UTICA-ROME — A yearlong partnership between two area radio stations appears to have come to an end. Rome’s WKAL 1450 and 103.3 FM (translator W277DR) have stopped simulcasting locally-owned Arjuna Broadcasting’s “El Zorro Radio Latino,” which originates on Herkimer’s WNRS 1420 and 98.3 (translator W252DO).
Thanks to an observant CNYRadio.com reader for alerting us upon noticing the change. The reader says WKAL is now playing “a mix of 70s-90s pop/rock,” devoid of any kind of branding or imaging other than a barebones legal ID at the top of each hour. Our reader believes the change happened “sometime in the past 24 hours.”
Your editor is currently west of Syracuse today and unable to independently tune-in and verify the changes over-the-air. An attempt to listen to WKAL via the TuneIn mobile app found it was running what sounded like a raw feed for “SRN News” which did not include a legal ID at the top of the hour. The next hour started with the same anchor, now doing “Town Hall News,” followed by a brief silence, then a countdown into the “Scott Jennings Show.” All three are products of the Salem Radio Network.
CNYRadio.com has reached out to available email addresses for both Arjuna Broadcasting, the owner of WNRS; and California-based Tune-In Broadcasting, the owner of WKAL, seeking further confirmation and comment. As of this time, neither has responded but we will update the story if/when applicable.
In the meantime, we did notice the El Zorro Radio Latino Facebook page updated the station logo shown in its profile photo and cover photo yesterday at 12:15pm. The previous versions of both logos showcased all four frequencies; the new cover photo only shows Arjuna’s 98.3 and 1450, while the profile photo only shows 98.3FM.
On the other side of the deal, the WKAL Facebook page hasn’t had any updates since 2024. The page indicates wkal1450.com is the station’s official website, but that only brings up a GoDaddy “parked domain” page.
According to the Rome Daily Sentinel, the simulcast started on April 1, 2025. In the report, the newspaper interviewed former WKAL morning host Rocco Garro, who expressed frustration about not being told of the changes in time to be able to give listeners a proper farewell.
Garro said the timing of the format change had listeners initially thinking his sudden disappearance from WKAL was just an April Fool’s Day joke. Garro, not knowing of the plans, said he had nearly a full month’s worth of interview guests lined-up for his program.
Tune-In purchased the former WYFY in 2011 from Bible Broadcasting Network (BBN) and changed the call letters back to WKAL. According to FCC records, the station has been licensed since 1947. WKAL is authorized to run at 1kW around the clock.
WNRS is authorized for 1kW during the day, but must drop down to just 64 watts between sunset and sunrise. The “El Zorro” Spanish-language tropical music format has been in place since late 2020.
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Our thanks again to the CNYRadio.com reader who alerted us to this change!
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