After Five Months with No Pay, Freelance Journalist Takes WPRO to Task on Social Media

Think freelancing means freedom? In the case of Phil Eil, a well-known Rhode Island journalist and former newspaper editor who briefly freelanced for WPRO, the key word is “free.”

Shortly after the demise of the Providence Phoenix last year, its former editor, Eil, looked to be landing on his feet soon after.

Many assured Eil, a talented writer with a penchant for shining the state’s quirky apple in his stories on Rhode Island culture and life, that he’d be landing a journalism gig in no time.

Sure enough, within weeks, Eil, 30, was proudly welcomed to the fold at 630WPRO.com — the website for Rhode Island’s leading news and talk radio station.

“I’m thrilled to begin writing for 630wpro.com,” Eil was quoted in a glowing and now-deleted post on their site announcing the freelance arrangement. “I had so many more stories about Rhode Island I wanted to write when the Phoenix closed — on subjects ranging from drones to marijuana legalization to political corruption to RI’s drug addiction and overdose crisis — and I’m delighted for the opportunity to present that work alongside WPRO’s top-notch news team.”

Before long, he had filed a detailed 5,000 word story based on a lengthy, exclusive interview of outgoing Governor Lincoln Chafee. He explored the state overdose epidemic and the use of Narcan to combat it. He looked back at 2014 — from a broad perspective, as well as a review of the campaign season and the election.

Five months later, Eil, who said in an interview that he plans on teaching at the Rhode Island School of Design in the fall, said he has still not been paid for those stories and is owed more than $1,000. Repeated calls, emails and other efforts to get paid have been repeatedly ignored or dismissed.

“In addition to the significant time I spent preparing, researching, reporting, and writing these articles, I have now wasted countless hours, via phone and email, trying to track down the more than $1,000 I’m owed. And all of this comes from a company that trumpeted my arrival as a contributor,” Eil said in a post on Facebook.

Eil said he never planned on making a public spectacle out of the situation, but after months, he said he’s run out of options.

“I want to emphasize the fact that, believe it or not, I did not want a public confrontation with News Talk 630 & 99.7 FM WPRO,“ Eil said. “I just wanted to be paid within a reasonable window of time. Even after that window closed - in December, January, February, or March, depending on your definition of ‘reasonable’,” Eil said. “I took numerous, repeated steps to handle this privately.“

Shortly after several Facebook posts and tweets on Thursday, Eil did get a phone call from the station manager apologizing for the lack of a paycheck. (The call actually came in while Eil was on the phone with this reporter for this story).

But they apparently can’t cut a check at the local level, Eil said, and it has to go through the station’s corporate parent, media conglomerate Cumulus Media. And he isn’t keeping his fingers crossed. In February, he received an e-mail promising him that a paycheck would be overnighted to him.

“I just wanted to let you know that due to the storm yesterday, the FEDEX package was not picked up,” the email said. “It is going out today so you should have it tomorrow.”

That was on Feb. 3. The check never came.

Eil said he’s repeatedly been told that the check hasn’t been cut due to “mishaps and problems back at the far-off corporate mothership, so according to that logic, it’s a blameless crime.”

Station officials did not immediately return an e-mail seeking comment for this story.

Freelance life hasn’t been all terrible for Eil. He has also published pieces in Salon.com, Take Magazine, the Jewish Daily Forward and others.

Photo Credit: Scott Kingsley/ConvergenceRI