A HUGE THANK YOU TO ST. LOUIS BUSINESS OWNERS

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Steven Smith, The Royale Food & Spirits
Jon Parker, Parker's Table at Oakland & Yale
Jeff and Randy Vines, STL-Style
David Kirkland, Turn Restaurant & David Kirkland Catering
Suzie Hanneke Westerbeck, Westwood Catering, Deli & Grocery
Jake Hafner, Civil Life Brewing Co.
Robyn Niesmann, The Mud House
Kitt Villasis-Corbin, La Patisserie by Kitt Villasis-Corbin
Eric Woods, The Firecracker Press
Joe Jackson, Jackson Pianos
Stan Chisholm, Screwed Arts Collective
Peter Cohen, Stringbean Coffee
Rob Connoley, Bulrush
Josh Stevens, Reedy Press
Eliza Coreill and Kenny Snarzyk, The Crow's Nest & Eat Crow
David Wolfe, Urban Chestnut Brewing Co.
Doug Morgan, Saturn Lounge
Mike Tiefenbrun, Home Grown Trees
Brad Sarno, Sarno Music Solutions & Blue Jade Audio Mastering
John Parker, O'Connell's Pub & Jack's Joint
Matt Stuttler, The Sinkhole
Dave Drebes, Missouri Scout
Joshua Grigaitis, Pop’s Blue Moon
Tim Drescher, Kuva Coffee Co.
Jessica Douglass, Flowers & Weeds
Mo Costello, MoKaBe's Coffeehouse
Mark Pannebecker, Spine Indie Bookstore & Cafe
Andrew Ploof, Music Folk
Brian Lock, Universal Financial Group
Brian Hayes, D&H Truck & Trailer Repair
Denny Hammerstone, Hammerstone's
Stuart Keating, Earthbound Beer
Dan Trueman, Truemans Place
Chris Meyer, Kitchen Kulture/Songbird
Jesse Irwin, Carondelet Mechanical
Jack Ellman, Central Garage
Jeremy Miller, Dead Wax Records
William Pauley, Confluence Kombucha
Scott Swanston, The Gramophone
Ted Wilson, Union Loafers
Lisa Govro, Big Heart Tea Co.
Andy Foerstel and Melissa Pfeiffer, Intoxicology
Robert Frank, Ferdworks
Rich Mueller, R L Mueller Popcorn & Supply
Andy Karandzieff, Crown Candy Kitchen
Sarah Miller, Switchgrass Spirits
Connie Gress, Every Body Massage
Janet Sanders and John Leible, Perpetua Iron
Steve Pohlman, Off Broadway
Vince Valenza, Blues City Deli
Sarah Shelton, Girl Louie
Kate Estwing, City House Country Mouse
Kris Kleindienst, Left Bank Books
Sheila Shahpari, Paritta Group
Walter Volz, Karl Volz & Sons Inc. (steel fabricators)
Mike Urness, Great Planes Trading Co. (Antique Tool Specialist)
Thomas Pullen, Mojo’s Music
Mike Killian, Killian Designs/The Shoelace Factory
Linsey Estes, Allow Me Cleaning & Services
Jamie Choler and Sara Hale, Fair Shares
Rick Funcik, The Joinery Custom Woodworking
Chad Taylor, The Venice Cafe
Lori Fowler, Cielo
Lisa Frick, Lisa Frick Artwork
Ann Rabbitt, Thorn Studio
Barbara Gremaud, Sacred Garden Midwifery & Lactation
Jason McEntire, Sawhorse Recording Studios
Todd Brutcher, Southside Alchemy
Mary Engelbreit, Mary Engelbreit Studio
Jeff Lopinot, Verve Hair Salon
Kay Rye, Sole Survivor Leather
Steve and Shelly Dachroeden, The Silver Ballroom & The Waiting Room
Paul Kafalenos, Silver Wing Studio
Brian Andrew Marek, Rubberstamp Records
Kevin Belford, Devil At The Confluence
Zach Miller and Mike Zanger, Taqueria Z
Joan Lipkin, That Uppity Theatre Company
Carrie Harris, The Crack Fox
Keith A. Buchholz, Fluxus St. Louis
Lynn Terry, Zoomies Cafe
Anna Grant, Cowpunkjewels
Alex Cupp, The Stellar Hog
Elicia Eskew and Gavin Haslett, Benton Park Cafe
Julie Sommer, Sommer Property investments
Susan Barrett, Barrett Barrera Projects & projects+gallery
John Schaefering, Power Play Hockey
Bill Streeter, Hydraulic Pictures
Cody Hayo, Pretty City Gardens and Landscapes
Kate Ewing, Brick City Yoga
Tom Lane, Metro Home Care Services
Jason Mohler, Mohler Material Handling Inc.
Alex Carlson, Red Guitar Bread

When Syrhea Conaway first joined KDHX's programming committee, she just wanted to help.

A local musician, teaching artist, youth mentor and adjunct faculty member at COCA, she'd been approached by the station's executive director, Kelly Wells, she says, and asked to help with the organization's goals of increasing diversity and inclusion in its programming, which had for years been accused of leaning too heavily on folk music and similar genres with largely white fan bases. Conaway, like many in the St. Louis area, regarded the independent radio station highly, and as a black woman she supported those stated goals. She was appointed to the volunteer position by the board of directors in March 2018.

"I take pride in the work that I do, and I don't just join things just to be like, 'Oh, I'm on this and I do this,'" she explains. "It's not about me. I believe in this stuff."

Conaway wasn't the only local black luminary brought on to KDHX (88.1 FM) under Wells. Darian Wigfall, a former scientist at Washington University as well as an author, youth mentor and current director of operations for the artist collective FarFetched, was hired on as event coordinator in June 2017. Vice Chairman of the St. Louis Blues Society Alonzo Townsend, the son of Grammy-winning blues legend Henry Townsend and a former entertainment director at the National Blues Museum, as well as co-head of local label Knox Entertainment, was hired as community engagement coordinator in July 2018.

Larry Morris, coordinator for the Multicultural Center and International Student Affairs at Webster University and frontman for the local hip-hop collective Illphonics, was brought on to the programming committee in April 2018. Local musician Tonina Saputo, whose accolades include being named one of the best new artists of 2018 by both NPR and former President Barack Obama, was brought on as music coordinator in August 2018.

If the goal was to promote diversity and inclusion, as Wells told Conaway, KDHX had hired itself a veritable dream team.

But today, only Conaway and Saputo remain ­— and the latter was furloughed indefinitely on July 23. Wigfall was "quit-fired," as he terms it, in September 2018. Townsend was let go in April 2019. Morris stepped down from the programming committee in June. And each of the five had negative experiences at the station that became Exhibit A in a detailed, seven-page letter written by an anonymous group of former staffers and volunteers and released to media in May.

Wells and the board have pushed back on the letter's claims, saying many of its most incendiary allegations are simply not true. But what is irrefutable is that the station is facing the awkward prospect of the majority of its former dream team turning on it – and that many of those recruited by Wells to increase diversity have become her harshest critics.

Conaway freely admits she has one foot out the door.

"My heart feels bad being here. I don't want to be here," she says she told leadership earlier this year. "I want to do this work, but it seems like you guys don't want to do the work. I feel like I'm being used. And I have no problem just packing up my stuff and saying, 'Thank you for the opportunity, but no thanks.'"

In early January, KDHX's Facebook account shared a meme. Playing off the "distracted boyfriend" memes then filling social media, it depicted two people: one a man of unclear ethnicity strumming on an acoustic guitar, the other a smiling white woman with her head turned away bashfully. Text on the man identified him as "KDHX," while the woman was marked as "St. Louis."

Accompanying the image was a question. "At KDHX, our new year's resolution is to serve the community in more mindful, more engaging and more inclusive ways. What do you want to see and hear from the station in 2019?"

Some commenters responded in earnest. "Ease up on the banjos," one wrote. "More metal and punk. Keep the reggae and throwback hip-hop though," said another.

But some found the choice of imagery a bit ... odd.

"I didn't realize KDHX was trying to get in St. Louis' pants," wrote one commenter. "This gal looks sooooo uncomfortable and wishes this dude would just stop," opined another. "Would love to know the gender of the individual who thought that a stock photo of a woman being low-key sexually harassed was an ideal choice," added a third.

Eric Hall, a well-known local musician, combined those approaches.

"I think the image you shared might help explain how off-target your impression of what the St. Louis community both is and wants if you're supposing St. Louis is a giggly white woman and KDHX is a dude playing acoustic guitar at her in a cut-off flannel," he wrote.

In some ways, the discussion seems trivial – the image, after all, was a meme. But it came during a time that KDHX was actively trying to be more inclusive in its programming – something even the post itself referenced.

And rather than take Hall's criticism as constructive, whoever was manning KDHX's Facebook account fired back in the comments, accusing him of "trolling" and "complaining."

Hall, seldom one to back down from an online scrap, responded, "When directly asked how you could better serve the community, my expressing that KDHX seems to be largely old white people music and not actually aware of the broader community is considered trolling?"

The sniping continued for several days. Finally, a week later, the station apologized, stating simply in the comments, "We are sorry for the tenor of this post. We are listening."

Behind the scenes, Conaway was baffled by the station's approach. She and Morris addressed the matter at the next meeting of the programming committee, telling the station's leadership that depicting St. Louis as a blushing white woman was problematic.

"OK, maybe y'all didn't think about that image. And it's OK, mistakes happen, that's how you learn," Conaway says of the incident. "But to be very defensive and argumentative as the official KDHX page? This is not rocket science. You guys need to own your mistakes. You messed up, come out and say, 'You know what, this image we posted was problematic and we're gonna do better.' You know, just own it!"

KDHX leadership says a management meeting was subsequently held to implement better practices around content creation and publication.

Taken alone, the ill-chosen meme may not seem like much. But for some staffers and volunteers, it was just the latest tone-deaf action in a long roster, many of them with unpleasant racial overtones. In anonymous letters sent to the board and then later the media, they accuse station brass of tokenism, saying black staffers were made to pose for social media posts meant to highlight the station's diversity; discrepancies between the treatment of white staffers and those of color; bait-and-switch tactics with job titles and responsibilities, wherein black staffers are hired on to one job only to see their responsibilities and titles immediately reduced; and awkward instances of racial insensitivity.

The RFT spoke with more than a dozen current and former KDHX staffers, programmers and volunteers, including those who were responsible for the anonymous letters. Most asked to remain anonymous. They describe a culture of dysfunction, saying that employees who question leadership are often terminated or otherwise face retaliation. They also claim there's been a staggering rate of turnover at the station in the past year – at least eight employees have quit or been let go at an organization that currently lists only ten staff positions on its website.