Utica-area afternoon talk show host Phil Stern finished up his run on 1310 WTLB last Friday. Look for Stern to resurface soon at a station outside of Central New York.

Rumors are out that Tom Joyner's syndicated morning show will be dropped by Power 106.9 (WPHR) to make room for Doug Banks.

Yesterday on Jim Reith's afternoon talk show, the 570 WSYR host fielded calls from listeners who were irate over a new state law that banned smoking, drinking, and eating while driving. The law was actually a hoax announced by Ted and Amy earlier in the day on Citadel's Top 40-formatted 93Q (WNTQ). Reith, not realizing it was an April Fools' gag, said he hadn't heard of the new law but was in favor of it.

Archive article reposted with help from volunteer Tim Sinclair.

As usual, 93Q's Ted and Amy were in prank mode today with their annual April Fools' Day hoax. This year's stunt was a report that New York lawmakers had outlawed eating, drinking, and smoking while driving a car. Command Traffic's Tony Bombardo played along as well by reminding morning commuters of the law that supposedly took effect on April 1.

Syracuse radio veteran Bob Brown is back in town from his national tour of Funny Girl in which he played the lead role of Nick Arnstein. Brown returns to the Salt City stage this weekend in his annual appearance as the lead in Jesus Christ Superstar.

"She is K-Rock!" With that ringing endorsement from Galaxy Communications vice president Mimi Griswold comes news that K-Rock's afternoon drive air personality Abbie Weber has been promoted to program director of the modern rock station.

From his early days as a fry cook at Sambo's restaurant, to who helped shape his long radio career, 95X (WAQX) program director Bob O'Dell answers Ten Questions this week on allaccess.com.

Strong winds and heavy rains caused Utica stations 94 K-Rock (WKLL) and Rock 107 (WRCK) to go silent for a while last night. The Galaxy Communications stations went dark at around 6:30 p.m. due to electical problems at their Smith Hill towers.

Recently, 'Silent' Bob Staffa, midday jock at K-Rock (WKRL/WKRH/WKLL) and host of the station's Thursday night local music show Backstage Live, posted an in-depth response to an ongoing discussion on a syracuse.com message board concerning radio's role in promoting local music.

Thanks to a quiet off-air fundraising campaign in Februrary which raised $90,000, public radio station WRVO was able to shorten the length of its on-air pitches last week. The station met its goal of $130,000 on Saturday morning shortly after Car Talk ended. The fund drive resulted in 400 new contributing members.