Ruth Seymour, the longtime leader ofSanta Monica-based publicradiostationKCRWdied Friday, station president Jennifer Ferro confirmed to Deadline.
Seymour was at the from station 1977 to 2010.
At about the same time, National Public Radio launched Morning Edition.
Ruth SeymourMarc Goldstein
The move helped KCRW become a mainstay in many Angelenos lives.
Seymour was possibly most familiar to listeners from her presence on the stations on-air pledge drives.
In 1995, she propelled the outlet to a then-breathtaking $1 million pledge drive.
Those actions saved the station financially and allowed it to grow and thrive, observed Ferro.
She also was active in the effort to simplify licensing arrangements around the podcasting of radio stations programs.
She was a champion of journalism and NPR.
Friend to poets like Allen Ginsberg and artists like Leonard Cohen, Seymour brought literary sensibility to KCRW.
Under her watch, it aired 10-hour radio dramas likeBabbittandUlysses.
KCRW sold more of those collections than anything else in its history, according to Ferro.
Each year at Hannukah she hostedPhilosophers, Fiddlers and Fools, a lively Yiddish music program.
She was also a sometime host ofThe Poltics of Culture.
