Updated 10:40am -- SYRACUSE -- It's a day many fans have been eagerly awaiting: Dave Frisina's first shift on 105.9 The Rebel (WXTL). The longtime local radio host begins his new weekday air shifts today and he'll be on the air for afternoon drive, 2-7pm.
The fact that Frisina has joined the station is old news -- that announcement was made two weeks ago, less than a month after he was dismissed from his midday shift across town at Galaxy's TK99 and TK105 (WTKW/WTKV) on December 30. But neither Frisina nor the station had revealed if he would be on middays or afternoons, and there was only a vague indication as to a start date "sometime" in February. The station's Facebook page announced the timeslot yesterday. (Apparently there were also TV ads, but we didn't catch any of those.)
105.9 The Rebel launched on January 6, killing off "The Big Talker" format which had been in place on the frequency since 2010. The syndicated "Bob and Tom Show" survived the format flip, retaining its morning drive timeslot.
In addition to his weekday shift, Frisina will continue to produce and host "Soundcheck," his well-known Sunday night program which focuses exclusively on locally-produced music. Frisina created the show in 1979 when he was working at 95X (WAQX). His move to 105.9 The Rebel is only the second time he has changed stations in his career, and he has taken "Soundcheck" with him through both moves.
Editor's Note: This story originally reported Frisina's airshift would be 3-7pm, based on a comment a Cumulus employee had posted on the station's Facebook page about a week ago. We did not see the TV ads which reportedly had aired, nor the most-recent "official" Facebook posts, prior to publication.
I'm pretty sure the commercials that have been running on TV the last week or so saying "Dave's back" have been saying "starting Monday" as well, as I was aware he'd begin today and never saw the Facebook thing.
I've already noticed a bit of a change. You'd think a station billing itself as "The Rebel" would be playing a fair amount of Southern Rock; at first it seemed to be missing, but now it seems like any time they run a station ID/promo, the next song or within a song or two is Skynyrd, Molly Hatchet, or something else up that alley. Which is good; what with WSYR wasting an hour on nonsense at 6:00 I'm flipping over here for the music and staying until Savage comes on.
And of course the facebook posts (two of them) from yesterday saying outright that Dave starts today at 2:00 PM might be a good hint over the comment in the week old one referenced in the story, too. I would have included it above, but I didn't look at the page until I'd already posted the first comment.