Sarah Spitz
Producer, Publicity Director KCRW
Sarah Spitz
I walked into KCRW in 1983 and stayed for 28 years. The long and short of this remembrance is that I lived through the most historic local, national and global events of the 20th and 21st centuries alongside Ruth; I learned about arts, culture and current affairs and became a seasoned broadcaster thanks to her. I also experienced some of the most emotional moments of my life with, around and because of her.
Ruth was in every way my mentor. Sometimes painfully so. We had a turbulent relationship at times, but in the end, what I gained from her was the ultimate gift of my mind’s expansion, in a career I never could have imagined and wouldn’t trade for anything. I once told Ruth that I got my degree from UCLA but I got my education at KCRW. And that was due to her.
My parents would occasionally drop by unexpectedly to visit while I was working at KCRW. During one of those visits, Ruth told my mother she liked that I stood up to her to defend what I believed in. Much later, during another of these visits, Ruth paused as she saw mom and dad at the end of the hallway, asking me who that old couple was. When I said it was my parents whom she’d met several times, she nodded; it was the first time I recognized that they had really aged. Not for the first time, Ruth delivered me a life-changing revelation.
She and I had a couple of epic screaming fights and yet we always came out the other side stronger and better, for each other and for the station. I can honestly say that, other than my parents, the most important person in my life was Ruth. There’s no doubt she changed and improved me, and helped make me who I am today.
By equal turns I admired, hated, respected, loved, was infuriated, impressed and bowled over (in every sense of that phrase) by Ruth.
I never knew anyone as certain of their own opinions, judgments and beliefs. I envied that. If, however, you could get past the trickier parts of her personality, you realized how inspiring she was as a leader and why she was regarded a living legend. She let people lead with their own strengths and gave them the freedom to do so.
Ruth was truly one-of-a-kind; I couldn’t imagine anyone ever filling her shoes. When she retired in 2010, she took me to her house (then a block from the station) to share the news of her decision before announcing it to the station and the world. The first thing that came out of my mouth was “Shit!” And then I told her, “I’ve always said when you go, I go,” and a year later, I went.
KCRW was a beacon, the inimitable gold standard for what intellectual, engaging, essential and important programming, that feeds all aspects of the human mind and heart, could be. She is irreplaceable.
Now for some history:
Events that marked our time together include: The first $100,000 pledge drive, and the first $1,000,000 pledge drive!
1984
The move from John Adams Middle School to the basement of the Cayton Building on SMC’s campus. We turned out the lights together at JAMS and crossed the street to our future.
1987
Ruth brought me along as her recording engineer for a series of interviews with artists, sharing a hotel room in La Jolla following interviews with installation artist Vito Acconci and theater producer/director Des McAnuff. It made me nervous, being with this woman who seemed to know and understand everything, and I didn’t know how to let my guard down around her. But that night, she snored gently, making her more human to me and helping me to relax the next day.
1989
Fledgling 24/7 cable news network CNN broadcast the Tiananmen Square protests in China live. We recorded a local Chinese émigré pretending to be “reporting” on a protestor. When she got through to a functionary by phone, she accused Chinese premier Li Peng of being the real enemy. That piece aired on NPR’s Weekend Edition with Scott Simon.
1991
I was on air on a Sunday night during pledge drive, when Communist hardliners kidnapped Mikhail Gorbachev, and President Boris Yeltsin stood on a tank vowing to repel them. All I could do till we got Ruth in to commandeer our coverage was report what I was seeing on TV. Later, we reached Yelena Bonner, wife of dissident Soviet physicist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Andrei Sakharov, live by phone, and asked her to describe what she was seeing in the streets. Through the magic of our mixing board, we connected Bonner off-air with her son in Boston, whom she had not been able to reach during the coup attempt.
1992
Rodney King verdicts sparked citywide uprisings. Shortly after the fires were put out, we produced a call-in show, and later a Town Hall with local public TV station KCET, hosted by veteran news anchor and journalist, Warren Olney. That morphed into “Which Way, L.A.? with Warren Olney,” on air till 2016, providing the community a sounding board to discuss what happened and why. Ruth gave me the privilege of producing its first five years; the show went on to receive major awards and accolades from media and audiences alike. Later Warren would expand to host KCRW’s national public affairs program, “To the Point.”
1994
On January 17, the massively destructive Northridge earthquake wreaked havoc on our homes and our basement station. At Ruth’s direction, even without power, without phone connections, with computers toppled over, and our record library completely upended, she told me to call the White House. I reached Bill Clinton’s Press Secretary Dee Dee Myers, even though the phone kept cutting in and out. Nevertheless, we persisted and Ruth spoke to her.
1994
Newt Gingrich and his “Contract with America” stepped up attacks to eliminate federal funding for what he considered liberally- biased public radio and TV news. Ruth gave radical right-winger, David Horowitz a show called “The First Hundred Days,” about Gingrich’s agenda. While it outraged many listeners, Ruth never bowed to convention or pressure; she stood against “political correctness” and easily defended her decision in defense of balance and First Amendment principles.
By 1996,
Horowitz’s show became Left, Right & Center, public radio’s only weekly political roundtable, and it took off like a rocket. It featured LA Times and former Ramparts reporter Robert Scheer on the left, Arianna Huffington (at that time on the right, but evolving to a position “beyond labels”), Gingrich’s former press secretary Tony Blankley on the (actual) right and Clinton administration advisor Matt Miller as center and moderator. It became a runaway hit locally and nationally. Although with new hosts and guests, it’s still on the air today.
The mid-90s ushered in a prolific period of new programming, adding Good Food, The Treatment, Bookworm, The Business and DnA: Design and Architecture, The Politics of Culture. We also inserted local commentators on theater, TV, art, movies, civic and medical issues into the “cutaways” in NPR’s news programs.
By now KCRW’s reputation was soaring locally, nationally and even internationally; we became NPR’s flagship for Southern California, as our transmitters and repeaters widened our coverage area and our website and app gave us a global presence.
Ruth shepherded many literary productions: Jewish, Korean, Mexican, and Japanese short stories read by celebrities, and dramatized “noir” detective novels by Ross McDonald and Walter Mosley, in addition to working with BBC Radio Drama on such live collaborations as “The Crucible” and “Are You Now or Have You Ever Been.”
We broadcast live from the opening of The Getty Center in Brentwood and Walt Disney Concert Hall in Downtown LA. We produced documentaries about the 75th anniversary of the LA Philharmonic and the Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Orange County.
Ruth had a nose for news and how to program it. We covered the Iran Contra hearings live, and offered listeners the chance to weigh in on the Gulf Wars, pro and con; we carried every major news event— from Clinton and Trump impeachment hearings to Anita Hill testifying about alleged sexual harassment by Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas—live on air.
As the years went on, KCRW continued to be a towering and influential music trendsetter, and our online presence opened a window to live performances on Morning Becomes Eclectic by up-and-coming and established musical artists. Coldplay made its American radio debut on KCRW, a bidding war for Beck broke out when he performed “Loser” live, Paul Simon, Nina Simone, Little Richard, REM, Joni Mitchell and too many others to name all performed in Studio 4. Though Ruth did not produce these live concerts, they happened because she gave the music department the freedom to embrace their passion and share it with the audience.
There are so many moments of glory in this station’s and Ruth’s history, and I could continue endlessly. But it is emotionally difficult and exhausting thinking back on this golden era in KCRW’s story, which is Ruth’s story. Ruth was never sentimental and I am trying hard not to be.
All I can say is being part of Ruth’s story, career and life was never easy, but it was always rewarding. I consider it a blessing to have been there for a good deal of it and honored to have played a small part in helping to create her legacy.
