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Frank Sinatra may not hand out the same kind of personal advice as Dr. Laura Schlessinger, but owners of Peekskill's WLNA are counting on the crooner. and the other mellow artists of radio 1420's new programming, to attract more listeners than their old all-talk format, which featured the chattering psychotherapist.
"So far, so good," said Steven Petrone, WLNA vice president of operations, shortly after his station made its Sept. 1 switch from talk to the syndicated mellow music format dubbed "Stardust" and supplied by ABC Radio.
"Anytime you make this kind of switch you get half your calls saying that the love what you're doing and the other half saying that they loved what you did before."
Petrone said that the station, 1420 on the AM dial, moved away from all-talk because of stiff competition from the numerous powerful talk stations in the Big Apple.
"Being close to New York, there was a lot of competition in the talk format," he said. The new music format caters to the over-35 audience, which he said has been neglected by his competitors. "A lot of radio stations are looking for a younger market," Petrone said, adding that his...