Boston Radio: GBH Staffers Question High Salary of Executives

When GBH laid off nearly three dozen workers last month, chief executive Susan Goldberg cited flat revenue and rising costs that left one of the nation’s largest producers of public media in the red.

The Boston Globe reports teft untouched were the high salaries received by the 16 top executives at the station, who together earned $5.9 million last year in total compensation (GBH eliminated year-end bonuses for all staff, but did not cut base compensation). Their high pay — nine earned more than $300,000 in base compensation each last year, the nonprofit’s records show — has prompted criticism among current and former employees about the organization’s choices in confronting a budget shortfall of $7 million for its core business.

Jim Braude

“I’ve spoken to a bunch of higher-paid people here since the layoffs,” said Jim Braude, co-host of GBH’s popular “Boston Public Radio” show, who records show earned $491,428 last fiscal year, making him one of the organization’s top-paid employees. “We all would have been willing to take pay cuts to save costs if we had been asked.”

(Braude’s base compensation is now $344,850, according to a term sheet he provided to the Globe, down from the $464,031 he earned in the tax filing. He said the difference reflects the loss of a salary from hosting “Greater Boston,” which he stepped away from in December 2022.)

To meet its budget goals, GBH laid off 4 percent of its workforce and suspended three television programs it said had low viewership, terminating six workers on those shows. Many had salaries ranging from $50,000 to $65,000, according to interviews with current and former employees.