SYRACUSE -- Between anchoring CBS5 (WTVH) from 5-6:30, the NBC3 (WSTM) News at 7, and then being back on CBS5 at 11pm, you'd think Michael Benny's evenings were already pretty busy. But for a little over a year, he's been moonlighting in Buffalo, anchoring the Fox 29 (WUTV) News at Ten -- joined by a meteorologist and a sports anchor from Rochester's WHAM-TV. It's all possible through modern technology and the fact that all of these stations are owned by the same company.
SYRACUSE - Longtime former B104.7 personality and programmer Rich Lauber is back on the radio, joining the weekend lineup at 95.3 / 103.9 The Dinosaur (WSEN) as of this weekend.
UTICA/ROME -- Big Frog 104 (WFRG) is looking to replace an impending hole in its Sunday morning lineup. Lon Helton's "Country Countdown USA" program is being cancelled by its syndicator, Cumulus-owned Westwood One. The show's final episode will air on July 31.
SYRACUSE -- Sinclair Broadcast Group, owner of Syracuse's NBC-3 (WSTM), has recently announced job openings for an assignment editor and for a news producer. And, given a recent announcement, it looks like they'll soon be posting for a new morning show co-anchor, as well.
UTICA — He hosted "Twist-O-Rama" on WKTV well before Dick Clark's "American Bandstand" became a thing. Longtime Utica broadcaster Hank Brown died at the age of 91 today.
SYRACUSE -- Just over a decade after he joined "The Rebel" (formerly WXTL 105.9), longtime Syracuse rock radio personality and programmer Dave Frisina says he was "ineligantly informed over a phone call," during the final hour of his show on Monday night, that his position is being eliminated. As a result, he's decided to call it a career after 45 years behind the microphone.
SYRACUSE -- Former NewsChannel 9 (WSYR-TV) sports anchor Anish Shroff has a new job. This week, the Carolina Panthers selected the Syracuse / Newhouse graduate to become the new play-by-play voice for the Panthers Radio Network.
UTICA-ROME - Longtime radio engineer Dave Doughty has died. An obituary published today says Doughty, who worked for WTLB and the rest of the Galaxy Media cluster, died late last month.
SYRACUSE -- It used to be unheard of, but it's now happened at least three times within the past year -- iHeart Media's country-formatted B104.7 (WBBS) was not ranked #1 in the latest Nielsen ratings. The once-dominant station, which is now almost completely devoid of locally-based DJs, fell to second place among those stations to have their numbers released to the public.
UTICA-ROME -- No big surprises in the latest Utica-Rome radio audience estimates released by Nielsen. As usual, Townsquare Media's entire cluster enjoys a solid lock over the rest of the market -- at least among those stations Nielsen includes in the publicly-available numbers.