New York City Losing Its Last Commercial Progressive Talk Radio Station

When WWRL 1600 AM turns into a Spanish-language music and talk radio station, New York City will lose its only remaining commercial progressive talk radio outlet.

Station employees first learned about the news in mid-December, with low advertising revenues blamed for the change, according to the New York Amsterdam News. WWRL is owned by Access.1 Communications, a black-owned radio broadcasting company. The station has been around for 86 years and switched to its progressive programming format in 2006, increasing its presence as a forum for the LGBT community in the years since. “It was a business decision,” John Campanario, host of the LGBT talk forum Out And About and a digital marketing executive for the station, told GBM News. "The antics of people like [right-wing talk show hosts] Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity have put advertisers off talk radio, across the spectrum. This is happening nationally.”

[Dec 27]