The Brief

Ruth Seymour, a public media lion who transformed KCRW-FM (89.9) from a struggling signal in Santa Monica into one of the most successful public radio stations in the country, has died. She was 88.

A statement announcing her death said Seymour died at her home in Santa Monica on Friday after a long illness.

Under Seymour's pioneering guidance, KCRW provided the soundtrack to life in Southern California and a backdrop to countless commutes with a potent programming mix of news, music and talk that shaped Los Angeles culture as much as covered it.

Some of those programs included “Morning Becomes Eclectic,” “To the Point” and the groundbreaking “Which Way, L.A.?,” a news program that in particular served as a kind of daily therapy session for a city struggling to regain its footing after the civil unrest that followed four white police officers acquitted in 1992 in the videotaped beating of Black motorist Rodney King.

“L.A. is a better place for Ruth having lived and worked in it,” said Bill Davis, president emeritus of Southern California Public Radio. “The world will be a less interesting place without Ruth in it.”

In a 2010 interview with Los Angeles Magazine to mark her retirement, Seymour called her station “singular, idiosyncratic, daring, independent, smart, and compelling.”

All words that could have described Seymour herself.

From her earliest years in Los Angeles radio, Seymour recognized that having the ear of Angelenos and Southern California listeners was both a privilege — and an opportunity. She had a shrewd sense of what listeners wanted and where the industry was headed, all qualities that served her well as she elevated KCRW to the National Public Radio flagship outlet in Southern California, and the envy of public radio stations nationwide.

She considered “Which Way, L.A.?” to be a “crowning achievement,” said her daughter, Celia Hirschman. “My mother was very proud of that… she sought to raise the discussion to a higher level.”

The host of that show, veteran broadcast journalist Warren Olney, said Seymour was "the smartest, most creative, most challenging and demanding person I ever worked with in almost 60 years of broadcasting." He added that sometimes Seymour could be "cranky and distant" and noted that some called her ```the iron whim," but those changes of mind mostly validated her predictions, built audience and gained respect for the station."

He said the idea for "Which Way, LA?" grew from Seymour's belief that "a major lesson of the disturbance was that LA’s myriad voices weren’t being listened to seriously."

And she wanted to change that.

Seymour was also a resonating voice on the Southern California media landscape — and that voice was all Bronx.

Listeners were no match for it. Seymour was adept at coaxing — or was it hectoring? — listeners to reach into their pockets during pledge drives. At one point, with Seymour at the wheel, the beachy Santa Monica station ranked third — behind urban heavyweights Boston and Chicago — in terms of membership dues raised for National Public Radio.

“She was a monster” at fundraising, said an admiring Nick Harcourt, handpicked by Seymour to become KCRW’s music director and an on-air presenter for the signature show, “Morning Becomes Eclectic.” “She was just so good at it, getting money out of the news audience.”

She was successful, he said, because listeners understood and believed in Seymour’s commitment to public radio’s mission.

Her early life in the Bronx

It’s no surprise where Seymour was born — the Bronx, as Ruth Epstein.

There, she attended public school and her education was supplemented with language and literature classes in Yiddish, fueling a love that would last a lifetime.

When profiled in 1995 by the L.A. Times, she recalled that her Russian-Polish immigrant parents were working-class and deeply intellectual, exposing her to “an extraordinary world of ideas, literature and politics.”

She attended City College of New York, married and became Ruth Hirschman, had two children, and came to L.A. when her husband was hired at UCLA. She talked her way into a job in public radio at KPFK, working as a drama and literary critic and worked her way up the ranks — and into the spotlight.

The station’s manager, who was also her boss, Will Lewis, was later jailed in 1974 for refusing to give the FBI tapes left at the station by the Symbionese Liberation Army and the Weather Underground, turning KPFK and its management into counterculture celebrities.

Early days at KCRW

Upheaval at KPFK led to Seymour’s departure in 1976, paving the way for her hiring at KCRW in 1977. Then, the station was located inside a middle school classroom in Santa Monica and had the oldest transmitter west of the Mississippi.

“There was no place to go but up,” Seymour would say.

She would move the station to Santa Monica College, and go on to become one of the first programmers to embrace eclectic music and carve out an audience niche for it, Davis said, calling the decision “incredibly influential.” And KCRW was “one of the first [public radio] stations in the country to sign up for “Morning Edition,” making other stations take notice, he added. KCRW was also the first station to carry “This American Life” outside of its home base in Chicago.

Seymour had a saying, Harcourt recalled, quoting it: “If you only worry about the listeners you have, they are the only ones you will have.”

Embracing eclectic music

Harcourt said that philosophy meant that even though Seymour “didn’t really understand the music I played” on “Morning Becomes Eclectic,” with its genre busting playlists and emerging world music, Seymour knew she wasn’t the show’s intended audience.

“She understood that it brought in a younger, highly-engaged audience, including decision makers in the entertainment industry,” Harcourt said. “And that was what was making the station a must listen in a demo that had money, and would support the station financially.”

And younger music listeners who were curious might stay for the news as well.

Keeping the Yiddish language and culture was a cause close to Seymour’s heart. (So was honoring family. When she divorced, she took the surname Seymour, in honor of her Polish-born great-grandfather, a rabbi.)

'Not one phone call came in'

When she noticed in the 70s that there were little radio options for Jews like her. So in December of 1978 she had an idea. She created and hosting “Philosophers, Fiddlers and Fools,” a joyous and colorful show that dove deep into Jewish culture, drawing from short stories, and Yiddish folk music and other touchstones familiar to those who might feel left out in a world dominated by Christmas trees.

But during that three-hour programming experiment in December the phones stayed deadly silent. “Not one phone call came in,” Seymour would later write in a history on the show. “I assumed — all of us there, that day, assumed — that we had lost the audience.”

But lo and behold, when the show ended, “The phones began to ring. And ring. And ring. They rang for hours,” she recalled. It was as if the lag was due to rapt listeners who couldn’t pull themselves away from the programming to pick up the phone.

Instead of a colossal failure, Seymour had a hit on her hands.

Celia Hirschman said her mother delighted in creating an entirely new show for Hanukkah each year thereafter.

By the time she announced her decision to step down in 2009, after nearly 30 years at KCRW, the station was in a period of transition. Ratings were struggling, as they were in many other outlets amid the ever-shifting media landscape.

As she told the Times: “It’s going to be a new era. Time to begin without me.”

There was no immediate information about services, although a memorial is expected to be held in her beloved city of Santa Monica.

“There was no one else like Ruth,” Davis said. “She was an absolute force in the history of public media in Los Angeles and the history of public radio in the country.”

Several fires are burning across Southern California, with some destroying structures, threatening homes and charring pristine landscapes.

Warm weather and Santa Ana wind conditions have hampered firefighting efforts and are expected to continue through Wednesday this week. The National Weather Service forecasts cooler weather and "May gray" through the weekend.

Here's a roundup of some of the fires burning now.

(All dates refer to today, Tuesday, May 19, unless otherwise noted)

Santa Rosa Island Fire (Santa Barbara County)

• CalFire incident page
• Channel Islands National Park on social media
• Acreage: About 17,000 as of 5 p.m.
• Containment: 0% as of 5 p.m.
• Cause: KTLA and other outlets have reported a man whose boat shipwrecked fired a rescue flare that sparked the fire.

The fire is burning in Channel Island National Park territory. Firefighters traveled by boat with their equipment to get to the island, according to news reports. The island is home to rare and endangered plants and animals.

Sandy Fire (Ventura County)

• CalFire incident page
• Ventura County emergency website (includes evacuation information)
• Acreage: About 1,700 as of 5 p.m.
• Containment: 5% as of 5 p.m.
• Cause: Under investigation

CalFire reported about 2:40 p.m. Tuesday that lessening winds allowed "firefighters to take full advantage of improved weather to strengthen containment lines and continue aggressive suppression efforts. Crews remain actively engaged both on the ground and in the air to gain additional containment and keep the fire within its current perimeter."

The fire started Monday in the southern part of Simi Valley. It eventually spread eastward toward L.A. County communities in the San Fernando Valley, but overnight conditions were favorable to firefighters, CalFire said. Several communities were under evacuation orders and warnings, and schools in the area were closed.

Bain Fire (Riverside County)

• CalFire incident page (includes evacuation information)
• Social media updates
• Acreage: About 900 as of 5:30 p.m.
• Containment: 0% as of 5:30 p.m.
• Cause: Under investigation

The fire was first reported around noon Tuesday, according to CalFire, near Jurupa Valley (east of the 15 Freeway and south of the 60). CBS News Los Angeles reported that four people have been injured.

Verona Fire (Riverside County)

• CalFire incident page (includes evacuation information)
• Social media updates
• Acreage: About 200 as of 5 p.m.
• Containment: 0% as of 5 p.m.
• Cause: Under investigation

Burro Fire (Angeles National Forest)

• CalFire incident page
• Social media updates
• Acreage: 30
• Containment: 70% as of about 5 p.m.
• Cause: Under investigation

The fire started Monday in a mountainous area north of the San Gabriel Reservoir.

Listen to our Big Burn podcast

Fire resources and tips

Check out LAist's wildfire recovery guide.

Prepare for the next disaster:

• Fire season is here. Make sure you're signed up for these alerts
• Every day is now fire season. Let's get you ready for the next wildfire
• Yes, wildfires are getting worse. The history that got us to this moment

If you have to evacuate:

• Why fire officials don't want you to stay and defend your home
• How to get packed up
• How to leave your house
• What evacuation terms mean and how to sign up for alerts

Navigating fire conditions:

• How to drive in high winds and fire danger
• How to prep for power outages
• How to navigate poor air quality

How to help yourself and others:

• Resources for fire victims, evacuees and first responders
• If you want to help fire victims, resist the urge to volunteer
• How to help find lost pets

How to start the recovery process:

• What to do — and not do — when you get home after a wildfire
• How to make an insurance claim
• How to safely clean up wildfire ash

What to do for your kids:

• How to talk to children about wildfires and losing a home
• What parents should know about wildfire air quality

This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters.

California’s community colleges have been battling fraudulent students for years, trying to prevent scammers from stealing financial aid money.

Recent data shows the colleges’ efforts finally may be working.

Last spring, CalMatters reported that colleges were seeing unprecedented reports of fraud, with scammers stealing millions more dollars of student aid than in any previous period, according to reports submitted by colleges to California’s Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office.

Now fewer scammers are bypassing colleges’ vetting systems, according to monthly reports, and school administrators say they’re better, though still not perfect, at detecting and preventing fraud.

After CalMatters reported on the rise in fraud last year, Republican U.S. Congress members called for a federal investigation, a Democratic state legislator launched a state audit and later, California’s Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office approved a new ID verification policy for students. Colleges now are more vigilant about policing fraud, said Jory Hadsell, an executive in technology initiatives for the chancellor’s office, who pointed to better filtering practices and new software to detect fraud.

Between January and March 2025, scammers stole nearly $5.6 million in federal student aid and over $900,000 in state aid. By comparison, this spring colleges have reported losing just under $1.5 million in federal student aid and about $330,000 in state aid to fraudsters.

Last spring was “really the peak,” Hadsell said. He said he anticipates the end-of-year total in 2026 to be “significantly lower” than last year.

Even in the worst months, such as last spring, the money distributed to scammers is less than 1% of the total financial aid distributed to community college students in California. Students use the money to help pay for tuition, books and the cost of daily living expenses, such as rent, transportation and food.

But any fraud, however small, is unacceptable, said Chris Ferguson, executive vice chancellor of finance and strategic initiatives. “The ultimate goal for our system is zero.”

Some anti-fraud policies have been slow to take effect. The California Community Colleges Board of Governors voted nearly a year ago to require ID verification for all students, but only about 50% of college students are doing it as of this month. Hadsell said the delays arose in part because of complications verifying information of students under 18 years old, who represent a growing demographic for the community colleges. He said ID verification, which is currently optional, will become mandatory on July 1.

The board also voted to “explore” the option of charging students an application fee of no more than $10, but with the rates of fraud declining and other solutions that seem to work, the chancellor’s office is no longer pursuing that option, Ferguson said.

After blaming California officials, the U.S. Department of Education, which shares responsibility for administering federal aid and detecting fraud, said it would implement a “screening process” for applicants. It was supposed to take effect last fall but didn’t launch until last month, according to press releases from the department and statements from the California Student Aid Commission. CalMatters reached out to the U.S. Education Department five times over the last 12 months, seeking clarification, but the department has refused to respond to questions about delays with the screening process.

When more than a third of college applicants are fake

After classes suddenly moved online during the COVID-19 pandemic, the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office saw an increase in financial aid fraud on their application portal, CCCApply, which is used by nearly every student as the first step in applying to community college.

In 2021, the chancellor’s office suspected roughly 20% of applicants were fraudulent.

The estimate was higher in January 2024, around 25%. Last spring, it was 34%, though some schools saw much higher rates.

After they apply through CCCApply, students get filtered locally at their college of choice. In the Los Rios Community College District, which represents Sacramento, college officials suspected 64% of local applications from January to March 2025 were fraudulent. And that was after the state already vetted them through its portal, said Gabe Ross, a spokesperson for the district. The San Diego and Los Angeles community college districts also reported spikes in the number of fraudulent applications around the same time.

CalMatters reached out to the five largest community college districts for an interview. The Rancho Santiago Community College District, which includes parts of Orange County, did not provide sufficient data to draw conclusions about trends in fraud. The State Center Community College District, which represents schools in Fresno and Madera counties, did not respond to CalMatters’ questions.

Monthly data reports to the chancellor’s office show that once detected, most scammers who applied to community colleges were then caught and kicked out before they could apply for financial aid, but some succeeded.

This year, both Sacramento and San Diego community colleges say they’re seeing fewer attempts at fraud and are getting better at stopping those who try. The San Diego Community College District is now manually screening for fraudulent applications twice a week and is finalizing a contract with a company to help improve its detection software.

CCCApply has improved its filtering process, which helped reduce fraud attempts at Sacramento area colleges, said Ross. “When we talked about such a complex dynamic challenge, it's always hard to identify what's the one thing that sort of moved the needle. The truth is that we needed support from the feds, we needed support from the (chancellor’s) office, and we needed to invest in tools locally.”

This spring, he said the district flagged about 12% of college applications as suspect.

Using AI to detect AI 

Measuring fraud is, by definition, imprecise. If a scammer is truly successful, colleges have no way to identify that fraud.

For a long time, administrators assumed bots enrolling in online classes were responsible for most fraudulent attempts. Yet teachers, students and financial aid administrators say some of the scams are more sophisticated now and are coming from real people impersonating students. Many fraudulent applications to Los Angeles’ community colleges have real names, dates of birth, and addresses that are likely “leaked or stolen,” said Nicole Albo-Lopez, the deputy chancellor of the Los Angeles Community College District.

In San Diego, Victor DeVore, dean of student services, said the college district only requires ID verification for students flagged as fraudulent. At that point they must prove their identity, either in person or through Zoom. Once, a potentially fraudulent student appeared on Zoom and presented a valid-looking ID that matched their face, but DeVore’s team noticed that the student’s IP address was odd. “One minute they’re logging in from Nairobi, the next minute they'll be logging in from Virginia,” he said, adding that the use of AI, virtual private networks (VPNs) or other technology has made fraud harder to detect.

Students’ personal data is supposed to be private, but school districts and education technology companies are frequently hacked. Last week, Canvas — one of the go-to learning platforms for California’s community colleges, University of California and California State University campuses — went offline temporarily due to a major hack. Its parent company, Instructure, said last week that it reached an agreement with the hackers to relinquish students’ data.

The state has turned to AI to fight fraud. Last summer, the state chancellor’s office negotiated a multimillion dollar contract with N2N Services Inc., enabling any college in the state to access the company’s software at a discounted rate. The software uses AI to detect potentially fraudulent applicants. Colleges are not required to use it, and so far, only about two-thirds do. Some districts, such as the Los Angeles Community College District, use a different fraud detection software, known as Socure.

Colleges and the state chancellor’s office continue to face political pressure and scrutiny of their approach to fraud. Last month, the U.S. Education Department said it had prevented more than $171 million in fraud in California after implementing a new policy regarding ID verification. Hadsell, with the state chancellor’s office, said the federal policy had no impact on California’s colleges. “They issued some interim guidance last year that basically said you should at least have a Zoom call with students and have them show an ID when you're approving their aid. And those were things that were already happening. It was not, you know, some new thing at least for most of our colleges.”

Kiran Kodithala, the CEO of N2N, which collects its own data on fraud at community colleges, said the education department’s claim makes no sense.

“I don’t see how $171 million in fraud in California can occur,” he said. “There’s no basis for those numbers. We’re not seeing anything remotely close.” Kodithala estimates that N2N has prevented over $34 million in fraud since last summer, though his platform is not yet in use by all of California's 116 community colleges.

Collecting more precise data may take months or years. U.S. Representative Young Kim, who represents parts of Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties, launched the effort for a federal investigation last spring, but her office could not provide any updates or confirm that an investigation was in fact underway. At the state level, the Legislature last year approved conducting an audit of how California’s community colleges handled fraud but the findings won’t be released until this summer.

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.