City Ramapo, New York Slogan "Radio Unscripted" First air date September 1, 1965 | Branding AM 1700 Radio Rockland Frequency 1700 kHz | |
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Broadcast area Rockland County, New York | ||
WRCR (1700 kHz) is a commercial AM radio station broadcasting an Adult Contemporary format with weekday News-Talk shows. WRCR is licensed to Ramapo, New York and serves Rockland County. The station is owned by Alexander Broadcasting, Inc. WRCR splits its broadcast day 50-50 with Radio India Ltd. The English-language programming is heard half of the day with the remainder of the time being filled by Radio India Ltd., under a local marketing agreement, or LMA. Radio India serves the South Asian community in the New York City metropolitan area with music, news and public affairs programming in the Punjabi, Hindi and Urdu languages. On November 15, 2016, Radio India took over the entire broadcast schedule of WRCR, while WRCR's English programming continued exclusively online. Several weeks later, the Radio India LMA was renegotiated, and on February 1, 2017, WRCR's English-language programming returned to 1700 AM.
The station airs a local morning talk show co-hosted by Steve Possell. Possell has been heard on Rockland's airwaves (previously on WRKL-New City, New York) for nearly 50 years. Since November 2011, WRCR's studios and offices have been located within Palisades Credit Union Park, in Pomona, New York. The Park is the home stadium of the Rockland Boulders, of the Can-Am Baseball League. Previously the studios were located on the upper level of the former Nanuet Mall.
WRCR is the only radio station providing news and information specifically for Rockland County. WRKL 910 AM in nearby Pomona, New York, switched to an all-Polish format on March 19, 1999.
On July 13, 2015, WRCR moved from 1300 to 1700 kHz in the AM expanded band, increasing its power from 500 to 10,000 watts by day and 1000 watts at night. The higher power allows the station to be heard over a wider area of the lower Hudson Valley and Northern New Jersey. Along with the facility upgrade, the station's City of License was changed from Spring Valley to Ramapo. Both are communities in Rockland County.
WRCR's roots date to September 1, 1965, when the station signed on as WRRC (sic) on 1300 AM. The station still uses its original transmitter site in Nanuet, New York, although a new tower was erected in 2015 for the operation on 1700 AM.
WRCR were the call letters of a college carrier current radio station at Rockford College in Rockford, Illinois operating from 1962 until 1994.