UTICA-ROME -- Although it's been about a week since 95.5FM WUSP signed-on, it's taken about that long for us to find out what the Mohawk Valley's newest sports talk station is bringing to the table. On top of a network affiliation and deals with the New York Mets and the New England Patriots, owners are promising plenty of locally-produced programming.
According to WUSP's new Facebook Page,which launched late last week, longtime local broadcaster and Good Guys Broadcasting co-owner Tom Coyne is hosting weekday mornings from 6am to 9am. He's followed until noon by Hank Brown, another longtime local broadcaster who has been eager to get back on the air since leaving the same three frequencies (under its previous format) in April 2011. CNYRadio.com readers may recall Brown had announced plans to host mornings on WKAJ out of Saint Johnsville late last year, but the plans fell apart when WKAJ missed the sign-on deadline for its construction permit.
There are plans for local programming during afternoon drive as well. Thanks to an anonymous reader, CNYRadio.com has obtained a copy of a seven-page publicity packet produced by Good Guys Broadcasting. It mentions plans for an afternoon talk show which would feature interview and call-in segments sponsored by local sports-related businesses. The station also says it's planning to offer "a healthy schedule of local sports play by play," focusing on high school and college football, basketball, hockey and soccer.
On the professional level, WUSP is already carrying New York Mets baseball, and will also be carrying New England Patriots football. The publicity packet mentions WUSP is "working to secure an affiliation with an NHL franchise of interest to local fans." (To the best of our knowledge, the New York Rangers are currently signed to Galaxy's ESPN Radio [WTLA/WIXT/WRNY], so we'll be waiting to see if WUSP goes with the Buffalo Sabres, the New York Islanders, or perhaps a team from a neighboring state.)
Hours not occupied by play-by-play or otherwise regularly-scheduled local talk programming will be filled by the Sports Byline network. And as previously reported, Good Guys Broadcasting will continue to air weekend ethnic and religious programming which was already on these three stations before it took over control from Roser Communications Network. Those include programs like Voice of Italy, Radio 202 and The Polka Review... which were formerly heard on Roser's four-station WUTQ simulcast, but stayed on the WUSP stations after Roser condensed its news/music/talk format exclusively onto 100.7 WUTQ-FM.
Our thanks again to all the readers in the Utica area who've helped us keep up with the developments at WUSP. (We're looking forward to the website's promise of live streaming coming soon, so we can finally listen in from CNYRadio.com HQ.) Anytime you've got news to share about local radio or TV in Central New York, drop us a line at cnyradio@cnyradio.com or use the Contact Form. If you'd prefer we not use your name, just let us know... in fact, if you use the form, you don't even need to provide your name or email address.
The problem with the Islanders is that they don't have a radio network as I understand it... their flagship station is a noncommercial college radio station. So it'd have to be the Sabres.
Unless, of course, they decide to do the same thing they did with the Patriots and pick up the Bruins games, but with them on WBZ (clear-channel, 1030) what's the point?
Edit: never mind... they're not on WBZ anymore, they moved to FM. So I guess perhaps the Bruins are POSSIBLE... but still you're talking a station with a tiny footprint (both AM stations are effectively daytimers so you're limited to the reach of the 95.5 translator).
Ahh. Guess you can tell I'm not a big Islanders fan, because if I were, I would have known that. Although now that you mention it, I think I vaguely recall reading about that somewhere before.
Just because a team has a clear channel for a flagship, I wouldn't rule-out local affiliations. There are other teams carried by clear channels, but still have local affiliates, such as the Yankees on WCBS and Mets on WFAN.
I think the bigger factor is team popularity. If people want to hear the team and a local station does well in promoting it, people will prefer the local station over the distant flagship, especially if FM is available. Just a matter of siding with the right team. With the Rangers already taken elsewhere and the Islanders being network-less, I agree that leaves the Sabres, but I'm not sure if they have a "following" around Utica, so that's why I wouldn't rule-out an out-of-state affiliation. Even though the AHL's Utica Devils moved to Albany nearly 20 years ago, could there still be enough Devils fans in Utica to go with the parent club in New Jersey?
I haven't heard anything either way, these are just random musings... it'll be interesting to see what does eventually happen.
I certainly think it'll be interesting to see how this plays out. You have a point about the Devils perhaps having a following from their days in Utica, so I guess they might be in the running as well.
One thing counting against the Sabres is the fact they don't have any affiliates in Syracuse and I imagine that would be somewhat of a bigger priority.
[Comment posted on website]
On August 9, 2012 at 10:52 pm, JMyrleFuller said:
The problem with the Islanders is that they don't have a radio network as I understand it... their flagship station is a noncommercial college radio station. So it'd have to be the Sabres.
Unless, of course, they decide to do the same thing they did with the Patriots and pick up the Bruins games, but with them on WBZ (clear-channel, 1030) what's the point?
[Comment posted on website]
On August 9, 2012 at 10:52 pm, JMyrleFuller said:
The problem with the Islanders is that they don't have a radio network as I understand it... their flagship station is a noncommercial college radio station. So it'd have to be the Sabres.
Unless, of course, they decide to do the same thing they did with the Patriots and pick up the Bruins games, but with them on WBZ (clear-channel, 1030) what's the point?
[Comment posted on website]
On August 9, 2012 at 10:54 pm, JMyrleFuller said:
Edit: never mind... they're not on WBZ anymore, they moved to FM. So I guess perhaps the Bruins are POSSIBLE... but still you're talking a station with a tiny footprint (both AM stations are effectively daytimers so you're limited to the reach of the 95.5 translator).
[Comment posted on website]
On August 9, 2012 at 10:54 pm, JMyrleFuller said:
Edit: never mind... they're not on WBZ anymore, they moved to FM. So I guess perhaps the Bruins are POSSIBLE... but still you're talking a station with a tiny footprint (both AM stations are effectively daytimers so you're limited to the reach of the 95.5 translator).
[Comment posted on website]
On August 9, 2012 at 11:28 pm, CNYRadio.com said:
Ahh. Guess you can tell I'm not a big Islanders fan, because if I were, I would have known that. Although now that you mention it, I think I vaguely recall reading about that somewhere before.
Just because a team has a clear channel for a flagship, I wouldn't rule-out local affiliations. There are other teams carried by clear channels, but still have local affiliates, such as the Yankees on WCBS and Mets on WFAN.
I think the bigger factor is team popularity. If people want to hear the team and a local station does well in promoting it, people will prefer the local station over the distant flagship, especially if FM is available. Just a matter of siding with the right team. With the Rangers already taken elsewhere and the Islanders being network-less, I agree that leaves the Sabres, but I'm not sure if they have a "following" around Utica, so that's why I wouldn't rule-out an out-of-state affiliation. Even though the AHL's Utica Devils moved to Albany nearly 20 years ago, could there still be enough Devils fans in Utica to go with the parent club in New Jersey?
I haven't heard anything either way, these are just random musings... it'll be interesting to see what does eventually happen.
[Comment posted on website]
On August 9, 2012 at 11:28 pm, CNYRadio.com said:
Ahh. Guess you can tell I'm not a big Islanders fan, because if I were, I would have known that. Although now that you mention it, I think I vaguely recall reading about that somewhere before.
Just because a team has a clear channel for a flagship, I wouldn't rule-out local affiliations. There are other teams carried by clear channels, but still have local affiliates, such as the Yankees on WCBS and Mets on WFAN.
I think the bigger factor is team popularity. If people want to hear the team and a local station does well in promoting it, people will prefer the local station over the distant flagship, especially if FM is available. Just a matter of siding with the right team. With the Rangers already taken elsewhere and the Islanders being network-less, I agree that leaves the Sabres, but I'm not sure if they have a "following" around Utica, so that's why I wouldn't rule-out an out-of-state affiliation. Even though the AHL's Utica Devils moved to Albany nearly 20 years ago, could there still be enough Devils fans in Utica to go with the parent club in New Jersey?
I haven't heard anything either way, these are just random musings... it'll be interesting to see what does eventually happen.
[Comment posted on website]
On August 10, 2012 at 10:03 am, JMyrleFuller said:
I certainly think it'll be interesting to see how this plays out. You have a point about the Devils perhaps having a following from their days in Utica, so I guess they might be in the running as well.
One thing counting against the Sabres is the fact they don't have any affiliates in Syracuse and I imagine that would be somewhat of a bigger priority.
[Comment posted on website]
On August 10, 2012 at 10:03 am, JMyrleFuller said:
I certainly think it'll be interesting to see how this plays out. You have a point about the Devils perhaps having a following from their days in Utica, so I guess they might be in the running as well.
One thing counting against the Sabres is the fact they don't have any affiliates in Syracuse and I imagine that would be somewhat of a bigger priority.