On Friday, February 9, 2024, the FCC canceled the license of low-power FM KRLY-LP Alpine, ending the station’s nearly 20-year history. A letter from the FCC explained that correspondence requesting an explanation for the station’s silence lasting more than a year had not been answered, so, by their rules, the station’s license had expired on May 24, 2023 “as a matter of law.”

The station was granted a construction permit in 2004 with 2 watts ERP on 107.9 MHz from water tanks north and above the town of Alpine. Timothy and Kathleen Lange initially owned the station. They carried a Christian format. Gerry Turro, famous for his “Jukebox Radio” stations in New Jersey in the 1990s until the FCC shut them down in 2003 became involved and moved KRLY-LP to an Easy Listening/Standards format. Gerry had been the Chief Engineer of WNEW-AM New York.

Adam Williams took control of the station in May 2010. Alpine resident Chris Torrick, past Oklahoma radio DJ, managed the station. Chris long held a dream to own and operate a radio station.

Low power FM stations cannot broadcast commercials, so unless financed by a wealthy benefactor or well-organized collective, they usually run out of money. KRLY-LP was further burdened with rough topography, low power limitations, and adjacent channel interference from XHRST-FM Tijuana on 107.7 MHz. The station was granted a Minor Modification to move and increase power to 50 watts in August of 2022, but the CP was never built out.

Chris Torrick continues to stream his station with a country music format from his home in Alpine. He has not responded to questions about his operation.

Disclosure: Chris hired me to move the station during the summer of 2014. It had a full-sized studio with interview microphones on professional furniture, run on Prophet automation, with an AudioArts console.