SAN FRANCISCO -- A contract dispute between talk show host Michael Savage and his syndicator is going to federal court. Savage, who is heard locally on WSYR, is suing Talk Radio Network, accusing TRN of trying to "strong-arm" him into accepting a "sub-standard agreement" which he compared to "indentured servitude."
UTICA/ROME -- There's cause for celebration at Galaxy Communications: the company was named "Business of the Year" by the Mohawk Valley Chamber of Commerce. The Syracuse-based broadcaster, which owns six stations in the Utica-Rome market, was named the winner among businesses with 50 or fewer employees.
SYRACUSE -- Public broadcaster WCNY says tickets are still available for "The Party: WCNY's New Year Celebration," happening at the Oncenter Ballroom in Syracuse. Admission includes food, an open bar and a midnight champagne toast. For those who prefer a quieter New Year's Eve at home, WCNY will televise the event live.
SYRACUSE -- There's no confirmation yet from Clear Channel, but signs point toward a possible FM simulcast for news/talker WSYR in the near future. One national radio industry website says it found registrations for five -- count 'em, five -- new internet domain names that suggest that WSYR could be moving to the FM dial, displacing one of the cluster's music stations.
Updated 12/18 - UTICA -- A national TV trade website says Nexstar Broadcasting has issued a cease-and-desist letter to Time Warner Cable, regarding the cable company's decision to replace WKTV with WBRE, the Nexstar-owned NBC affiliate from Scranton, Pennsylvania. TWC made the switch on Thursday, after it and WKTV's parent company failed to work out a new retransmission deal before the old one expired.
WASHINGTON, DC -- Apparently, even the FCC's website gets to take some time off this holiday season. A temporary FCC homepage says "the normal FCC website and related electronic filing systems and documents" will not be available until 6:00am on Monday, December 20. The message attributes the outage to "scheduled maintenance." Hopefully you weren't planning to apply for a new station license this weekend! :-)
UTICA/ROME -- Last week, we put out the call for stations to let us know what they're doing to help their communities during the holiday season. And last night on Facebook, we put out an urgent call for Picture of the Week submissions -- it's been such a busy news week, we never had time to find a picture. One CNYRadio.com reader came through on both counts.
SYRACUSE -- Local PBS affiliate WCNY appears on the list of stations that have signed up to carry the next incarnation of Roger Ebert's movie review program. It's titled Roger Ebert presents At the Movies and it's set to debut next month.
UTICA/ROME -- The four stations owned by Connecticut-based Townsquare Media have brand new websites. The company says it's part of an initiative to "re-launch all its local radio stations' digital properties" -- for 171 radio stations in 36 markets -- by the end of the first quarter of 2011.
Updated 12/16 at 5:00pm - With no agreement over retransmission fees by 11:59pm Wednesday, NBC affiliate WKTV has been removed from certain Time Warner Cable lineups, including the system covering Utica and its immediate suburbs. WKTV hopes viewers will pressure the cable company into buckling. But Time Warner surprised us today: NBC fans aren't being deprived of network programming, as the cable giant replaces WKTV with an out-of-state NBC affiliate.