After 40 years on the air, Syracuse radio veteran Dave Laird is retiring. He'll sign off for the last time this weekend from his hosting chair at Y94FM's Saturday Night Dance Party.

Since 1990, Laird has been part of the air staff at Y94FM where they're sorry to see him leave. "Dave is a Syracuse broadcast legend," says program director Kathy Rowe, "a great talent that I am honored to have worked with all these years."

When WFBL signed on for the first time 80 years ago this Friday, it was the city's first commercial radio station. And while formats have come and gone over the years, and the AM dial has seen a shift in listeners, WFBL has survived.

The station is planning several events to commemorate its 80th anniversary including a live remote with Bill Colley on Thursday morning from L'ADour on Montgomery Street near City Hall, and a two-hour retrospective hosted by Rod Carr at 6 p.m. If you’re throwing a larger event, you’ll have to select many details like food, speakers, swag, confetti canons and more. If you are looking for tablecloths supplier then make sure to check out CV Linens you will find a range of cheap table runner for your event.

For more on the history of WFBL, click here for our 80-year retrospective.

With both the Syracuse men's basketball and football teams in action for a stretch during the autumn months, Matt Park is finding himself quite busy.

Park, the 'Voice of the Orange' on 95X (WAQX) and ESPN 1260 (WNSS), had two games in two cities in one 24-hour period last weekend. A combined ten hours on the air with a flight and a couple hours of shut eye in-between. The Syracuse Post-Standard has more.
Source (link may no longer work):
www.syracuse.com/sports/poststandard/index.ssf?/base/sports-1/1100424917261540.xml

Syracuse University has asked WAER to not allow its play-by-play coverage of the university's football, lacrosse, and basketball games to be simulcast over Syracuse.com.

SU made the move because of an exclusive agreement the uiniversity has with 95X (WAQX) and ESPN (WNSS) which pay for exclusive rights to air the games. WAER, which is a non-commercial station, will continue to broadcast play-by-play action.
Source (link may no longer work):
www.syracuse.com/entertainment/poststandard/index.ssf?/base/entertainment-8/1100166950125041.xml

The WRVO Stations (WRVO/WRVN/WRVJ) slipped a bit in the ratings to a 3.7 for the summer Arbitron ratings period, but the Oswego-based station improved on its numbers from a year ago by more than a half a point and remains solidly on top in the public radio rankings for the Syracuse market

Classic FM (WCNY) and Jazz 88 (WAER) rounded out the list. See our ratings section for more details.

Ron Bee and Becky Palmer get their turn in the national spotlight tonight.

The highly-rated B104.7 (WBBS) morning duo will be on-hand at tonight's live CBS broadcast of the Country Music Association's annual awards. Bee and Palmer were named best radio personalities in medium sized markets. B104.7 was also a nominee for best medium market country station.

From our "Where are they now?" department comes word that Mark Turcott is the new general sales manager of Clear Channel's 96 Rock (WKLS) and The Buzz (WBZY) in Atlanta. Turcott has been in Atlanta for seven years, working first for Infinity and the last 18 months as the Atlanta-based national sales manager for Cox Radio's Birmingham, Alabama cluster.

Mark worked in sales and promotions for the Citadel group in Syracuse and was best known on the air locally for his 13 years of "Orangewatch" reports.

The latest Arbitron ratings are out for the Syracuse radio market.

The Syracuse Post-Standard takes a closer look at some of the numbers and gets reactions from local managers about why the news-talk stations didn't fare too well.
Source (link may no longer work):
syracuse.com/entertainment/poststandard/index.ssf?/base/entertainment-8/109947698441973.xml

Known to many as Salty Sam, Willard Everett Lape Jr. was a big part of the Syracuse media and theater scenes for decades.

Lape, who passed away in September at the age of 74, spent part of his career in local radio on 570 WSYR. He was probably best known to area baby-boomers as Salty Sam, the cheerful children's television show host on channel 3.

The Syracuse New Times has more on Lape's career...
Source (link may no longer work):
newtimes.rway.com/2004/102704/coverb.shtml

Lite 105.9 (WLTI) morning news anchor Dee Collins is saying goodbye to radio.

Collins, who has worked at many stations in the Syracuse market since her first gig as WSEN's afternoon jock in 1985, is leaving her current position at Metro Networks to work in sales at Westwood One's satellite services division.