Kcrw

MUSIC KCRW helps ease audiences into 2012 with a double-bill of indie rock, featuring Jenny & Johnny's fast, ultra-melodic pop and New York City's joyous pop duo Cults. Standard Hotel West Hollywood, 8300 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood. 8 p.m. Sat. $75-$125. (323) 822-3111. http://www.kcrw.com.

Here are sample playlists put together from my own (admittedly limited) library, each one "arced" for a particular purpose. Then I asked a few folks who can really pick out a tune to share their sample lists. AMINA KHAN PICK-ME-UP: It's siesta time. I feel myself lapsing into food coma, eyelids drooping and motivation flagging. Flo Rida's sunny dance beats shake me awake, and LMFAO'sdriving base gets me going. Calvin Harris evens out the energy level, and Cypress Hill's vibrant melodies with Marc Anthony's soaring vocals send my spirits flying.

As avid listeners to and supporters of KCRW, we were incensed, appalled and deeply disappointed to read of General Manager Ruth Hirschman's decision to fire Deirdre O'Donoghue (Pop Eye, by Patrick Goldstein, Nov. 2). Not only has this city lost its most enthusiastic proponent of new music, but it has lost the most honest and insightful voice covering the L.A. cultural scene. Maybe in Chile or Poland Hirschman's remarks about O'Donoghue's "inappropriate" political remarks or her (horrors!

After 35 years in television news, Warren Olney walked away from a lucrative reporting job at the end of 1991, frustrated that the medium had become too superficial. When public radio station KCRW-FM (89.9) invited him to host a one-time show, a call-in program in the wake of the 1992 Los Angeles riots, he didn't realize he was about to start another career. Now, two decades later, he's preparing to celebrate the 20th anniversary of "Which Way, L.A.?" and on Saturday night will receive a lifetime achievement award from the Radio & Television News Assn.

Jennifer Ferro, assistant general manager of public radio station KCRW-FM (89.9), is expected to be named the influential station's new general manager Saturday, succeeding Ruth Seymour, who is retiring after 32 years in the position. The board of trustees of Santa Monica College, which owns KCRW's license, was expected to approve the appointment of Ferro, who will begin her new job March 1. FOR THE RECORD: An article in Saturday's Calendar section about the expected succession of Jennifer Ferro as general manager of public radio station KCRW incorrectly identified another public radio station, KPCC, as KPPC.

My acquaintance with Ruth Seymour over the years had been fleeting. But inevitably when I saw the KCRW radio general manager, it would provoke reminiscences about the days long ago when I worked with her daughter, Celia, on the newspaper at Santa Monica High School. Maybe that obscure connection gave Seymour license to heap extra incredulity on me a couple of months ago. It was the last time I interviewed her, and I had deigned to ask whether, based on the latest Arbitron ratings, KCRW-FM (89.9)

Nic Harcourt, the music director of Santa Monica-based public radio station KCRW-FM (89.9), will step down Nov. 30, the station said Monday. Harcourt has presided over KCRW's nationally known "Morning Becomes Eclectic" music program for 10 years. Harcourt won't be completely splitting from the station: He will continue to host a three-hour music program on Sunday evenings. "As a parent of two young children, I believe it's time for me to explore new career opportunities and expand upon my other activities in movie, television, voice-over work, advertising and the Internet," Harcourt said in a statement.

KCRW-FM (89.9) has canceled "Hollywood Wrap With Nikki Finke," which aired Mondays at 2:30 p.m. Finke says the cancellation after two years "came as a complete shock. Not only was I never given any criticism, but they never let me say goodbye on the air." Replied KCRW General Manager Ruth Seymour: "We didn't feel the program was attracting an audience. I don't throw out popular shows."

Singer and DJ Henry Rollins, whose over-the-air radio gig at Indie 103 ended last month when the rock station changed to a Spanish-language format, has landed a job at KCRW-FM (89.9). His new show will air Saturdays from 6 to 8 p.m., starting March 7. "I feel Henry's tastes and perspectives are a good fit because he has a strong point of view and there are ideas behind all of his music selections," says KCRW music director Jason Bentley, who is also the host of the station's signature "Morning Becomes Eclectic" show.

If your definition of "classic" theater precludes plays that were written after, say, 1920, then L.A. Classic Theatre Works has yet to tackle any classic theater. However, it comes closer in "The Crucible" than it has in either of its other productions so far. Though Arthur Miller's play dates from 1952 (its Broadway premiere was in January, 1953), it is set in 1692. It requires actors who can approximate the sound of 17th-century English colonists, yet remain comprehensible to modern ears.

MUSIC KCRW helps ease audiences into 2012 with a double-bill of indie rock, featuring Jenny & Johnny's fast, ultra-melodic pop and New York City's joyous pop duo Cults. Standard Hotel West Hollywood, 8300 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood. 8 p.m. Sat. $75-$125. (323) 822-3111. http://www.kcrw.com.

Veteran KCRW-FM (89.9) DJ Nic Harcourt said Friday that his abrupt departure from the station this week has nothing to do with focusing his energy on another job he's taken with MTV, as station management announced Thursday, but rather on his desire to host a show at another Southland public radio station, Cal State Northridge-based KCSN-FM (88.5). "The reality was I was going to do a show on a little radio station in the Valley that's not even paying me," KCRW's former music director and longtime host of the taste-making morning show "Morning Becomes Eclectic" said in an interview.

'Wanted's' run ending This week marks the final weekly airing of "America's Most Wanted" on the Fox network after 23 years and 1,153 fugitives nabbed. "I don't think it's hit me yet," John Walsh, the host and driving force of what he turned into a nationwide crime watch, said Thursday. "Saturday when I see the last show — that's gonna be painful. " But that broadcast, which airs at 9 p.m., is billed as the season finale — not the series conclusion — on the "AMW" website.

EVENTS L.A.'s gourmet food truck onslaught has been the culinary story of the last few years. At the KCRW Global Street Food festival, local twitterati will get a reminder that this is how the rest of the world has eaten since well, the first street-side ad hoc stove. "Good Food's" Evan Kleiman hosts a discussion on the scene with Jonathan Gold, chef Jet Tila, Gustavo Arellano and food writers from Malaysia and Mexico City. And, yes, there will be tasting from India Jones, Nom Nom Truck, Let's Be Frank and many others.

A giant hunk of matzo and egg hangs there on the end of the fork. But every time the man wielding the gooey helping brings it toward his mouth, something really important comes to his mind. The fork descends and Joe Frank, still hungry, takes off in another direction. It's been nearly a decade since his last regular program on KCRW-FM, where Frank created a sensation with strange, tragic-comic dramas that sounded like nothing else on radio. Today, Frank still has a lot to say. He's doing it on Facebook, where he has 3,600 friends, and in occasional one-man shows.

First of all, what's up with that name: Hello Seahorse! (Yes, exclamation mark included.) Don't expect a simple answer regarding its meaning from the Mexico City indie rock band, whose songs often are as unpredictable and enigmatic as its appellation. "We didn't even know what it means," said Denise Gutierrez, a.k.a. Lo Blondo, the band's lead vocalist and lyricist, speaking by phone earlier this week. "It's weird, because we never know what to say when people ask us that question.

When Ruth Seymour arrived as a consultant for KCRW-FM (89.9) in September 1977, the station was operating out of a building at John Adams Middle School in Santa Monica and had the oldest transmitter west of the Mississippi. "There was one typewriter, and it didn't work. If you opened the door, you were on the playground of a junior high school," Seymour said. "There was no place to go but up." Seymour helped transform KCRW from a small outlet with a weak Westside signal to the National Public Radio flagship in Southern California, broadcasting to Los Angeles, Palm Springs, and Orange and Ventura counties.

Roll into 2011 with style and swagger at KCRW's New Year's Eve soiree at the Viceroy Hotel. The lux Santa Monica venue will transform its patio to an NYE playland, with DJs including Mayer Hawthorne, Classixx, Jason Bentley and Raul Campos. For more on this and dozens of NYE options, check out our online party guide at latimes.com/newyearseve . Viceroy Hotel, 1819 Ocean Ave., Santa Monica. 9 p.m. $200 presale, $250 at the door. (310) 260-7500. viceroyhotelsandresorts.com.

Killer music and creative costumes are all but guaranteed at KCRW's Masquerade Costume Ball at the neo-Gothic Park Plaza Hotel. Several of the station's DJs will spin in five themed rooms, and turntablist Cut Chemist and rock bands the Duke Spirit and Gram Rabbit will perform. Park Plaza Hotel, 607 S. Park View St., L.A. 9 p.m.-2 a.m. Sat. $75 in advance, $85 at the door (cash only). (310) 314-4635. http://www.kcrw.com . For a comprehensive list of this weekend's Halloween parties, go to latimes.