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Nicole Alvarez’s KROQ resignation column

radiofan2023

radiofan2023

She was always great on the air and it’s too bad she felt like she had to resign suddenly. She wrote a column about it:
www.hollywoodreporter.com

KROQ’s Nicole Alvarez Leaving After 23 Years: “Staying Would Have Been a Slow Death” (Exclusive)

"Radio will always matter. In the right hands, it will always matter. To the executives suffocating it, it’s never too late to introduce humanity into the corporate narrative," Alvarez writes, weeks after signing off from the influential L.A. station.
www.hollywoodreporter.com www.hollywoodreporter.com
I wondered why Sluggo was doing middays, but I figured maybe Nicole was just on vacation.

I found out she’d resigned from this RadioInsight article:
radioinsight.com

Nicole Alvarez Pens Farewell To KROQ

After 22 years at Audacy Alternative 106.7 KROQ-FM Pasadena/Los Angeles, midday host Nicole Alvarez departed the station at the end
radioinsight.com radioinsight.com
 
Any idea what was the tipping point that made her quit? Whatever it was, seems to have to do with a direction KROQ is going in that is pretty negative.

SoCal Sound 88.5 is now the adventurous, not playing by the rules, new music discovery station. KROQ stopped doing that years ago.
 
KilowattKat said:
Any idea what was the tipping point that made her quit? Whatever it was, seems to have to do with a direction KROQ is going in that is pretty negative.

SoCal Sound 88.5 is now the adventurous, not playing by the rules, new music discovery station. KROQ stopped doing that years ago.
Click to expand...
I have been told by my betters on this site that replaying their morning show at night actually improves and strengthens the station.
 
KilowattKat said:
Any idea what was the tipping point that made her quit? Whatever it was, seems to have to do with a direction KROQ is going in that is pretty negative.

SoCal Sound 88.5 is now the adventurous, not playing by the rules, new music discovery station. KROQ stopped doing that years ago.
Click to expand...

It's a long time since KROQ had that reputation ... and Alternative in general declined in the role of being where people discovered new music during the last part of the 1990s and early 2000s. That shifted to the AAA format, which then had a decline of its own in terms of commercial viability and has been embraced by a lot of non-comms.

Including the KCSN/KSBR simulcast.
 
I really applaud her decision to leave, and look forward to how she uses her knowledge, experience, and contacts to improve radio.

Personally a lot of people I admire did exactly what she's doing for similar reasons. I'm reminded of Newt Minow calling commercial TV a vast wasteland. He said it in 1962, but he could also say it now.

People with drive and creativity have no reason to stay in the same jobs their whole lives. Try something new. She's been there 22 years. What is she doing now that she didn't do 22 years ago? That's a question we all should ask. Don't expect them to change for you. If you want change, you have to go out and get it yourself. Take a chance. Do the things you want them to do.
 
KilowattKat said:
Makes sense, it finally comes to that moment, when you finally break, and say...F&#!* this! Been there, done that.
Click to expand...
I have been at that point once and got into a shouting match, but decided to make them fire me since that’s what they were threatening at the time.

They backed down because I was the only one in my department after a junior guy quit, so I knew they weren’t going to screw themselves by actually firing me. After a few years, I resigned but it wasn’t in the heat of the moment as Nicole’s was.
 
KilowattKat said:
Makes sense, it finally comes to that moment, when you finally break, and say...F&#!* this! Been there, done that.
Click to expand...

I've actually done that three times in my career, but two of those were ownership changes where the "great new format" was doomed from the start, so I bailed rather than be part of it.

Both times, the new owners went bankrupt within two years of my departure.
 
ChannelFlipper said:
I think what you meant was the personalities are an improvement over their playlist. You may be right, but that just proves my point that this is a dead station walking.
Click to expand...

It's in flux. The community that once existed is gone. The music that was the glue to that community is gone. They're doing in LA what WMMS has done in Cleveland and KISW has done in Seattle for basically the same reason.
 
She apparently expressed on air earlier this summer that she was unhappy about losing an hour of her show to the morning show “summer hours” running until 11:00.
 


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