John Mitty Thursday, November 21, 2013 |
WRCN-FM has been a classic rock station since longer than most Long Islanders can remember. Generations of listeners have grown up enjoying the music. Just last week however, the station’s owner, JVC, announced that the music is coming to an end. On December 26th, the day after Christmas, the station will switch to a talk format and become “LI News Radio.” Until then, the station will play holiday music as it would every year during this season. Many listeners are angry at the changeover, but JVC President and CEO John Caracciolo defended the decision, stating, “Long Islanders are starving for local news and information.”
The change was announced at 5 p.m. on Friday the 15th. Caracciolo added, “Many of us have grown up with the station and it has become an intricate part of our lives. But as our lives change, so does the soundtrack. What we listened to growing up is not necessarily what we listen to now.” He also stated that WRCN has “too much respect for our listeners and advertisers” not to announce the format change in advance. Of course, just over a month isn’t all that much advance notice, and many listeners are not going to take this as much of a courtesy. There has also been no comment about staff changeover and how many employees are going to be laid off because of the format change.
jmitty@longislandyellowpages.com Appears In: Business News
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