AVENTURA, FLA. — Across the U.S., listener-supported public radio stations have been trimming their payroll by saying goodbye to journalists and air personalities as budgets have not been met due to fewer donations. In Miami, this claimed the program Sundial, heard on the NPR Member station covering a territory from Palm Beach Gardens to Key West.
Now, the host of the program is claiming racial discrimination is behind the abrupt cancellation of the show.
As first reported by Streamline Publishing’s Radio Ink, Carlos Frias was among the casualties at WLRN-FM 91.3, a dominant spoken word station serving the Miami-Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach markets that rebroadcasts on WKWM-FM in Key West.
On February 2, after six years, Sundial suddenly ceased production, putting an end to a program that in 2017 succeeded Tropical Currents with content focusing on local arts and literary figures. Today, the syndicated Here & Now fills the time slot that Sundial had.
Frias, once a food editor at The Miami Herald, which has seen massive reduction-in-force efforts dating to McClatchy Co.’s acquisition of the former Knight-Ridder newspaper, joined WLRN in 2022. On X (formerly Twitter), he said, “WLRN abruptly cancelled Sundial and let our whole team go. It’s my first time out of work since I was 19. If you’re looking for a journalist with 30 years experience, 2 James Beards, a share of a Pulitzer, experienced in all media, please DM. I’m eager to work again soon.”
Getting a new job, however, may be more complicated for Frias today, as he has filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Florida Commission on Human Relations.
The basis of the complaint? WLRN Program Director Caitie Muñoz admonished a producer over Sundial “Sounding very Latino,” while noting the program should be more considerate of “cultural comfort zones,” Frias claims.
Frías also claims Muñoz kept a running log of Hispanic and Latino guests on the show, as compared to other ethnicities.
Frias’ likely resolution would be the return of Sundial, along with back pay, even as WLRN struggles to find corporate and individual donors which can allow it to fully fund local staff.
South Florida radio has long suffered from a lack of philanthropic support for non-commercial and arts-oriented programming. When longtime Classical WTMI-FM was sold to Cox Media Group for $100 million in the late 1990s, the then-owner of WTMI explained that Miami’s biggest corporations did little to support the fine arts content. CMG stook with WTMI’s Classical format for roughly one year before switching it to a more commercially viable format. Today, that station is WFEZ “Easy 93.1,” a top-rated property.
Meanwhile, the Classical format languished, with an AM attempting to attract listeners. Later, “Classical South Florida” debuted on signals in West Palm Beach, Fort Myers-Naples, and Miami. However, this service abruptly ended, and the stations were sold to Educational Media Foundation, due to what Minnesota Public Radio said was a lack of key donor support.
— With reporting by Cameron Coats in New York
