Detroit ? Hell hath no fury like that of a scorned National Public Radio fan – especially in Detroit, where listeners angry at recent programming changes have gone to court, charging the city’s NPR station with fraud.

The fury in Detroit over program changes at WDET-FM has listeners claiming they were tricked into contributing money to the station during a pledge drive while station operators were secretly planning to junk locally produced programming and replace it with national talk and public affairs shows.

“This is a public radio station, and their decision just completely disregarded the public and the community that is loyal to the station and financially supports it,” said Kevin Ernst, the lawyer representing a group of listeners.

Louis Lessem, vice president and general counsel at Wayne State University, which owns WDET, said he has “no interest in litigating this in the press. … We’re sorry the plaintiffs choose to do that.”