Frank Prisinzano has had to mourn the loss of East Village Radio twice over the past 20 years. But ever since it shuttered the second time, in 2014, he has aimed to resurrect it.
“We closed it down because it was just too expensive,” he said of the internet radio station he helped launch in 2003. Between the licensing costs and salaries, he said, the station wasn’t sustainable.
But Mr. Prisinzano, the straight-shooting restaurateur behind Frank and Supper in the East Village, has been trying to carve out time between his many projects to bring it back. Finally, he has.
The third iteration of East Village Radio, airing since July and streaming on EastVillageRadio.com, is situated right where it all began, at a tiny storefront studio on First Avenue next to another one of Mr. Prisinzano’s eateries, Lil’ Frankie’s. Like its previous iterations, East Village Radio is set up to allow its D.J.s to interact with people on the street, which Mr. Prisinzano, 58, says makes it “a lot of fun for the whole neighborhood.”
Helping Mr. Prisinzano bring the station back to life is Jorge Parreira, 50, who helmed the operation with him in 2003, and Brian Turner, 57, a WFMU alum, as program manager.
With the surge in popularity of streaming, Mr. Prisinzano believes there’s a space for East Village Radio because “there really aren’t any real curated, old-style, FM radio stations,” he says. It’s why Mr. Prisinzano launched East Village Radio in the first place — those “cool” FM stations began disappearing when Clear Channel took over.
In an effort to foster the arts in his downtown neighborhood, Mr. Prisinzano initially launched East Village Radio as a pirate radio station on 88.1 FM before it was shut down by the Federal Communications Commission two months later.
Mr. Prisinzano recalls that the initial demise of East Village Radio in 2003 was fueled by an article in The New York Times that “outed” the station’s location. “One of my customers was the contributor to The Times and he called me and I was like: ‘Dude, you can’t write this because you’re going to close me down. We are a pirate radio station, they’re going to know where we are.’ And that’s exactly what happened,” he said.
Luckily, Mr. Prisinzano was expanding Lil Frankie’s into the shoe repair shop and one-hour photo store next door at the time. So he redesigned the front of the space, installing a studio facing the street, and East Village Radio went online.
“I said, ‘Screw it, we’ll go with Live365,’” Mr. Prisinzano said, referring to the internet radio network, adding: “And we just continued. None of the D.J.s left, even though they had maybe a hundred listeners at a time.”
East Village Radio built up a solid roster of shows over the years, including ones hosted by Mark Ronson and the record producer Steve Lillywhite, with guest appearances from Amy Winehouse, Q-Tip, Duran Duran and members of the Smiths and New York Dolls.
East Village Radio was privately funded, which Mr. Parreira liked, but he said it became “too top-heavy” around when Peter Ferraro, a co-founder of Dash Radio, joined the station in 2009. “They were paying so much money for licensing fees because they were hosting archives,” Mr. Parreira said. “It got very complicated and very expensive.”
By 2014, Mr. Prisinzano and Mr. Parreira had decided to shut down operations. The station briefly relaunched in 2015 in conjunction with Dash Radio before once again shuttering in 2016.
The version of East Village Radio that launched in late August largely retains the station’s original philosophy. “There’s no competing,” Mr. Parreira said. “We’re just trying to get back to the basics of it’s about the music, it’s about the culture, it’s about the neighborhood, it’s about the history.”
Mr. Turner, who is based in Brooklyn, believes that the Covid-19 pandemic, which prompted a slew of podcasting and streaming at home, helped prime the station for a comeback. “I think having a community of people together to do it together is the next best step forward,” he said.
Shows like “Chances With Wolves,” “Ballers Eve” and “Pizza Party Radio With Max & Kev are returning to the station, along with newer D.J.s who are record store owners and critically acclaimed writers. Even Kyle Viljoen of Bravo’s “Below Deck Mediterranean” has his own show with “Bold Sessions.”
No word yet on whether Mr. Ronson will once again spin from behind the glass.
“I’ve been in contact with Mark,” Mr. Prisinzano said. “As you can imagine, he’s very busy, and he’s not really based in New York anymore. We’ll see what happens.”
In terms of genre, East Village Radio will feature programming dedicated to hip-hop, electronic, metal, Americana, prog rock and more. Each show will also have a live chat element, so listeners can participate in discussions.
Ultimately, Mr. Turner hopes there will be “a vast array of cross-connecting” when it comes to genres and promoting a sense of community. “When I was program director at WFMU, we were all about that,” he said. “Having the free-form station is not only more interesting but also a great educational tool for people.”
Though the station will operate with volunteer D.J.s, as it has in the past, Mr. Prisinzano, Mr. Parreira and Mr. Turner are adamant that artists will receive their royalties. Now, they’re able to have an online radio station, pay artists and be privately funded. “When I look at the costs of what it is now versus what it was in 2003, it’s a lot less aggressive,” Mr. Parreira said. The station will incorporate ads on its website, though not during programming.
For Mr. Prisinzano, East Village Radio was never about the money — he was just looking to “service the arts.” That’s what he hopes to do in the years to come. “I’m just looking to break even,” Mr. Prisinzano laughs.
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