SYRACUSE -- We first told you last week of Utica Observer-Dispatch blogger Don Laible's series of "where are they now" type interviews with sports broadcasters who got their start in Utica. Little did we know then, that the series wasn't over: Liable started off this week with a two-part series about The Score 1260 (WSKO) afternoon host Brent Axe.
Just like many other sports broadcasters who got their start in Utica, "The Axeman" is a former host of WIBX's long-running SportsWatch program. But the interesting part is how Axe first arrived at WIBX in 1996. In the first part of a two-day series, Axe recalled how his HCCC classmate Gary Spears (who now hosts mornings as "Big Poppa" on Utica's Kiss-FM), had already been interning with SportsWatch host Brad Davies. Knowing sports wasn't his cup of tea, Spears asked Axe if he wanted to take over the internship. Axe accepted, and the twice-a-week visits eventually transformed into a job as the show's producer, five days a week.
In part two of the series, posted today, Axe tells Laible how he succeeded Davies on WIBX and eventually made his way to his current job at WSKO, along with his gig with the Buffalo Bills Radio Network. Axe also looks to the future, admitting that "radio in its pure form is dying," but "as long as radio adapts" to new technologies such as social media, "it will thrive."
Although WSKO's signal might not be strong enough to reach all of his old fans in the Mohawk Valley, Axe noted that it's now been nearly three years since Time Warner Cable Sports started simulcasting his program. The regional sports network is carried by Time Warner Cable systems throughout the Syracuse and Utica-Rome radio markets and beyond, allowing Axe to reach a larger audience than he might get from WSKO alone.