UTICA/ROME - Former Rock 107 (WRCK) personality Michael Hotaling, known on-air as Lee Michaels, and later "Ug-Lee," passed away last month at the age of 64.

SYRACUSE -- The man who played "Verry Hairy," the sidekick to Mike Price's "Baron Daemon" character on channel 9 decades ago, has passed away. Dennis Calkins, who primarily worked as the ABC affiliate's first art director from 1962 to 2003, died earlier this week after fighting prostate cancer. He was 86.

SYRACUSE -- Former longtime 570 WSYR afternoon talk show host Jim Reith is making a comeback... with some help from a familiar name. After dropping some hints recently, a social media post this morning announced Reith is looking to bring his talk show back -- in the form of a new podcast.

UTICA -- Mohawk Valley viewers of shows like "Sullivan's Crossing" and "Police 24/7" will be tuning to a different channel, after the Utica market's CW network affiliation moved up the dial last week. It's all due to recent ownership changes at the network level.

SYRACUSE -- Following the recent departure of Tommy Sladek, management at CNYCentral announce the promotion of Samantha Croston to Sports Director. The press release from CNY Central News Director Sean Carroll follows:

SYRACUSE -- We saw the writing on the wall last week when his job was advertised... now CNY Central Sports Director Tommy Sladek confirms for CNYRadio/CNYTVNews this is his final week in Syracuse before taking a new job in the Big Apple.

SYRACUSE -- Get those resume reels ready! CNY Central is looking to fill not one, but two jobs on the anchor desks at 1030 James Street. Parent company Sinclair Broadcast Group has provided to us postings for a CBS5 (WTVH) anchor/producer, and a posting for Sports Director of the entire cluster, including NBC3 (WSTM) and CW6 (WSTM 3.2).

UTICA-ROME -- It's not often you hear one radio journalist interviewing another -- and it's even more rare when it involves people from two separately-owned radio stations in the same market. But that's what happened recently on "Hot Seat: Media Monday" on Phoenix Radio 95.5 (WUSP).

SYRACUSE -- A longtime NewsChannel 9 (WSYR-TV) anchor says he's stepping down from a prominent role, but keeping another. Meantime, there's a new anchor on the weekend wakeup shift.

SYRACUSE -- Colleagues of Steve Hyder are sharing memories and condolences after learning the former Syracuse sportscaster passed away over the weekend. He was 62 and leaves behind two daughters and a partner.