Belgrade (AFP) - Serbia's legendary radio B92, the symbol of resistance to late strongman Slobodan Milosevic, has shut down its news service, its journalists said Friday.

The radio station, which came under private ownership in 2010, sacked 13 members of staff on Thursday, including journalists, sound technicians and presenters.

"It is the last blow to this radio station which gradually, over the years following Milosevic's fall (in October 2000), lost its identity," one of those fired, Biljana Vujasinovic, told AFP.

The management of B92 released a brief statement in which it avoided any confirmation of sackings but said it was bringing in "innovations and modernisation... that would bring changes."

B92 has only broadcast music since Thursday afternoon.

It was founded in 1989 on the eve of a series of bloody wars that accompanied the breakup of the former Yugoslavia in the early 1990s.

For over a decade its reporters have been a source of reliable information that was often quoted by foreign media reporting on wars in the former Yugoslavia in 1990s. The station was a rare counter-balance to the propaganda of Milosevic-controlled official media.

Milosevic, whose notorious regime was known for persecution of journalists and independent media, died in 2006 in prison in The Hague while awaiting a UN war crimes tribunal. He was tried for genocide and war crimes committed during the conflicts in the former Yugoslavia.

In 1998, radio B92, whose airwaves were open to a range of views and to the opposition leaders, was awarded MTV's "Free Your Mind" award.

"I am still under the influence of emotions but I dare to hope that the radio B92 spirit, forged in the 1990s, is still alive and kicking and that it will animate other media," said another journalist, Misa Stojiljkovic.

Many journalists who trained at B92 are now stars of the Serbian media, including the state-run RTS television and regional radio and television broadcaster RTV in the northern province of Vojvodina. Others work in the regional editorial offices of major international media such as Al-Jazeera and the BBC.