Tom Vinetz
Family friend
Ruth was an artist. A devoted, very unusual artist of public consciousness, public conscience and awareness. Intense, literate, rational. A very rare "bohemian" provocateur agent of thought, learning and depth.
In creating KCRW (with consultant Will Lewis, her KPFK cohort) she transformed her thoughts, ideas, interests into action, creating her own philosophical distribution system, a controlled coherent mix of music and ideas with provocative programming; differing news personalities into continuous dialogue; local, national and international politics into should-know interest; social and cultural persona and events into must know…coalescing, coagulating, wrangling a particular Los Angeles zeitgeist into the most successful model for a public radio station. A saboteur of the mundane and disinterested. A deeply serious undertaking creating a particular KCRW social bond across Los Angeles and the nation, using music as the initial draw, enveloping listeners in the possibilities of radio integrating voices of poets, philosophers, and sometimes fools into the mix. Old school American values of education, learning, tolerance, openness, questioning... Ruth created and expanded that social bond in her radio audience by pioneering programming of incredible breadth, interest, and education.
It was a high wire act, balancing the different characters, interests, directions, a political/social strategy. Engineered to incorporate and encourage education and entertainment toward enlightenment.
Ruth was no-nonsense, a tough cookie. She knew what she wanted and through talent, strength and determination, she developed the power to achieve it, trusting her judgement to test, try, experiment, improve, redirect. If it worked, it stayed. If it didn't, goodbye. She was the most infuriating person with whom to argue or disagree, absolutely certain. And the most gracious thoughtful friend whom I knew from the 1970s on. She and her family stayed in my San Francisco cottage for a while when I worked at City Lights Books. Moving back to LA and finding KCRW which she had just resurrected was the key to the city. Every type of music played...Isabel Holt/Morning Becomes Eclectic, reggae, jazz...the newest, the rarely heard. Balanced and tuned by Ruth's presence and willingness to trust her programmers, trusting her own intellect and soul, music was just the gateway into KCRW's depth, importance, and social relevance.
As uncommercial as it gets, this was intelligent, insightful, ground-breaking much needed public radio, a gift to the city, a gift to us all. Ruth created it personally...was its heart, it was her life.
