Radio personality Nicole Alvarez is leaving KROQ-FM (106.7) behind, after more than 20 years of service and alleged tensions with the station’s executive team.
Alvarez confirmed her departure from the station on Wednesday with a post on Instagram and a farewell letter published by the Hollywood Reporter. She spoke about her exit weeks after delivering her final broadcast on July 30. She joined the KROQ team in September 2003 and was an on-air personality for weekday programming.
“I never knew how it would end. I just knew that when it did, I would have to be the one to write the final chapter,” Alvarez wrote for THR.
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Alvarez said she did not intend for the late July broadcast to be her last, writing it was a moment “that was emotional, frenzied, and irreversible.” She added she made the abrupt exit after a “heated exchange” with her boss. Though she did not share further information about that conversation, Alvarez underlined that her departure is rooted in “something much larger.”
“Leaving KROQ is the hardest thing I have ever done,” Alvarez said. The station specializes in alternative rock and has long been a platform for notable acts including Nirvana, U2 and Depeche Mode, as Alvarez notes in her letter. During her tenure, Alvarez has also platformed groups including Linkin Park, Muse, the Smashing Pumpkins and Mumford & Sons.
She added: “Staying would have been a slow death. After being disrespected by an executive known to do those type of things, I was done.”
Alvarez, who said she would “never speak ill” of her longtime station, did not write any more of the alleged disrespect. A spokesperson for Audacy, which owns KROQ and several other stations across Southern California, did not comment to The Times.
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For Alvarez, her departure from KROQ was more about “what radio has become” and “the way business is handled these days.” Alvarez resigned after refusing an offer for a contract extension, The Times has learned.
She lamented an alleged shift in the station’s role in the music community over the years, writing that “it has now become a spreadsheet” and that its “caretakers” are more motivated by professional milestones, and “not passion.” Alvarez emphasized her loyalty to KROQ and reflected on her time informing listeners about major news events and the music that hit the airwaves.
As she moves, Alvarez wrote that the station has a chance to return to its roots.
“KROQ still has a chance to remember who it is, what made it ‘world famous.’ To take risks again. To matter,” she added. “But it will require courage, not cowardice. Passion, not corporate approval.”
In her letter, Alvarez thanked those involved in her tenure, ranging from her “holy trinity” of colleagues (KROQ alumni Kevin Weatherly, Lisa Worden and Gene Sandbloom), to listeners and artists.
“Radio will always matter. In the right hands, it will always matter,” she wrote.
Alvarez also offered a stern but hopeful message to the executives she accuses of “suffocating” radio: “It’s never too late to introduce humanity into the corporate narrative. I challenge you to play the game without selling your souls.”
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On Instagram, Alvarez said she has been waiting for a moment to pursue a new chapter and the shift in her radio duties “didn’t feel right.” She said that her devotion to music will remain, even with her KROQ days behind her.
“Now, with all my energy and all my passion, I can spend another lifetime championing it in new and bigger ways,” she told her followers.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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