SYRACUSE -- Former longtime 570 WSYR afternoon talk show host Jim Reith is making a comeback... with some help from a familiar name. After dropping some hints recently, a social media post this morning announced Reith is looking to bring his talk show back -- in the form of a new podcast.
Word comes via a Facebook post by Bill Ali, who Reith often referred to on-air as "Producer Bill" during their time together at the old WSYR studios on Plum Street:
Just in case anything happens to the above-linked Facebook post, a quick recap: Ali announced:
In the upcoming weeks Jim Reith and I will be resurrecting the show as a podcast at an undisclosed CNY location bringing back the local discussions we had on WSYR for years.
We are going to bring back a lot of the segments and guests we had fun and serious conversations with.
Local and regional music will be in the spotlight again and we’ve already reached out to some legendary artists!
Without mentioning a specific launch date, Ali emphasized, "it's coming REALLY soon!!"
The timing checks out: later this month, it'll have been exactly 13 years since Reith, Ali and two others were suddenly let go by Clear Channel Syracuse, as part of a nationwide wave of layoffs. Reith had been with Newsradio 570 WSYR for 27 years, hosting his afternoon talk show for the last 11 of those years. Earlier in his tenure, Reith was in charge of running WSYR's once-bustling newsroom, back in the days when it was staffed 24/7/365 with reporters and anchors who had a reputation for bringing home quite a bit of hardware from various local and regional journalistic awards competitions.
After his exit from WSYR, Reith hosted a short-lived TV version of his talk show on WCNY, before being appointed to a public relations job with Onondaga County in 2013. He remained in that position for about a decade, retiring in early 2023 and adopting a retirement mantra of "no TV before 4pm" as a means to remain active rather than becoming a couch potato.
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