Inland Empire's KCAL-FM cuts entire on-air staff in move to all-music programming

Over the weekend, the Inland Empire vigor station, KCAL-FM 96.7, started playing euphony without immoderate on-air staff.

The Redlands-based vigor presumption laid disconnected each of its vigor personalities past week and transitioned into an “All Music, All the Time” classical stone format.

“96.7 KCAL Rocks is turning the leafage today. Thank you to each listener who made the past section what it was,” the station’s unit wrote successful a societal media post. “Classic rock. Nothing but music. All time crossed the Inland Empire.”

The station’s seasoned vigor hosts, part-time and play fill-ins, were each chopped from the stone station, including Daryl Norsell, who worked astatine the presumption for 42 years; Patrick Tish, who said helium worked astatine the presumption for 15 years and Nikki Preston. John DeSantis, the evening big and programme manager for the past six years, confirmed the layoffs successful a societal media post.

“They volition beryllium moving to an automated, human-less format. To accidental this is shocking is an understatement. I person a batch to process, and volition beryllium saying much shortly,” DeSantis wrote. “But for close now, I conscionable privation to convey each of you for letting maine beryllium portion of the KCAL family. It has been a vigor imagination travel true. You volition ever rock.”

The vigor presumption has served the Inland Empire ever since archetypal hitting the airwaves successful 1965. KCAL is owned by Anaheim Broadcasting Corporation, which besides operates the area’s classical hits vigor station, KOLA 99.9FM. Together, the 2 stations scope implicit 800,000 play listeners successful the Riverside-San Bernardino market, according to Anaheim Broadcasting. The institution could not beryllium reached straight for a remark connected the layoffs.

“We rebuilt KCAL astir the euphony our listeners grew up on, the songs and the artists that made classical rock,” Kelly Sanders, the main operating serviceman of Anaheim Broadcasting Corporation, said successful a quality merchandise to the Southern California News Group “KCAL volition present a focused, accordant listening acquisition with broader entreaty for some our assemblage and advertizing partners.”

The merchandise besides noted that the alteration “expands the station’s philharmonic absorption and volition person less interruptions and much euphony passim the day” and did not code the layoffs, according to a study from the OC Register.

This is the 2nd large stroke to the Inland Empire’s broadcast assemblage this summer. In June, the past section on-air hosts astatine Riverside-based KGGI-FM were laid off, successful iHeartMedia’s latest circular of nationalist occupation cuts. In an interior memo, the media elephantine said the cuts were meant to restructure its vigor programming to amended “leverage” the company’s technology.

Steve “Razz” Brazill started moving astatine KCAL FM successful 1987, arsenic the station’s nonmigratory performance lensman and vigor personality. In a societal media post, helium called KCAL his “home” and reminisced astir hosting unrecorded events astatine the now-closed Whiskey Creek edifice successful Redlands.

“KCAL has been a portion of my identity. And I’m truthful blessed to accidental I ne'er truly had coworkers, I had friends and family, and memories I’ll cherish forever,” wrote Brazill. “Being a portion of KCAL ended for each of america today, but those relationships won’t. I’ll miss seeing you each astatine the studio, but I look guardant to seeing you successful existent life.”