March 2003

It looks like they’ll be rocking in Weedsport over Memorial Day weekend. Stonesour is the headliner at this year’s 95X-Fest to be held at the Cayuga County Fairgrounds on Monday, May 26. Also scheduled to perform: Powerman 5K, RA, Outspoken, Slur and Doubledrive.

Former 570 WSYR newsman Aaron Katersky, 27, is far from Syracuse and his suburban Boston hometown of Scituate. Katersky, now a reporter for KTRH in Houston, was asked by ABC News a couple of weeks ago to be part of the network’s team of embedded journalists reporting first-hand on the war in Iraq.

UTICA — Former Rock 107 (WRCK) morning man Bill Keeler has filed a $500,000 lawsuit against his former employer. The lawsuit, filed in Herkimer County Supreme Court March 21, claims Keeler was wrongfully terminated by Galaxy Communications. Galaxy’s president, Ed Levine, said the company plans to file a counter lawsuit against Keeler soon.

“It’s hard to know how to call it.” That was Clear Channel general manager Joel Delmonico’s assessment of 570 WSYR’s decision to forgo round-the-clock coverage of the Iraq war last weekend. Local NPR affiliate WRVO FM 90 opted for continuous daytime network reporting for which the station received only a few listener complaints according to

With both NPR and the BBC planning extensive coverage of the war in Iraq over the next few weeks, public radio station WRVO has decided to put its spring fund drive on hold until next month. The on-air campaign which was set to start last Saturday will instead begin on April 9. In a statement

The FCC plans to do some additional “concentration analysis” of the proposed station swap involving nine stations in Duluth, MN and Evansville, IN. If the deal is approved, former Regent Communications Watertown cluster manager Bob Dakin will have five new stations to look after in Evansville. Regent owns nine stations in Watertown and Utica-Rome markets.

Big Frog 104’s afternoon jock, Matt ‘Bullfrog’ Raisman, is headed to Watertown in a deal that sends Froggy 97 (WFRY) morning man, Bean Pole (Tom Jacbosen), to Utica as the cluster’s new operations director and WFRG afternoon guy. Raisman, who picks up program director duties at WFRY and ESPN Radio 1410 (WNER) and the afternoon

The 570 WSYR news department has seen some staffing changes over the past few weeks. Maria Leaf leaves her weekend anchor job at WSYR and “Your Stories” producer gig at WIXT TV 9 for a morning co-anchor spot at WGY in Schenectady. Josh Bertaccini, an S.U. graduate who has worked for WSYR and SportsRadio 620

K-Rock’s J.J. Herr is packing his bags for a new night gig at Curtis Media’s active rock station, 96 Rock (WBBB), in Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina. Herr, who has been host of K-Rock’s Total Request Morning show since last September when he moved up from evenings, started out at the station as a 16-year-old intern. A

Dakota and Nicole Wilcox of Hot 107-9 (WWHT) are scheduled to appear on a BBC Radio program tonight. They’ll offer an American perspective on the current conflict in Iraq. Dakota participated in a similar cross-Atlantic discussion in the days following the Sept. 11th terrorist attacks in 2001. The show will be simulcast locally tonight beginning