UTICA-ROME -- Catching-up on happenings from the "summer hiatus," there are some notable changes at two Roser Communications Network stations in the Mohawk Valley. Former Syracuse on-air personality Brandon C. joins the lineup at Kiss-FM (WSKS/WSKU), while news/talk/music hybrid 100.7FM WUTQ shuffles the schedule to make room for more music.
Even on hiatus, we're not sure how we missed it, but Brandon C exited from WOLF Radio's MOViN 100.3/96.5 (WMVN) at some point over the summer. He had joined the station in January of 2012, with a 7-hour-long airshift spanning afternoon drive and part of the evening. But Brandon wouldn't be off the air for long.
Kiss-FM program director Shaun Andrews tells CNYRadio.com he needed a substitute for T-SAP, who normally hosts nights for the CHR pair.
Quick explainer: T-SAP is the DJ for recording artist David Correy (known for his appearances on TV's X-Factor last season). A song of Correy's is the official theme of the 2014 World Cup, so Correy -- and T-SAP -- are touring to support the song for the next 9 months.
Andrews says the on-and-off touring trips necessitated the need for a fill-in jock, so Brandon C was hired. But Andrews said after the first two weeks of filling in, "Brandon just took the ball and ran with it." Because Andrews didn't want Brandon to "disappear into the ethos" while T-SAP is able to work his own airshift, Andrews said it was decided to revive Kiss-FM's "Late Shift" to keep Brandon C on the air.
So, when T-SAP is in town, the lineup has afternoon driver S Dot hanging up his headphones at 6pm, T-Sap is on from then until 10pm, followed by Brandon C until 2am. When T-SAP goes away on tour, it's back to the usual schedule -- where S Dot will be on-air until 7pm, and Brandon takes 7pm to midnight.
Andrews also filled us in on some changes at sister station WUTQ, resulting in more music during the middle of each weekday.
The four-hour stretch of news/talk in the morning remains, but it's all an hour earlier: a simulcast of NBC affiliate WKTV's newscast airs at 5am, followed by WUTQ's "Talk of the Town with Mark Piersma and Frank Elias" from 6-9am. That makes way for an expanded shift for DJ "Taylor at Work," now heard from 9am to 4pm -- including the first two hours commercial-free, followed by an "All 80s Cafe" at noon.
Taylor's followed by Todd Caswell (who, we're told, does a spot-on impersonation of Brandon C, if you get our drift). He hosts a two-hour block of commercial-free music, leading up to a simulcast of WKTV's NewsChannel 2 at Six. After the 30-minute newscast, Caswell resumes the music, wrapping up his night shift with an hour of 90s at 9.
Previously, WUTQ simulcasted WKTV's news at 6am (with Talk of the Town following until 10am), along with WKTV's hour-long newscasts at noon and 5pm. By skipping the noon news and simulcasting the 30-minute 6pm newscast, WUTQ adds 90 minutes of music each weekday.