MA Radio: Longtime Host Larry Kratka Signing-Off

Larry Kratka

Today is Larry Kratka's last day as news director at Gamma Broadcasting, which owns six of the eight commercial radio signals in Pittsfield, MA

"It’s a life-changing event," he told the berkshireeagle.com, "but a radio guy never really hangs up the microphone."

He won’t need to wake up at 3 a.m. anymore to begin his early shift at WBEC 1420 AM and WUPE 1110 AM / 100.1 FM, where until last August he was the voice of local news. Since then, he has been writing the newscasts for the Pittsfield stations, as well as for WNAW in North Adams and WSBS in Great Barrington.

Kratka said it was his decision to step away after nearly 30 years on the air in the Berkshires. "It’s been a quite a run," he acknowledged.

"I turned 66 in August and I said, maybe it’s time, because there’s been a lot of pressure since Tommy [Tom Conklin] left," he said. His original retirement date last summer was pushed back repeatedly.

In an ironic twist, Conklin, the newsman who was let go in November 2012 in a downsizing, has been rehired to succeed Kratka.

"I love it," Kratka said. "You can’t find a better guy to do it. I used to say to him, someday this can all be yours. Little did we know."

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