For some reason, Mel Karamazin hated regular radio. Now it’s his son Craig.

After trying to bankrupt Infinity Broadcasting – the former owner of CBS Radio – Karmazin entered the satellite radio business. The idea was to destroy terrestrial broadcasting. He became head of Sirius and merged the company with XM to create Sirius XM Radio. Free airwaves? Why not make people pay for them?

The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. Mel’s son Craig is one of the people behind the demise of 60-year-old WCBS Newsradio 88. The beloved, venerable radio station will become an ESPN Radio outpost on August 27. Everyone will lose their jobs and a six-decade-old radio listening community will be kicked out.

Craig Karmazin’s company is called Good Karma, but all signs point to him quickly being hit by bad karma. ESPN was already on New York radio. WFAN, also known as “The Fan,” is on frequency 66, where WNBC used to be. Sports are everywhere on the radio. News is not. Audacy, the company that owns Newsradio 88 and its sister station WINS, is also to blame. When Karmazin called with this unnecessary idea, he was only too willing to go along with it. He is said to be indifferent to traditional broadcasting.

There is precedent for the destruction of New York City community radio. For decades, WCBS-AM was the corporate cousin of WCBS-FM, the oldies station. In 2005, Infinity abruptly pulled the plug on the FM station and switched to personality-less, boring Jack FM.

The loss of WCBS-FM was palpable. After two years of no one listening, Infinity brought the radio station back, but in a stripped-down form. For a short while, it sounded like the old channel. WCBS-FM is still on, but it has lost all of its charm. It sounds like ’80s Muzak, interspersed with mostly anonymous announcers.

Almost no one today remembers the nasal tones of John Cameron Swayze, the famous announcer of WCBS AM. He was also a TV announcer for Timex watches and became famous for the saying, “It can take a lot of beating and still keep ticking.” Eventually, his son, Cameron Swayze, became associated with the station.

For the past 30 years, I’ve grown accustomed to getting my news in the car and at home from Newsradio 88. But streaming has destroyed all that. People get their news from social media and notifications on their phones. No one remembers that we immediately switched to AM radio after the World Trade Center was hit. Now car manufacturers are phasing out the AM band from their radios. Broadcasting and Cable Magazine has gone bankrupt. The whole idea of ​​tuning into a faraway station late at night would be foreign to a Facebook user.

My favorite news anchors at WCBS were people like Harley Carnes and Pat Farnak. I still expect to hear their names. Over time they were replaced by Wayne Cabot and Steve Scott, Marla Diamond calling from somewhere in Queens. And there was still Rich Lamb. Now I’m waiting for Deborah Rodriguez. And Levon Putney? I can’t live without Levon Putney! Peter Haskell had to retire last year because of neck problems, but he was the guy whose eloquent reports you waited for. The legendary Irene Cornell reported vividly from the downtown courthouses. Charles Osgood faithfully contributed the Osgood Report. I still look forward to the soothing voices of Brigitte Quinn, Paul Murnane and the whole gang. What will happen to Tracy Johnke on Bloomberg’s economics desk? With Tom Kaminsky in his traffic helicopter? With Craig Allen with the weather? Do you think ESPN will tell us about parking across the street?

NewsRadio88 was also a great resource for out-of-work journalists. There were a lot of temps over the last few years. I always enjoyed hearing Lynda Lopez, JLo’s hard-working sister. Or John Metaxas or Bud Mishkin. I know I’ve forgotten a lot, but it was always fun to hear Tony Guida or Michael Schoen.

So that whole world will be replaced by nothing, by garbage. When there’s a fire in Midtown, an explosion in the Bronx, or a gang goes criminal in Brooklyn, all those people who trekked there in miserable weather and crowded streets will be silenced. Instead, we’ll have to listen to cheap talk from sports fans trying to tell the Yankees or Giants who they’re playing tomorrow night. We need that as much as we need another Sephora.

Dear Audacy: Isn’t it bad enough that your stocks have dropped to 13 cents? You’ve been kicked off the Pink Sheets. You’ve turned what could have been the greatest, cheapest area of ​​communications into a twilight zone. Congratulations.