Will Lewis

Longtime former Marketing Consultant to KCRW, former General Manager KPFK 

I worked alongside Ruth at KCRW for decades, and when she became General Manager of KCRW, she asked me to join her to help build KCRW into the powerhouse it became. In the process, she became one of the most successful on-air fundraisers of her time. 

But it wasn’t just money she attracted; some of the most talented and creative names in public radio came to KCRW because of her: Renowned radio dramatist Joe Frank, award-winning producer Larry Josephson and Elvis Mitchell, one of the first black film critics, later hired in that role at The New York Times. In fact, at Apple’s World Wide Developers Conference when Steve Jobs first introduced the iPod, he played a clip from Mitchell’s “The Treatment” from the stage, including the original theme music mix, saying, “This is an example what a good podcast can be.”

From KPFK to KCRW, Ruth blazed a path that no one else could replicate and succeeded brilliantly doing it.