “wrongfully diverted” to buy a station that would compete with WLRN for listeners and that the purchase violated a contract with the school district. South Florida Public Media Group said the move was part of an effort to expand its reach.
Rampell has drawn the ire of both school district officials and WLRN staff.
In February, more than 30 WLRN employees sent a letter to the station’s board, criticizing Rampell’s “belligerent combative stance” in the conflict and expressing fear that the dispute would cause the station to go dark next year, when its contract is up for renewal by the school board.
The letter called on South Florida Public Media Group to conduct a review of executive leadership and implement a transition plan, citing concerns about the conduct of Rampell and CEO John LaBonia. LaBonia remains in his position, though his office at WLRN’s studio in Miami was cleared out last month, prompting speculation about his future.
Members of the Miami-Dade County School Board during a meeting in Miami on March 19, 2025.
Rampell says his concerns about the school district’s control of WLRN are legitimate.
He shared with the Herald a proposal that the school board made during settlement negotiations to amend a management agreement between the two parties to give the school district a second seat on the board of South Florida Public Media Group, more say in the appointment of the station’s CEO and greater oversight of WLRN’s spending.
Under the same proposal, WLRN would be allowed to go ahead with its acquisition of the West Palm Beach radio station, The Flame 104.7.
“It will be a one-sided prenuptial agreement for an unholy marriage between the School Board and WLRN,” Rampell wrote in his letter to the WLRN board. “It. Will. Be. A. Surrender.”
Rampell said the station’s journalistic independence is his top concern. He said he doesn’t trust that the school board — and particularly its conservative-leaning members — have WLRN’s best interests at heart.
“I am mistrustful of the school board and their motives,” Rampell told the Herald.
But WLRN staffers have expressed frustration at Rampell’s approach in dealing with the school district. In emails, Rampell has referred to a district official as “a petty, small minded, vindictive bureaucrat” and called one school board member a “two-faced shamelessly ambitious politician.” In a statement last month, the school district said it “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.”
