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

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Set us as preferred Over the weekend, the Inland Empire radio station, KCAL-FM 96.7, started playing music without any on-air staff.The Redlands-based radio station laid off all of its radio personalities last week and transitioned into an “All Music, All the Time” classic rock format.“96.7 KCAL Rocks is turning the page today.Thank you to every listener who made the last chapter what it was,” the station’s staff wrote in a social media post.

“Classic rock.Nothing but music.

All day across the Inland Empire.”The station’s veteran radio hosts, part-time and weekend fill-ins, were all cut from the rock station, including Daryl Norsell, who worked at the station for 42 years; Patrick Tish, who said he worked at the station for 15 years and Nikki Preston.John DeSantis, the evening host and program director for the past six years, confirmed the layoffs in a social media post.

Hollywood Inc.IHeartMedia has started to restructure its radio programming to reduce costs.

Dozens of on-air hosts nationwide are being laid off, including three at KGGI.“They will be moving to an automated, human-less format.To say this is shocking is an understatement.

I have a lot to process, and will be saying more shortly,” DeSantis wrote.“But for right now, I just want to thank all of you for letting me be part of the KCAL family.

It has been a radio dream come true.You will always rock.”The radio station has served the Inland Empire ever since first hitting the airwaves in 1965.

KCAL is owned by Anaheim Broadcasting Corporation, which also operates the area’s classic hits radio station, KOLA 99.9FM.Together, the two stations reach over 800,000 weekly listeners in the Riverside-San Bernardino market, according to Anaheim Broadcasting.

The company could not be reached directly for a comment on the layoffs.“We rebuilt KC...