All too often we report on the demise of cherished restaurants and institutions closing up shop thanks to staggering rent increases. But sometimes, sometimes, we have the privilege of reporting that one such institution—in this case, East Village Radio—managed to beat back the corporate vultures and reopen, right back in its old 1st Avenue space, no less.
EVR was a victim of its own success. Its incredible popularity resulted in sky-high licensing fees, and as EVR CEO Frank Prisinzano told EV Grieve at the time: "Every time we get a new listener, it costs us more money." With an average of one million listeners tuning in online each month, its hard to imagine that keeping the station alive came cheap. It closed for what fans thought was forever last May.
According to EV Grieve, the station is still in the process of running tests, and won't be immediately roaring back to life at the same magnitude at which it once operated, at least not right away.
"In the beginning, anyone tuning in expecting it to be actually the way it was … it won't," he told the blog yesterday. "It will get to what it was — 10-12 hours of live programming, then re-streams and pre-recorded stuff. We really want to ramp it up slowly and do it right."
The new incarnation will operate under the Dash Radio network, which will also include a new Brooklyn Radio outpost at North 7th Street and Wythe Avenue in Williamsburg.
We reached out to the station for further comment, and will update further if we hear back.
