Politics
A Scrappy Downtown Radio Station Returns From the Dead, Again
Frank Prisinzano and Jorge Parreira have resurrected East Village Radio, an underground institution, after shuttering it roughly a decade ago.
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.
