Will Lewis, a pioneer of Los Angeles public radio who was known for his role in the Patty Hearst kidnapping, died Friday at his Thousand Oaks home. His son Robert Lewis confirmed he died of natural causes. He was 94.
The radio executive served as the general manager of KPFK in the 1970s, the only full-service public radio station in Los Angeles at the time, transforming it into one of the most popular in the nation. Under Lewis’ leadership, KPFK became a station where activists could express their views without fear of censorship; high profile visitors to the station included actors Martin Sheen, Paul Newman, Jane Fonda and her then-politician husband Tom Hayden, who stood trial in the Chicago Seven case. Lewis and the station won awards for its coverage of the Watergate scandal, including the Golden Mike Award for reporter Mike Hodel.
In 1974, while Lewis was the general manager of the station, he famously refused to turn over tapes to the FBI acquired from the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) after the terrorist group’s kidnapping of newspaper heiress Patty Hearst. The radio executive spent 15 days in federal prison as a result, becoming the second media representative to ever be sent to jail on a freedom of the press issue.
That same year, he introduced “The Great Gay Radio Conspiracy,” a radio show produced and hosted by and for the gay community, to the station, becoming the first to do so. The program became one of the longest-running LBGTQ radio shows at the time.
Prior to heading out West, Lewis acted as the general manager at WBUR Boston, and served in the U.S. Marine Corps during the Korean War. After leaving KPFK, Lewis went on to spend 33 years at Santa Monica’s KCRW as a station media/fundraising consultant. He also served as the president of the Los Angeles Press Club for several years, beginning in 2010.
“We wanted to make public radio important,” said Lewis upon his retirement from KCRW 15 years ago. “Listeners wanted current news stories and NPR was not broadcasting updated headlines.”
Lewis is survived by his two brothers, Joel and Marty, five sons and four grandchildren. The L.A. Press Club will honor him next year at an event in June.