SYRACUSE -- Recently-unemployed rock jock Dave Frisina and his show "Soundcheck" will be back on the radio again within a few weeks. Today, Cumulus Media announced Frisina will be joining 105.9 The Rebel (WXTL). Cumulus ditched "The Big Talker" to launch the classic rock format earlier this month, not long after Frisina was suddenly dismissed from his old job at Galaxy classic rocker TK99/105 (WTKW/WTKV).
Surprisingly, no press release from Cumulus on this one -- we first caught wind of the news by way of a story by Mark Bialczak on syracuse.com. According to that story, Frisina doesn't have a definite start date or timeslot yet, but he'll likely start sometime in February. With mornings already filled by the syndicated Bob and Tom Show, that leaves middays or afternoons.
In addition to his weekday shift, Frisina will continue to produce and host Soundcheck, a show he created over 30 years ago, devoted to showcasing local musicians. Frisina tells Bialczak he believes Soundcheck will return in the same Sunday 9pm timeslot it held in the past on TK99/105, and before that, on The Rebel's sister station, Rock Radio 95X (WAQX).
I guess I called this one pretty accurately. Is anyone else surprised in the least? ... now let's hope they can run TK99 down the ratings book and give Levine something to worry about.