Posted on 02/24/2003 10:31:18 AM PST by Temple Owl
Sun, Feb. 23, 2003
Fame, not fortune, for public radio host
By Patricia Horn
Inquirer Staff Writer
One of the region's most prominent cultural voices, Terry Gross, is host of Fresh Air, a weekday radio talk show produced by Philadelphia's WHYY-FM. Each week, four million people listen to her probing interviews, which are carried by 425 public radio stations nationwide.
Yet WHYY, her employer, did not list Gross among its top earners on its 2001 federal tax form.
After being questioned by The Inquirer about why its list of top-paid employees did not include its nationally known star, the station discovered it was in error and will refile its 2001 form, said Art Ellis, the station's communications director. However, the new list still will not include Gross, whose 2001 salary was about $85,000, Ellis said.
Gross' show attracts such guests as actor Kevin Spacey, former President Jimmy Carter, and writer Jonathan Franzen. In an interview, Gross said she had considered herself underpaid compared with other hosts of nationally aired public radio shows. Since then, though, the station has raised her salary "substantially," she said.
"I'm satisfied," she said.
She declined to reveal her current salary, saying, "I consider that personal."
Bob Edwards, host of National Public Radio's Morning Edition, the most-listened-to program on public radio, earned $229,754 in fiscal year 2001, not including benefits.
Scott Simon, host of NPR's Weekend Edition Saturday, earned $172,604. And David Brancaccio, host of Minnesota Public Radio's half-hour weekday Marketplace program, made $153,259 in 2001, according to IRS filings.
Another popular WHYY host, Marty Moss-Coane of Radio Times, also did not make the station's 2001 IRS report; she also made about $85,000 that year, Ellis said.
Her salary also will not make the new filing. The station has not yet determined who will be on the new list, because it is still reviewing its salaries, Ellis said.
Both Gross and Moss-Coane had been renegotiating their contracts in 2001, Ellis said. Moss-Coane finished her negotiations - and received a raise - before the end of that fiscal year. Gross' negotiations carried into the next fiscal year.
The station had disclosed both Gross' and Moss-Coane's salaries when it believed theirs should have been listed on the 990 tax form. Nonprofit organizations such as WHYY must report to the IRS the names and salaries of their five highest-paid employees if they make more than $50,000, in addition to the salaries of officers, directors and trustees.
Also absent from the list of area cultural leaders who made $150,000 or more in 2001 were the top executives of the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts.
The reasons: Janice Price, the current Kimmel president, did not start her job until 2002, at a salary of $300,000; previous Kimmel president Leslie Ann Miller took no pay.
No southern New Jersey cultural group reported paying a salary of $150,000 or more.
The Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia was run for two years by Seymour S. Preston III, chairman of the board and former chief executive of Elf Atochem North America, who took no pay while the academy hunted for a permanent president.
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Contact staff writer Patricia Horn at 215-854-2560 or phorn@phillynews.com.
Bob Edwards, host of National Public Radio's Morning Edition, the most-listened-to program on public radio, earned $229,754 in fiscal year 2001, not including benefits
Scott Simon, host of NPR's Weekend Edition Saturday, earned $172,604. And David Brancaccio, host of Minnesota Public Radio's half-hour weekday Marketplace program, made $153,259 in 2001, according to IRS filings
That's you rtax dollars at work. Does it make you feel warm all over?
I have even heard segments on the show dedicated to arrainged marriages in the middle east! What the hell does that have to do with the market? Well, it might have something to do with the Dowry market, but not Wall Street, which supposedly the show is about.
Now I know what. Let me repeat, I made less than $10,000 last year, barely kept a roof over my head, and the federal government is spending my tax money on this and whenever you talk to liberals it's all about how high taxes and big government are for the 'little people.'
Ewwww, Gross...
Margot Adler 
Elizabeth Arnold 
Brooke Gladstone 
Liane Hansen 
Mara Liasson 
Jackie Lyden 
Lynn Neary 
Kathleen Schalch 
Joanne Silberner 
Tovia Smith 
Susan Stamberg 
Ann Taylor 
Michelle Trudeau 
Carol Wasserman 
And last, but not least, NPR's Pamela Anderson... Nina Totenberg 
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