SYRACUSE -- Including today, there's still four days left for this year's Great New York State Fair. Many local radio and TV stations have a presence at the Fair every year, and since 2009, we've made it a point to find as many of those stations as possible and share photos in one big "Mega-Picture of the Week." Where we usually just have one photo to share with you every Friday, today we've got..... 20! If you're on a slower internet connection, give the page some extra time to load everything.
We begin with the station that's arguably had the largest set-up of all the stations at the State Fair for at least a few years running: ABC affiliate NewsChannel 9 (WSYR-TV) and its famous "hut" just outside of the Dairy Products Building. From clear across Chevy Court, you can easily see the newscast which was in progress last Friday evening.
Channel 9 has been doing most of its weekday 5:00 to 6:30pm newscasts live from the fair. On the night we stopped by, Rod Wood and Carrie Lazarus were anchoring. Lazarus is there every weeknight. Wood takes turns with morning co-anchor Dan Cummings.
Here's WSYR-TV chief meteorologist Dave Longley giving the forecast on August 24. A crowd of fairgoers watches over Dave's shoulder to that large monitor (which was in the very first photo above) to see if they're on TV.
More TV in a bit, but we'll hop over to radio, where Skip Clark is literally "on top of things" at the New Country WOLF 105.1 / MOViN' 100.3/96.5 (WMVN) cabin, located along the main walkway to the Grandstand. Thanks to WOLF's John Hunt for sending in the photo!
Along that same walkway, but closer to the "front" of the fairgrounds, Brandon C from MOViN' 100.3/96.5 has been broadcasting live in the afternoons next to Twin Trees restaurant. We caught up with him this past Tuesday.
This year, we missed seeing the giant boomboxes that sister stations 93Q (WNTQ) and 95X (WAQX) usually have on display at the fair. All four Cumulus Media stations are now sharing one common area. When we happened to stop by on Tuesday, August 28, Dave Frisina from 105.9 The Rebel (WXTL) was on hand to talk to fans.
Ted Long from the morning show on 93Q sent us this photo of himself and co-host Amy Robbins during one of their shifts at the fairgrounds. Each of the four stations took different shifts at the booth. Thanks, Ted!
Flipping back over to TV, public broadcaster WCNY and the stations of CNY Central once again teamed up to meet viewers at their "Media Center" just outside of the Grand Central Cafe. Last week, we happened to be passing by as Matt Mulcahy and Laura Hand were broadcasting live.
Just a few feet out of the shot, CNY Central chief meteorologist Wayne Mahar looks to see who caught an autographed frisbee he had just tossed out to the crowd, and he's got another two or three in-hand, ready to be sailed out to more lucky fans.
Located just inside the main gate, perhaps the first media outlet spotted by many fairgoers is Time Warner Cable's YNN, with it's "Stormchaser" vehicle outside. When your editor strolled by last week, there wasn't much going on, but keep scrolling...
Here's a shot of YNN anchor Jo Dee Kenney interviewing SUNY Chancellor Nancy Zimpher in a photo posted on the Syracuse Press Club's Facebook page. They've got several other "behind the scenes" shots from various media outlets posted there.
If you're looking for The Score 1260's Brent Axe, don't look for him to be hosting "On the Block" at the Cumulus Media radio booth -- rather, he's inside the Time Warner Building, on a special sports-themed set. His weekday afternoon talk show is simulcast on Time Warner Cable Sports, as you can see in the first monitor on the wall above Axe.
There's no "dedicated" broadcast booth for classic hits Sunny 102.1 (WZUN), but members of the on-air staff were taking shifts at The Great Potato Booth inside the Horticulture Building. Here's a shot of morning host "Big Mike" Fiss serving up a tasty spud. Big Mike sent in the photo, and says credit's due to Ben, one of the potato booth workers, for snapping the photo.
Sister station ESPN Radio 97.7 and 100.1 (WTLA/WSGO) doesn't have it's own booth either, but is still getting plenty of exposure during the afternoons, when the locally-hosted "Upon Further Review" takes to the airwaves. Because the first two hours of the show are simulcast on WSYR-TV digital channel 9.2, the show has been broadcast live from channel 9's area at the fair. From left, WSYR-TV sports director Steve Infanti and ESPN Radio program director Chris McManus check their laptops during a break.
Also seen outside the channel 9 booth this past Tuesday: meteorologist Jim Teske and retired longtime channel 9 personality Mike Price were on-hand to sign autographs.
Clear Channel's stations were once again based out of their iHeart Radio booth ... but it's in a much different location than in years past. Even though we knew Bob Lonsberry was broadcasting live last Friday, we couldn't find him in time to get a photo. But WSYR posted this one on its website (along with many more). Lonsberry took the occasion to represent his "home" station, 1180 WHAM in Rochester. And if you're looking for the iHeart Radio booth, it's not by the main gate -- it's pretty far down into the midway this year.
The crew from sister station Hot 107.9 (WWHT) was out and about on the fairgrounds. At far left, there's Jus' Mic, and at far right, AJ in the Afternoon. In the middle, it's the pop duo Karmin, who played a free concert at Chevy Court last week. Hot 107.9 had the pair -- and plenty of fans -- sing the song on video, and edited together a nice "lip dub" of Karmin's most popular single, "Brokenhearted."
Elsewhere on the fairgrounds, personalities from B104.7 took part in a cow milking contest. From left, B104.7 morning co-host Tom Owens, WSYR-TV's Christie Casciano, B104.7 morning co-host Becky Palmer and WSYR-TV's Dave Longley pose with Darrel Aubertine, Commissioner of the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets, the state agency which oversees the Fair. More on B104.7's website.
Meantime, B104.7's Amber Taylor had a chance to sit down for an interview with country superstar Gary Allan, who performed a free concert at Chevy Court. B104.7's website has more photos from that, as well.
Last but not least, we spotted New York Lottery spokeswoman Yolanda Vega at the fair last week. She was in front of the Lottery Building playing special contests with fairgoers. She's best known for drawing the winning numbers on live TV across the state, carried locally by WSYR-TV.
We hope you enjoyed checking out our biggest-yet State Fair Mega-Picture of the Week! Not only are we very happy to have a record-breaking 20 photos this time around, we are thrilled to say this is the 9th consecutive week we've been able to feature reader-submitted photos!