Michael Peyton abruptly quits Friends of WLRN

Random Pixels has learned that Michael Peyton, the longtime Director of Corporate Marketing for Friends of WLRN, the fundraising arm of the school board-owned radio station WLRN, quietly resigned earlier this week.

"There's been no announcement or email," a source told me this morning, "I think they want to keep it quiet."

Reached on his cell phone this morning, Peyton told me, "After 20 years it was time to move move on. I had an incredible run." He declined further comment.

Peyton's departure comes two months after the hushed-up firing in September of Friends of WLRN CEO, Victor Kendall. 

Last January, Miami New Times staff writer Michael Miller reported that Peyton was making about $400,000 a year at Friends.

In June 2010, Current.org reported that Miami-Dade Schools Superintendent Alberto Carvalho "described compensation for Friends’ employees as 'tantamount to insulting' in light of school salaries and the system’s budget problems..."

Peyton has told associates that in his 20 years at Friends he raised close to $32 million.

But a school board source tells me that sales are down 30%, and Peyton was being pressured to take a demotion at Friends.

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Random Pixels, Jan. 21, 2014: With 'Friends' like these...