Updated 12/31 CENTRAL NEW YORK -- While most media outlets use this week to look back at all the general news from 2011, we're using these last few days of the year to look back at all the news from within those media outlets. On New Year's Eve, we'll countdown our "top 10" stories based on our server stats. But first, our annual month-by-month "debriefing" of the most notable stories we covered in 2011.
Updated at 10:00pm UTICA/ROME -- Nearly eight months after his morning show on WUTQ/WADR was replaced by an extension of the station's "Talk of the Town" program, Hank Brown is returning to radio. While a local newspaper was first to report Brown's announcement, we discovered something on the FCC website which seems to indicate Brown's new radio home may not be legal, after a construction permit expired earlier this month.
SYRACUSE -- Longtime NewsChannel 9 (WSYR-TV) anchor Rod Wood and former longtime WSYR radio talk show host Jim Reith were among many local and national broadcasters to receive write-in votes in Onondaga County this past Election Day. Other names to receive votes include TK99 morning co-host Glenn "Gomez" Adams, and national TV stars like Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert.
SYRACUSE -- Chalk it up as another benefit of DTV multicasting: Syracuse viewers looking to turn their sets into virtual fireplaces this Christmas will have at least two choices. WSYR-DT 9.2 and WCNY-DT 24.4 will each broadcast their own burning yule log video non-stop starting at noon on Christmas Eve. If your TV has picture-in-picture, all the merrier!
SYRACUSE -- Years before the practice of radio stations "going all-Christmas" became a popular trend across the country, there was Big Mike's Christmas Broadcast. Every year, Sunny 102's Big Mike Fiss invites dozens of local musicians to perform holiday favorites live on the air. This year was particularly notable -- it was the 30th year Fiss has staged his popular Christmas special.
SYRACUSE -- The market's only Italian-American radio show will have a new home when the new year begins, and maybe some new listeners as it expands to new markets. Starting on New Year's Day, Ciao! with Joey Nigro and Jim Battaglia will move to Classic FM (WCNY-FM). Ciao! will still begin at 3pm on Sunday afternoons, just like when it aired on Oldies 1050 (WSEN).
UTICA/ROME -- When you think of morning radio in the Mohawk Valley, you might come up with names like Matt Herkimer and Polly Wogg, Mark Richards, Big Poppa, Gomez and Dave, Bob Cain, Big Mike, Bill Keeler or Hank Brown. But some students and neighbors of Utica College already miss "The Fat Old Man," who recently ended a five-year run on the college's 90.7 WPNR.
SYRACUSE -- Kudos to the crew at K-Rock (WKRL/WKRH) on being named "Modern Rock Station of the Year" by national trade publication FMQB. The award was based on votes cast by members of the radio and record industries. K-Rock, owned locally by Galaxy Communications, was up against other "secondary market" contenders, stations in markets ranked 51-100.
NEW YORK CITY -- Former YNN Syracuse reporter Narmeen Choudhury, in just two job hops, has landed in the nation's biggest TV market. Four years after leaving Syracuse to work in Hartford, Connecticut, Choudhury has accepted a reporting position at New York City's WPIX.
SYRACUSE -- It's a double dose of holiday favorites on "The Wax Museum," a specialty show which airs Sunday nights on Love Radio WVOA 95.3, 98.1 and 103.9. This weekend, legendary vocalist Sonny Farrar will join the guys live in-studio to perform some of his own Christmas favorites. And there's more holiday favorites the following Sunday -- Christmas night.