Ruth Seymour, a pioneering determine in public radio who led KCRW for a few years till her retirement in 2010, died Friday in Santa Monica after an extended sickness. She was 88.
After serving as program director at KPFK, Seymour joined KCRW in 1977 and was instrumental in reworking the station from a small faculty radio station to an influential nationwide radio powerhouse.
Beneath her management, KCRW expanded into an eclectic and revolutionary format of reports, discuss, music, present affairs and cultural programming. It was additionally one of many early stations to undertake streaming on-line, which made KCRW identified around the globe
KCRW’s President Jennifer Ferro stated in a press release, “Ruth was singular in each means. She had a strong imaginative and prescient that by no means wavered. There was a spirit in Ruth that nobody else has. She didn’t simply save NPR or create a brand new format — Ruth took possibilities and made choices as a result of she knew they have been proper. She trusted her intestine. She broke guidelines and pursued excellence in methods that may’t simply be defined. She was a pressure of nature. Ruth’s legacy lives on at KCRW. She conjures up us to be authentic, to host the neatest folks, probably the most inventive artists and to speak to our viewers with the utmost respect for his or her mind.”
Actor/comic/voiceover artist Harry Shearer, whose “Le Present” aired for many years on KCRW, stated, “Ruth was a towering determine in public radio, embracing a breadth of material and types that, frankly, doesn’t appear potential any extra. She imagined a listener who was endlessly curious, open to a variety of opinions and musics, and labored tirelessly to fulfill that listener.”
NPR Particular Correspondent Susan Stamberg, one of many “Founding Moms” of NPR remembered, “Ruth was one of many nice pioneers of public radio — at her station in addition to within the NPR firmament. My favourite psychological picture of Ruth was through the first struggle in Iraq. She placed on a radiothon to boost cash to ship NPR correspondents to cowl it (the good Anne Garrels and others). And to make her on-air pitches, she wore camouflage and fight boots!”
Among the many packages began throughout her tenure was “Which Method, L.A.” with Warren Olney, in addition to political roundtable “Left, Proper & Heart.”
Identified in Washington, D.C. as a fierce defender of public broadcasting funding and points reminiscent of licensing and royalties for streaming, Seymour additionally advocated for the 2008 municipal bond that constructed the station’s first stand-alone constructing, positioned on the campus of SMC’s Heart for Media and Design.
She additionally presided over the expansion of music present “Morning Turns into Eclectic,” and was the primary to air Ira Glass’ “This American Life.” She gave radio dramatist Joe Frank a inventive dwelling, and provided iconoclast Harry Shearer a weekly hour to do something he needed on “Le Present.”
Seymour began her radio profession in 1961 at KPFK Los Angeles, turning into program director in 1971. After receiving and broadcasting the Patty Hearst-SLA (Symbionese Liberation Military) cassette, station supervisor Will Lewis refused at hand it over, and Ms. Seymour broadcast the FBI and LAPD raid to retrieve it stay on air. The tape was by no means positioned; Lewis spent 16 days in a federal jail, finally launched by Justice William Douglas on First Modification grounds.
Her honors included Amnesty Worldwide’s Media Highlight Award in 1997, and honorary doctorates from two universities.
Born Ruth Epstein within the South Bronx, she studied with Yiddish scholar Max Weinreich and attended Metropolis Faculty of New York. She married poet Jack Hirschman, and after their divorce adopted an Anglicized model of her great-grandfather’s identify.
She is survived by her daughter Celia Hirschman, her sister and brother-in-law Ann and Richard Zimmer and their kids Jessica and Daniel and her cousins Anita Getzler and Greg Epstein.
