WRCR's roots date to September 1, 1965, when the station signed-on as WRRC at 1300 AM from Broadcast House on Route 59. The station used its original transmitter site in Nanuet, New York, for 52 years, although a new tower was erected in 2015 for the operation at 1700 AM. In April 2019 the station signed-on from a new transmitter site in South Mountain Park in the town of Haverstraw, New York. Studios and offices are at 144 Ramapo Road in Garnerville, New York. The station airs a local morning talk show co-hosted by Steve Possell. Possell has been heard on Rockland's airwaves for nearly 50 years. WRCR is the only radio station providing English language news and information specifically for Rockland County, as WRKL910 AM in nearby Pomona, New York, switched to an all-Polish format on March 19, 1999. On July 13, 2015, WRCR moved from 1300 to 1700 kHz in the AM expanded band, increasing its power from 500 to 10,000 watts by day and 1,000 watts at night. The higher power allowed the station to be heard over a wider area of the lower Hudson Valley and Northern New Jersey. Along with the facility upgrade, the station's City of License was changed from Spring Valley to Ramapo. Both are communities in Rockland County. WRCR operated with the call letters WLIR, from late 1987 until 2000. WLIR had been the call letters for a famous and successful FM station operating in Garden City, New York. When the operator of that station lost their FCC license, they brought their WLIR callsign to this Rockland County station. In 2000, WLIR changed its callsign to WRCR.
Station goes silent/dispute with transmitter landowner
On August 7, 2017 WRCR management announced via the station's website that the station would be off-the-air on its 1700 kHz frequency until further notice due to an emergency relocation of their transmitter and tower equipment. On August 29, 2017 Alexander Broadcasting Inc. filed a Notice of Suspension of Operations with the FCC seeking consent to go silent on the 1700 kHz frequency. It stated that the owner of the land where WRCR's transmitter and tower was located had opted not to renew the station's lease, and that the landlord had the power and other vital utilities to the property shut off without notifying the station. In the notice on their website, WRCR management stated that they would continue to broadcast via the live stream on their website and also via the TuneIn app and Amazon Echo devices. The station resumed radio broadcasting on April 27, 2019 from a new transmitter site in South Mountain Park in the town of Haverstraw, New York.
