[joe-frank-list] 'Joe Frank:Somewhere Out There documentary (Steven Maleski)'

[russellbell at gmail.com]

	Quoth Steven Maleski:

	'there was one glaring omission. No Ruth Seymour who was
the General Manager at KCRW and who invited Joe to LA and gave him the
space to do his unique show....'
	She told a story about first hearing Joe.  Everyone at the
station was quiet, listening to his show (must have been 'NPR
Playhouse'): she could see what other professionals thought of him.
When she found out that NPR had hired then marginalized him, she
called them philistines, then offered Joe a show.

	At KPFK Ruth Hirschman was stridently assertive on political
issues, not interested in discussion; she focused on raising money.  I
wasn't around when she left, but she may have rubbed too many people
the wrong way (believable) or found it too poor or limiting (true
about KPFK).
	When she took over at KCRW she fired everybody, ended student
involvement, made it much more popular, aimed at the hipster crowd (it
had a folky laid-back vibe), set up a network of repeater stations
around the region (I could hear it in Ridgecrest).  In response to a
question about student involvement, she curtly replied, 'It isn't
Radio Corsair.'  ('Corsair' is the school nickname, the name of the
student paper.)
	She fired Sandra Tsing Loh after Joe.  They did a joint live
show after that; she mentioned that they had KCRW-firing in common.
She fired Harry Shearer ('Le Show') after some 25 years with no
notice.  (Or had she left by then?)
	I don't know her personally, but I've detected no trace of
sentiment in a long radio career.  Maybe she saved it for her personal
life; maybe she's a lizard.
	I listened to Joe, Harry, and the news, but KUSC for music
(classical).  I'm no judge of the music KCRW played.  But they are a
huge success, one of the top stations in NYC, last I looked, and she
may deserve all the credit.
	Has anyone spoken fondly of her?  She was a hard-nosed
businesswoman.

russell bell