After 22 years at Audacy Alternative 106.7 KROQ-FM Pasadena/Los Angeles, midday host Nicole Alvarez departed the station at the end of July.
Alvarez joined KROQ in 2003 after brief stints at WPLA Jacksonville and WZTA Miami rising from overnights to nights and then middays during her two decade plus run at the station. She was also heard in afternoons at “104.3 The Shark” WSFS Miami until its flip earlier this month and “Alt 103.7” KVIL Dallas.
Alvarez made her departure public today in a column she wrote for the Hollywood Reporter. She wrote, “Leaving KROQ is the hardest thing I have ever done. But staying would have been a slow death. After being disrespected by an executive known to do those types of things, I was done. So I lit my life on fire for something that matters more than anything, my integrity. This round, I was willing to bet on myself. I am never going to speak ill of KROQ. This isn’t about a station betraying me. It’s a story about what radio has become. About wanting more. About the way business is handled these days. The truth is, I had already outgrown what radio was allowed to be. This was the station that launched iconic musicians and gave a voice to the outcasts and visionaries of Southern California and beyond. Once a tastemaker, a cultural detonator, a lighthouse for the weird and wild, it has now become a spreadsheet. A machine run by research, not instinct. By caretakers who cling to titles, not passion.”
Later in the column, Alvarez continued, “Radio will always matter. In the right hands, it will always matter. To the executives suffocating it, it’s never too late to introduce humanity into the corporate narrative. I challenge you to play the game without selling your souls. Radio is not dying. You’re killing it. Just do better.”
Brandon Charles 
K.M. Richards
Nicole is a real one for speaking out. The only reason anyone should be in radio is to blow listeners away and to lift them up.
If Nicole wants to continue an already impressive career as an air talent, I hope she lands at a place where people are more interested in providing value to listeners than providing value for shareholders.
There’s dust in here. Dammit Nicole! She speaks for me as a listener and a broadcaster. Well done! After reading so many consultant articles blaming the air talent, or the music scheduling, it’s nice to read something real for a change.
I tried staying on the K rock roller coaster, I had to jump off! At that point, I’d rather just listen to alt 98.7 rather than an imitation. and I do because I’m under 55. any time K rock came up when I lived around LA it was always, remember when, and the cutoff date was usually about 2009. iHeart as what they are, but they at least seem to be letting Lisa do what she wants with 98.7 and it shows. though I could totally see Alvarez on the SoCal sound.
The era of KROQ being a discovery point for new music ended long ago. Alternative stations in general are breaking far fewer acts and songs. Even KYSR (Alt 98.7) pales in comparison to earlier days.
For a while, that role of discovery was being filled by AAA, but as that format declined in commercial viability, it has shifted largely to non-commercial stations such as the KCSN/KSBR simulcast that Brandon referenced.
Nicole would be a good fit there, indeed.