Ruth Seymour

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.

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.

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.

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.

Ruth Seymour is in a funk. She's half an hour late for dinner, famished, but in no mood to eat, let alone be interviewed. "Maybe this was a bad idea," she says, barely audible above the din of Hal's Bar & Grill, a favorite Venice hangout. She relents and orders a salad anyway. It's been a rough day and the woman who shaped public radio station KCRW in her own image needs time to decompress.

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)

The cancellation of "KCRW Playhouse" made me decide not to renew my KCRW membership when it expired a couple of months ago ("Radio Drama Troupe Assails KCRW's Cancellation of 'Playhouse,' " by Elaine Dutka, July 24). I've had a love-hate relationship with KCRW for 20 years, loving "All Things Considered" and Warren Olney but hating the cancellation of music shows I cared about ("Reggae Beat," "African Beat") and the gradual morphing of the station into Yuppie Music Central. Replacing "KCRW Playhouse" with more yuppie music was the final straw for me. Ruth Seymour wants to "attract a younger audience."

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.

When the new congressional leadership announced plans to eliminate funds for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, staff and listeners of member TV and radio stations sprang into action. None faster with the editorial than Ruth Seymour, general manager of KCRW. Seymour, 59, is nothing if not feisty.

"We killed the audience." Ruth Seymour couldn't help thinking that as the KCRW general manager faced dead phone lines during the first live broadcast of her annual Hanukkah show in 1979. Back then, KCRW-FM (89.9) was a tiny public radio station with a staff of five and a constant scramble for new programming, not the National Public Radio powerhouse it is today. The BBC Drama Service provided plenty of Christmas shows but nothing for Hanukkah, so Seymour decided to create and host her own show.

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)

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.

"We killed the audience." Ruth Seymour couldn't help thinking that as the KCRW general manager faced dead phone lines during the first live broadcast of her annual Hanukkah show in 1979. Back then, KCRW-FM (89.9) was a tiny public radio station with a staff of five and a constant scramble for new programming, not the National Public Radio powerhouse it is today. The BBC Drama Service provided plenty of Christmas shows but nothing for Hanukkah, so Seymour decided to create and host her own show.

The cancellation of "KCRW Playhouse" made me decide not to renew my KCRW membership when it expired a couple of months ago ("Radio Drama Troupe Assails KCRW's Cancellation of 'Playhouse,' " by Elaine Dutka, July 24). I've had a love-hate relationship with KCRW for 20 years, loving "All Things Considered" and Warren Olney but hating the cancellation of music shows I cared about ("Reggae Beat," "African Beat") and the gradual morphing of the station into Yuppie Music Central. Replacing "KCRW Playhouse" with more yuppie music was the final straw for me. Ruth Seymour wants to "attract a younger audience."

Ruth Seymour is in a funk. She's half an hour late for dinner, famished, but in no mood to eat, let alone be interviewed. "Maybe this was a bad idea," she says, barely audible above the din of Hal's Bar & Grill, a favorite Venice hangout. She relents and orders a salad anyway. It's been a rough day and the woman who shaped public radio station KCRW in her own image needs time to decompress.

When the new congressional leadership announced plans to eliminate funds for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, staff and listeners of member TV and radio stations sprang into action. None faster with the editorial than Ruth Seymour, general manager of KCRW. Seymour, 59, is nothing if not feisty.

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.

With Ruth Seymour's firing of Sandra Tsing Loh at KCRW-FM and now Bob Edwards' demotion at NPR's "Morning Edition" ("Stormy Days for NPR," by Allan M. Jalon and Steve Carney, March 29), it appears that public radio is running out of feet to shoot. Lon M. Burns Manhattan Beach