On Friday afternoon, WMCS-AM 1290 halted its broadcast stunt of all Elvis Presley music to debut "1290 Martini Radio." Milwaukee Radio Alliance stopped its long-running "Talk of the Town" format that featured local and national African-American progressive talk shows last week Tuesday.

OnMilwaukee.com staff writer Eugene Kane has been reporting on the community impact of the change and met with former "Morning Magazine" host Eric Von and appeared on Sherwin Hughes’ "The Forum" on WNOV-AM 860 on Friday morning.

It can always cause some waves in the community when radio formats change. However, in a day and age when ownership groups are allowed to own multiple stations on the AM and FM dials, format flopping isn’t out of the norm.

The move for 1290 to play crooners from the Rat Pack and velvet voices of Tony Bennett and Michael Buble makes sense in the wake of recent format changes from other stations in the market. WOKY-AM 920 once carried this variation of adult easy listening music before it switched to classic country music. Now, WOKY goes by Big Sports 920.

Unlike a local talk format, pumping in Norah Jones and Mel Torme is easily done with robot radio, where the personalities can be voice tracking from somewhere else in the country, or be pulling shifts on other stations in town at the same time. This can cost the radio group a fraction of what was paid out on staff for the "Talk of the Town."

"We’re looking forward to bringing a unique sounding radio station to Milwaukee. It’s rat pack meets brat pack and it will be fun to listen to," station operations manager Stan Atkinson said in a statement.

The station’s new call letters will be WZTI-AM and an online stream is available on 1290martiniradio.com. The Milwaukee Radio Alliance’s other two stations are WLDB-FM B 93.3 and WLUM-FM 102.1.

CYBER ATTACKS:  All this week the team at Fox Business Network will be reporting on the recent round of hacking into business computer networks and the affect it has on the workplace and the economy. In the reports, FBN anchors and reporters will interview industry executives and security experts to provide viewers with insight on what companies are doing to fight the recent increase in cyber theft. 

"The Cyber Threat" reports will air between 10 a.m. and noon each weekday and will include interviews with U.S. Cyber Consequences Unit Director and Chief Economist Scott Borg, White Canvas Group Founder and CEO Jon Iadonisi, Former CIA Director General Michael Hayden, Former National Cyber Center Director Rod Beckstrom and Trend Micro Vice President of Cyber Security Tom Kellermann.

RIVER MONSTERS: Extreme angler Jeremy Wade has searched for answers, taking viewers along as he unravels fish tales of giant killers on his show "River Monsters" on Animal Planet. The producers of the show announced that a new season will start on April 7.

"I realize there will come a point at which my searching must come to an end – once I’ve found every river monster and all the world’s underwater mysteries are solved," Wade said.

"That time hasn’t come. This season of ‘River Monsters’ continues to drive my quest to reveal the fascinating mysteries of the deep."