A few day into the ’92 riots, KCRW and Warren Olney hosted a town forum on the issue. That single show grew into the award-winning public affairs program Which Way L.A.?

Twenty years after that first broadcast, former general manager Ruth Seymour, WWLA‘s founding producer Sarah Spitz, and host Olney sat down with Steve Chiotakis to commemorate the show’s beginnings.

Recalls Seymour, “What Warren didn’t know at the time was that he was actually auditioning. He had no idea about this because we had not made any announcement. We came to the conclusion that we had to respond [to the riots.] We were going to do a one hour show for one month only through June. And we had absolutely not a penny to do this program on. I scraped up enough money to pay a host, but I didn’t have any more than that.”

“Did I get paid?” teased Olney.

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KCRW is celebrating the 20th anniversary of its signature local news show Which Way, LA? with Warren Olney next week. WWLA was born in the immediate wake of the LA riots, as way to publicly explore the complex social dynamics of the civil unrest. The show was Olney’s first at KCRW, and he’s stayed at the station ever since.

“It was a safe and even comforting place to turn to as people searched for ways to go forward,” says former KCRW general manager Ruth Seymour of the show’s origins. “[T]he program remains a trusted source for discussion and debate about the problems and concerns of Southern Californians. The program has now served a generation of KCRW listeners. That surely is more than a success; it’s a triumph.”

KCRW has been commemorating the anniversaries of WWLA and the riots by airing several hour-long specials on that chaotic time in 1992, and exploring whether or not a similar uprising could happen in Los Angeles today.

There’s growing tension between National Public Radio and its member stations. The NPR is facing a budget crisis and has employeed a number of cost-cutting strategies- strategies some fear could hurt local stations. The Wall Street Journal reports:

Some member stations fear NPR budget cuts might hurt the quality of marquee public radio shows “Morning Edition” and “All Things Considered,” making it harder for local stations to raise funds during those shows, which typically bring in the lion’s share of listener donations and corporate underwriting. In addition, the cost-cutting has reignited long-simmering fears that NPR will grab the bulk of online listeners, at the expense of individual station Web sites.

The tensions have been exacerbated by an email, making the rounds in public-radio circles, written by Ruth Seymour, general manager of KCRW in Santa Monica, Calif., one of NPR’s biggest and most influential member stations.

“We have our own programs to consider, our staffs to protect, and local communities to answer to,” wrote Ms. Seymour in an email sent last week to NPR correspondent Susan Stamberg. The email was sent after it was learned that Ms. Stamberg and “All Things Considered” cohost Melissa Block had suggested in an NPR staff meeting that member stations hold fund drives directly for NPR.

Found via Gary Scott

KCRW and Ruth Seymour seem to invite rather a lot of trouble for a politically-correct public radio station. Tyler Green, a DC-based journalist who covers the arts, has been writing about Edward Goldman, who hosts a show about art, museum going, etc. He’s a corporate art consultant, as well, with a handy little ad right on the KCRW website. The NY Times had a story about his popular class where eager fans learn how to look at art and how to buy art for $500 each. Gallery tours are included.

Green heard from a gallery owner about Goldman demanding a kickback, after a tour ended in a sale. And then he heard about Goldman hyping a picture in an on-air review..

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