This week on Made Possible By…, our podcast about pioneers of public media, KCRW legend Ruth Seymour talks about her wish for a public radio breaking news system, the creation of This American Life, and her secrets to doing a lot with very little.
Seymour, who largely built the Los Angeles radio station into what it is today, sat down for an interview with Evan George, managing producer of the station’s To the Point. Seymour tells George about her three-word mission statement for KCRW: “To be important.” Her board didn’t like it, but “I think that’s the mission for public media, otherwise there’s no reason for it to be,” she says.
Seymour also has words of praise for This American Life, which she was instrumental in getting on the air, and she discusses KCRW’s coverage of major news events. “… [I]n the most plain circumstances, you can achieve something that you could not imagine with some creative innovation,” she says.
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