The folks over at WRCR (1300 AM) radio are working to retake Rockland County. Located in several glass enclosed and equipment filled rooms at Provident Bank Park in Pomona, the station’s command center looks out over the ball field and surrounding tree-lined grounds. With its mix of morning news and politics, movie reviews, underground radio gossip, and wide range of powerhouse guests, WRCR is the only radio station providing Rockland-specific programming.
The radio station recently launched a new 16-week block of programming called the Raymour & Flanigan Community News Lunch Hour series — sponsored by Raymour & Flanigan Furniture which has a store in Spring Valley and giant distribution center in Montebello/Suffern. The program runs Mondays through Fridays from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and features a variety of up and coming local news aficionados, each hosting a different style show during the week that caters to his or her audience. In between its fast-expanding community fare, WRCR typically broadcasts adult contemporary music.
Wednesday’s portion of the Lunch Hour programming is called “Village Wednesday” and features revolving voices from select Rockland villages. This Wednesday, February 20, Sloatsburg Mayor Carl Wright will take the mic and promote all village news and views worth knowing.
“There are probably 40 or 50 different topics we could talk about,” said Wright about his WRCR appearance. “But you know, you can’t rehearse these things.”
Wright is hoping to involve members of the Sloatsburg Village Board during his lunch hour gig, including a few words from each or all of the Village Trustees: Peter Akey, Dan O’Leary, Thomas Buckley, and John Bonkoski. Mayor Wright said he intends to promote all things Sloatsburg, ranging from village events and programs to shout outs to various people involved in the community. Phones will be open and calls taken.
The Raymour & Flanigan Community News Lunch Hour also involves other local media personalities, who fill out the weekly broadcast hour with their own take on news and community, including Mondays with Art Aldrich from Our Town News, Tuesdays with Jeannine Rippa of Rockland Review, Thursday’s show features Rockland County Times editor Dylan Skriloff, and Friday’s lunch hour serves up Suffern’s own Richard Gandon, who operates both the Ramapo Times and Rockland Star.
The programming was partially the brainchild of Kerry Potter, the animated and indefatigable director of business development for WRCR, who also serves as the show’s producer, engineer and general background wizard.
Wright recalled the station’s former iteration as WRKL-AM, which ruled the Rockland airwaves until new technologies edged out its popularity. It switched to an all-Polish format in 1999.
“In it’s heyday,” Wright said of the former WRKL, “it had a tremendous audience.”
Now, WRCR is trying to rebuild itself as the voice of Rockland. This new reach by WRCR deep into local communities and using familiar voices who have built up their own audience is both clever and delivers the goods.
The Raymour & Flanigan Community News Lunch Hour airs on WRCR AM 1300 Mondays through Fridays from 11:30 a.m. until 12:30 p.m. and will be streamed live online at wrcr.com. The program will also be shown on Verizon Fios channel 32 and is streamed on the town of Ramapo website: www.ramapo.org.
Photo courtesy of WRCR and features Steve Possell and Priscilla Ilarraza, hosts of the Steve and Priscilla Morning Show, which airs daily on WRCR 1300 AM from 6 a.m. through 10 a.m.
Endnote — Mayor Carl Wright was kind enough to provide an historical correction to the above article. Wright wrote: WRKL is not the forerunner to WRCR. WRKL started in 1964 located in Pomona and on the dial was 910. It reached all of Rockland and beyond. At one time, it was reported that 65,000 people tuned in to its hotline program that was most popular in the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s. It received national attention when some individuals apparently upset with the messages of various callers burnt the station down. It was later rebuilt and of course sold at the end of the 1990’s. WRCR was the other Rockland station and broadcast from Nanuet on Route 59. It was and still is 1300 on the radio dial. In those early days, WRKL was a vanguard of the type of programming such as having listeners call in and engage in dialogue that would become so prevalent in the decades since.
