Monday, June 15, 2015

More Info on WDCB Case

From Tom Taylor's NOW column this morning...

At Chicago’s WDCB, there were warnings about an engineer who ripped off a previous employer. That’s what the Chicago Tribune says about a situation that’s turned ugly for the College of DuPage, operator of non-com “Jazz 90.9” WDCB Glen Ellyn. The February 20 NOW had the story about an auditor finding at least $90,000 worth of transmitter parts that were ordered but never installed. And hundreds of thousands of dollars of possibly fictitious work billed by an outside firm owned by station engineer John Valenta. Turns out Valenta had been accused of similar misbehavior at Elmhurst College, and that at least some people at the College of DuPage should’ve known. The Tribune says “In March 2011, a station employee informed [then-GM] Scott Wager that she had seen a news report about the criminal investigation of Valenta’s activities at Elmhurst. She said Wager ‘looked like a ghost.’” A new report by an outside law firm says “It appears most likely that Wager was made aware” of the Elmhurst situation “and quieted the matter by failing to notify his superiors and preventing a police investigation from opening.” Wager retired in February 2014.