August 2009

SYRACUSE — As quickly and suddenly as it appeared on Friday, Clear Channel’s “Young Country” format on WPHR has disappeared.  This morning, the station flipped back to its previous urban/R&B format, Power 106.9.

SYRACUSE — Get ready for some call letter changes coming next week to several stations, all following Foxfur Communications’ launch of “New Country Wolf 105-1” earlier this afternoon.  As you may have guessed, the country station will inherit the WOLF-FM calls, and the chain reaction continues from there. New at 12:10pm on 8/29 – The

SYRACUSE — Less than two hours after Foxfur Communications launched a new country format on “Wolf 105.1” (WVOA), Clear Channel, the owner of heritage country station B104.7 (WBBS) has fired back its own salvo — flipping urban-formatted Power 106.9 over to “Young Country 106.9.”

SYRACUSE — The stunting that started late last night on 105.1FM is over.  Say hello to new country station “Wolf 105-1.”  The station’s launch at 4pm Friday ends the unofficial “market exclusive” enjoyed over the last few years by Clear Channel’s B104.7 (WBBS).

SYRACUSE — It’s one of the few places where you can count on seeing plenty of broadcasters together in one place every year: the Great New York State Fair, which opened yesterday in the Town of Geddes, just outside of Syracuse.  In this “Mega Picture of the Week,” here are all the stations we found

Updated 8/28 at 12:40pm – SYRACUSE — Still no permanent new format on WVOA 105.1 FM out of DeRuyter, but the station is now on its second stunt as we await what an insider tells us will be “THE switch” to a new permanent format, expected sometime today. Inside: Vote on your prediction for the

SYRACUSE — Dan McIntyre, a former producer of “The Jim Reith Show,” is hoping to try his hand at politics.  McIntyre, who also hosted a short-lived Saturday morning talk show on Newsradio 570 WSYR, is running for Supervisor in the Town of Clay.

WATERTOWN — Longtime North Country broadcaster George Neher died today at the age of 65.  Neher, who worked for decades at WWNY radio and WTNY, was found dead by his wife inside their home at about 1:20 this afternoon.

SYRACUSE — The pricetag on the sale of Buckley Radio’s three-station Syracuse cluster to James V. Johnson’s Leatherstocking Media Group was revealed today.  In documents filed with the FCC, the purchase price is listed as $2.1 million.

UTICA-ROME — Bruce Manning, a former Utica radio anchor and PR director for the Mohawk Valley Comets hockey team, has died following a heart attack at the age of 55.