ST. LOUIS — Beleaguered community radio station KDHX has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, the station announced Monday evening.
Under Chapter 11, a company continues to operate while trying to develop a plan with creditors to repay all or some of its debt. The company is not obligated to pay any debt during the period of bankruptcy.
“This process allows us to honor our financial obligations, protect our longstanding relationships and explore ways to redesign community media in service to our whole community,†board President Gary Pierson said.
“The Chapter 11 filings were forced due to longstanding financial pressures (including pending litigation) and industry-wide challenges unique to publicly supported media,†the station said in a statement.
The station has been in freefall since September 2023, when it terminated the contracts of 10 of its 80 volunteer disc jockeys in one day and demanded a “mediated discussion†with 12 more to determine whether they could stay with the station. In the following weeks, at least another 14 volunteer DJs left the station in a show of support.
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All or nearly all of the DJs who were let go or left — plus two others who had been let go a month before the mass firings — had earlier signed a letter of no confidence in executive director Kelly Wells.
Listener reaction to the firings was swift and fierce. Donations, which the noncommercial station depends on for the majority of its financing, dwindled. Underwriting, in which businesses contribute money in return for on-air announcements, similarly disappeared.
In 2023, the most recent year for which financial statements are available, the station lost more than $327,000 on revenues of $940,000 — and listener anger did not materialize until late September.
The previous year, the station lost $137,000 on revenues of $1.09 million.
On-air listenership dropped from a Nielsen rating of 1.0 share in the three months before the firings to 0.6 before it stopped subscribing to the Nielsen service nine months after the DJs were released.
The Nielsen ratings measure what percentage of all people in a given area are listening to each station.
On Jan. 31, the station let go all 115 of its volunteers as a way, it said, to cut down on expenses. With no live announcers, the station has been playing pre-recorded shows from its past. The broadcasts have suffered from a couple of hours-long periods of dead air and unseasonal music, such as a recent show that featured Christmas songs.
On Jan. 29, 16 of the station’s former volunteers sued KDHX, claiming it had taken a series of actions to take a measure of power away from the volunteers, which is guaranteed in the station’s bylaws, and consolidate it among the administration and board of directors.
That case continues to make its way through the courts.
Post-Dispatch photographers capture hundreds of images each week; here's a glimpse at the week of March 2, 2025. Video edited by Jenna Jones.
