{"id":406329,"date":"2026-05-01T07:20:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T07:20:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/406329\/"},"modified":"2026-05-01T07:20:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T07:20:09","slug":"classical-californias-bill-lueth-to-retire-after-38-year-career-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/406329\/","title":{"rendered":"Classical California\u2019s Bill Lueth To Retire After 38-Year Career. | Story"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Bill Lueth, president of \u201cClassical California\u201d \u2014 KUSC Los Angeles (91.5) and KDFC San Francisco (90.3) \u2014 will retire at the end of June, concluding a 38-year career that helped reshape classical music broadcasting both in California and nationwide.<\/p>\n<p>Lueth has spent nearly three decades in leadership roles at KDFC and worked closely with KUSC over the past 15 years, playing a key role in expanding the reach of classical radio. He was instrumental in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.insideradio.com\/free\/kusc-kdfc-adopt-single-statewide-identity\/article_d33aa642-4dd2-4c20-aefc-0c91c21b4fed.html\" target=\"_Blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">bringing the two stations together<\/a> into a unified broadcast and digital platform, now reaching more than 2 million listeners and considered the largest classical music radio service in the U.S.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBill\u2019s commitment to making classical music accessible to everyone has shaped Classical California in lasting ways,\u201d said James Muhammad, President of KDFC\/KUSC. \u201cHe helped grow our audience, deepen our community impact, and position Classical California for continued success.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Lueth began his career in 1986 at KUCV while studying opera, later joining San Francisco\u2019s KKHI as a morning host and program director. He went on to work in news at KPIX and CBS Television before joining KDFC in 1997, helping it become the top-rated music station in the market by 1999.<\/p>\n<p>After KDFC\u2019s acquisition by the University of Southern California in 2011, Lueth was named president and led its transition to a nonprofit model. He also spearheaded a $7.5 million fundraising campaign to expand coverage into San Jose and Silicon Valley, oversaw integration with KUSC and guided the station\u2019s move to the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.<\/p>\n<p>Lueth was inducted into the Bay Area Radio Hall of Fame in 2021 and is a multiple recipient of the Marconi Awards, recognizing excellence in broadcasting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bill Lueth, president of \u201cClassical California\u201d \u2014 KUSC Los Angeles (91.5) and KDFC San Francisco (90.3) \u2014 will&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":406330,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[156,4975,157,111,43,139,69],"class_list":["post-406329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-free","tag-music","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406329","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=406329"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406329\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/406330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=406329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=406329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=406329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}