RADIO

New Format: Only five days after announcing that Viacom would be buying the station from Westwood One, KQLZ-FM (100.3) dropped its hard-rock format at 3 p.m. Friday in favor of what’s known in the radio industry as easy listening music. So Guns N’ Roses and the Cure have given way to the likes of James Taylor and Gloria Estefan. KQLZ used the moniker “pirate radio” when it debuted in March, 1989, but its ratings had gone steadily downward and it recently shelved the name and altered its playlist. The station will now call itself “Easy 100.3.”