Warren Olney

Host, Executive Producer Which Way, L.A.? and To the Point.

Ruth Seymour was the smartest, most creative, most challenging and demanding person I ever worked with in almost 60 years of broadcasting.  We first met when I was still a TV reporter and she was at KPFK, organizing an LA chapter of Amnesty International to advocate for journalists under repression overseas. Our chapter didn’t last long because the captive journalists AI assigned us kept getting released before we had time to advocate, but I had learned where Ruth was coming from and I always respected her for a practical kind of idealism.  

Just weeks after I finally quit TV News, Ruth asked me to host “one hour” of live programming on KCRW while the Rodney King Uprising was still under way. When she retired some 20 years later, I was still at the station.  At the outset, she and Will Lewis decided a major lesson of the disturbance was that LA’s myriad voices weren’t being listened to seriously, and Ruth proposed to make radio out of that idea with a program she called, “Which Way, L.A.?” Her insight made for a big, new audience and lots of recognition.  She liked to say that the program “mattered.”  

But Ruth was never really interested in local affairs.  As we sat together in the studio during the OJ Simpson car chase in 1994, she filled every break with chatter about the upcoming congressional elections and events in Israel.  

In 2020, she adapted the WWLA? format for a national and world affairs show called, “To the Point.”  She knew how much research, production and imagination two daily shows would require, and she provided enough, super-qualified staff to make sure her journalistic standards were met.  Ruth’s national reputation opened the way for “TTP” to be syndicated to stations in New York, Washington and other markets. 

Ruth was often cranky and sometimes appeared distant, but she was fundamentally alert to our needs and she granted us complete freedom—except during Jewish holidays when we got time off.  Despite the tight schedule, I think the programs were ultimately liberating for all of us who worked on them. They were for me, and I’ll always be grateful to Ruth Seymour.