SYRACUSE - Nearly a month after Jim Tate was shown the door at WSEN, the other shoe has dropped at the Buckley Broadcasting classic hits station. Sources tell CNYRadio.com overnight jock Spidr Murfee and several part-timers have been terminated.
Multiple CNYRadio.com readers noticed Murfee's picture has been removed from the masthead of the WSEN website and his name is off the programming schedule on the station's website.
Another reader with close knowledge of the situation confirms Murfee is gone, along with several part-timers. Our source says weekday overnights are completely automated, and Sundays are nearly completely filled with specialty shows; the only hours for "regular programming" are 3-6am.
The source tells CNYRadio.com that WSEN had, for quite awhile, been the only remaining station in Syracuse to have a live jock or board op in the studio 24/7:
"We didn't voicetrack anything; all local shows were always live. And I think management was pretty proud of that actually. We had the technology to voicetrack, but they liked that live studio feel."
Our tipster concedes, that as time went on, the economic benefits became too great for the station to continue ignoring the capability to automate certain dayparts.
We're told the remaining local weekday full-time jocks -- Gary Dunes, Diane Wade and John Carucci -- continue to perform their shifts live, and no further changes are expected at this point. We'll keep our fingers crossed.