This Sunday marked Trudy's 10-year anniversary with Utica's Lite 98.7 (WLZW). The station surprised her on the air Friday morning with a 10-minute montage featuring greetings from current staff members as well as past WLZW personalities including Randy Jay, Jeanne Ashley, and J.P. Hastings.
News and public affairs station WRVO FM 90 has devoted much of its programming over the past three weeks to the war in Iraq. William LaRue of the Syracuse Post-Standard spoke with program director John Hurlbutt about listener reaction and WRVO's plan to shift back toward more regular programming.
The war coverage has also caused the station to once again move back its spring pledge drive which is now scheduled for April 24-26.
With Matt 'Bullfrog' Raisman's move from Utica-Rome to the afternoon slot at Froggy 97 comes additional shift changes at WFRY. Former afternoon driver Mike 'Webb Foote' Stoffel jumps to middays and picks up assistant program director duties, while Cricket hops from middays to pair up with James Pond in morning drive.
The sounds of Broadway are coming to Watertown beginning April 20. 790 WTNY has added Broadway's Biggest Hits to the noon slot of its Sunday lineup. The syndicated show, which is hosted by Bud Wilkinson, now airs on nine New York State stations including WTLA in Syracuse and WTLB in Utica-Rome.
For anyone who couldn't get near a television set last night, or for those still without power, forced to listen to the game on battery operated radios or in their cars, there were a lot of choices to hear the Syracuse University Orangemen win the NCAA men's basketball national championship.
Radio and theater veteran Bob Brown will be pinch hitting during afternoon drive at Sunny 102.1 (WZUN) for a few weeks while Marty Santy recovers from hip replacement surgery. Santy, who was hurt in a motorocycle accident four years ago, had the operation last week and is at home recovering.
After a nine month run, 570 WSYR has decided to drop Sam Donaldson's daily talk show, Alive in America, in favor of one hosted by conservative talk host Glenn Beck. Beck's nationally syndicated show, which is broadcast out of Philadelphia and heard on over 100 stations nationwide, airs locally from 10 a.m. - noon weekdays.
With Oswego being one of the areas hit hardest by last week's ice storm, it's no surprise that WRVO FM 90 is having a tough time getting back on the air.
Electrical power was never a problem for the public radio station thanks to a generator purchased last year with the help of listener contributions. What it causing headaches for WRVO's engineering staff are large chunks of ice that fell from the station's 300 transmitting tower on Saturday which landed on a vital piece of transmission equipment.
Friday night's ice storm in Oswego, Cayuga, and Onondaga counties which left over 125,000 utility customers without power, also kicked several Central New York radio signals off the air.
A spot check of the dial over the past twelve hours found sporadic or extended outages at WRVO FM 90, Oldies 92.1 (WSEN), 93Q (WNTQ), Radio Disney (WOLF), Sunny 102.1 (WZUN), TK-105 (WTKV), Power 106.9 (WPHR), and TalkRadio 1050 (WFBL).
93Q's afternoon drive personality, 'Big Jim' Donovan, is the new public address announcer at P&C Stadium. Donovan, who replaces Dave Perkins as the in-stadium voice of the Syracuse SkyChiefs, was selected from an initial pool of about 50 people.
Meanwhile, Syracuse University announcer Matt Park is Bob McElligott's new partner this season for SkyChiefs broadcasts on ESPN Radio 1260 (WNSS).