5 Syracuse radio personalities out as iHeart cuts staff nationwide

There are no longer any Syracuse-based hosts on heritage AC station Y94 (WYYY), in the wake of a nationwide staffing purge carried out by corporate owner iHeart Media on Tuesday. The cuts include 5 people in Syracuse and others elsewhere with connections to Syracuse. We'll keep this post updated if any more names come in.

Here are the Syracuse names we have as of Monday night:

• Pat McMahon, who co-hosted mornings on Y94. The other half of the "Pat and Pauly Show," Paul Guglielmo, is based in Rochester and continues to host mornings solo.
• Big Jim Donovan, who had been doing middays on Y94 along with anchoring and reporting in the 570 WSYR newsroom
• Daryl Thomas Ledyard, who had been on-air for Y94 and country station B104.7 (WBBS)
• Kobe Fargo, who was PD and afternoon host for CHR Hot 107.9 (WWHT)
• Kenny Dees, PD for urban AC Power 620 (WHEN)

Outside of Syracuse, but with connections, NorthEast Radio Watch reports the following notable names:

• JP Hastings, who was programming Y94 out of Rochester, along with stations in Rochester and Binghamton. The name may sound familiar to readers in the Utica area; years ago, Hastings did afternoons at Townsquare's Lite 98.7 WLZW.
• Joe Gallagher, a former 62WHEN midday host, has exited Albany news/talker 810 WGY, where he had been since the 1980s, most recently as a weekend host.

With McMahon, Donovan and Ledyard out the door, Y94 is left with zero local personalities. As mentioned earlier, morning host Guglielmo is out of Rochester, and afternoon host Lori is based in Binghamton. After 7pm, the station runs the nationally-syndicated Delilah show.

The cuts came after iHeart announced it would be making sweeping changes to the way the company conducts business. Aside from the names listed above, national radio trade publications are listing dozens of people who've been released from iHeart. Social media posts criticizing the move have referred to the company as "iHurt Radio" and "iHate Radio."

Prior to staff being informed of their exits, there was one clue of the impending storm: iHeart Radio (we presume, temporarily) removed all air talent bio pages and schedules from all radio station websites nationwide.

Among the buzz on Tuesday, was word that not all markets had carried out their dismissal orders that day, and it was likely the list of "dislocated" talent would continue to grow throughout the week.