Updated 8/14 at 1:35pm - SYRACUSE -- It's now confirmed: former Hot 107.9 (WWHT) morning co-hosts Marty and Shannon are still part of the station's weekday lineup after the syndicated "Elvis Duran and the Morning Show" debuted on the Clear Channel CHR today. But they won't be together: Shannon's solo for middays 10a-2p, and Marty follows until 7pm.
The new timeslots were confirmed this morning, with a post titled "I'm Still Here!" on Marty's blog on the station website:
Thank you very much for all the e-mails and phone calls. First I just want to say that Shannon and I are both thankful for the supposrt of all our Hot 1079 listeners. We also would like to welcome The Elvis Duran Hot Morning Show to Hot 1079 from 5AM to 10AM. Both Shannon and I will still be on the air at Hot 1079. Shannon will be on from 10AM to 2PM and I will be on for your ride home 2PM to 7PM. That's right the return of Marty "The One Man Party"! lol Things are great here at Hot 1079 and you should keep listening because great things are happening for all you listeners!
Marty "The One Man Party"
As of Saturday afternoon, however, it appears this blog post has been removed from the site.
In our original story, which appears below, we reported an anonymous CNYRadio.com reader sent in a tip about the changes Marty has since confirmed.
Added 8/14 at 1:35pm - Deaf Geoff confirms he's still on-staff, via his latest blog post on Hot 107.9's website. While he didn't get his own weekday airshift like Marty (afternoons) and Shannon (middays), he explained, "you may not hear me as often, but I will continue updating this blog five days a week and still be a part of the HOT 107.9 family." Up until now, nothing had been said regarding his status with the station.
SYRACUSE -- Some abrupt changes in the lineup at Clear Channel CHR Hot 107.9 (WWHT): as of Thursday afternoon, the front page of the station's website has a prominent graphic promoting syndicated personality Elvis Duran as the station's new morning host.
Efforts to reach Clear Channel operations manager Rich Lauber for additional details were not successful on Thursday afternoon.
Unconfirmed: an anonymous reader tells CNYRadio.com that Shannon will be taking over the midday shift, while Marty (who is once again "The One-Man Party") will handle afternoons. Our tipster says current WWHT afternoon host Jus' Mic will slide over to the afternoon shift at R&B sister station Power 106.9 (WPHR).
What we do know right now is that all three ex-morning personalities are still featured on the station website -- but their individual blog pages don't mention specific timeslots.
Added at 7:30pm: Hot 107.9 just sent out an email to members of its "Hot VIP" club stating the following:
HOT 107.9 proudly welcomes Elvis Duran as the new host of the HOT 107.9 Morning Show starting tomorrow morning! Listen to Elvis Duran and the Hot Morning Show weekdays from 5:00-10:00am.
And don't worry, Marty and Shannon aren't going anywhere! They said "We've had a great ride together as a morning show and tomorrow we start a new chapter - and we'll still be on HOT, with new show times! :)"
Marty has been on the morning shift at WWHT since September 2003, moving from afternoons after former co-hosts Dakota and Nicole both left the station within a week of each other. It wasn't his first time on mornings -- prior to Dakota's arrival, you may remember "Marty and Paige in the Morning."
It wouldn't be long until Shannon joined Marty in the spring of 2004. Before coming back to her hometown of Syracuse, Shannon's resume included stops in Greensboro, NC and Boston, MA.
Elvis Duran is no stranger to Syracuse. Although Duran's show is based at Clear Channel powerhouse CHR Z-100 (WHTZ) in New York City, he has been to Syracuse at least once (that we know of) in the recent past.
Duran was featured in a CNYRadio.com Picture of the Week in 2009, when he was the keynote speaker at the WJPZ Alumni Association's "Banquet 24," an annual gathering celebrating the birthday of student-owned Z89.
At the banquet, Duran and talent agent David Katz delivered a joint keynote address advising broadcasters how to be "Always On" -- just like radio is always on.
Duran's official show bio page doesn't offer much else in the way of personal information, but according to Wikipedia, Duran started hosting the "Z Morning Zoo" in 1996. Syndication started in 2006, the title's "Zoo" changed to "Show" in 2008, and today Duran is carried by more than 30 affiliates nationwide.
Hot 107.9's website also includes a link to "The Elvis Duran Channel," an online stream that loops the show 24/7 during the hours it's not on the air.
I'd speculate this was done for budget reasons, it's usually cheaper to run a syndicated show - especially one owned by the network - than to pay 2, 3, sometimes even to pay just one person to cover a shift. At the same time it's some smart managing to keep the same people on in different shifts - it really doesn't cost any more money than before, but they keep their most visible staff, who have name recognition in the market and so forth.
And it's not hard to see how Clearchannel might be losing money in Syracuse; the 8/13 Yankees game on WSYR goes into it's second rain delay around 10:30 PM and WSYR keeps running the WCBS feed right through until midnight - including several minutes of dead air - and for the second time. Then when the game -is- supposed to be back, like 10 minutes of local commercials. And, incredibly, now they go to Savage - presumably the game is on WHEN, but no top of the hour news, no weather, and no one to tell the baseball fans to switch stations. I don't see how you sell commercials to the ratings that dead air and out of market news/weather/traffic are going to draw.
Oh...THAT's what happened! I was on the road in southeastern Massachusetts Friday night, dialing around the low end of the AM dial, and heard WCBS on 570. I suspected it might have been WSYR inadvertently relaying WCBS instead of a Yankees game.
What's the usual routine for which games go on 570 and which on 620?
Scott, as far as I can tell, the first choice for Yankees is WHEN, but if the Yanks are playing at the same time as the Syracuse Chiefs, then the Chiefs get WHEN, and the Yankees are moved to WSYR. --Peter
[…] Utica-Rome market may already be familiar with Duran’s show, as Syracuse’s Hot 107.9 (WWHT), a Duran affiliate since 2010, covers western Oneida County just as well as any in-market signal. But with WWHT’s signal […]