It's been a couple years since my schedule allowed me to listen to morning radio on a daily basis. I listen now and then, but not every single day. I haven't listened to Nick on Movin' enough to form my own opinion, but the reviews on the TV&Radio board operated by the Syracuse paper seem to be pretty divided. At first, apparently he did a lot of the same old shtick he did on his morning show at Oldies 96 in Utica -- parodies and jokes that might play well with the older, male-dominated Oldies audience, but not so great with a HotAC/CHR (whatever Movin' is) with a primarily-female audience. More recent posts seem to indicate he's changed his ways somewhat, for the better.
Other than that, Ted and Amy do have some decent features and great audience participation (5 question quiz, group therapy thursday, etc.), and the benefit of great chemistry, thanks to their longevity as a morning team. Marty and Shannon would be a close second, and will only get better as they accrue their own longevity as a team (assuming neither "exits" the station).
Y94 seems to have had a pretty bad streak with morning shows. Since they fired Big Mike, mornings seem to be changing every few years (or less). First there were Pete & Brenda. Then you had Rick Gary & Kathy Rowe. Decent, but not quite excellent. Then CC budget cuts axed Rick, and they shifted Marne Mason from middays to mornings with Kathy. Lame. Both were great as solo midday personalities, but Kathy's nearly old enough to be Marne's mother. Sometimes, I think these two just try "too" hard. And now, insiders posting on other boards have said Marne moved down south, and is co-hosting via ISDN. That arrangement can't possibly go on forever.
Sunny 102 and Lite Rock 105.9 are OK, but nothing spectacular. Both have one-man morning shows (plus occasional chatter with news/wx/traffic types, but not enough to be considered a co-host). Obviously you can't have chemistry if you're on your own, but the plus side of one-man morning shows is usually less talk and more music. No complaints there. I'd even argue that Y94 would do better ditching Marne and having Kathy solo. Even though personality and chemistry are often winners in the morning, the music-intensive approach can also work wonders, especially if it's promoted the right way. "No mindless chatter or silly gimmicks. Just the information you NEED to know and the most music in the morning... on station name here."
On the AM side of the dial, the only person I've listened to is Joe Galuski on WSYR. I don't believe there are too many other choices when it comes to local programming on the AM dial. He does a pretty good job, though I think we can all agree, the show could use a little less chit-chat with Kathy Denman. I also think it's unfortunate that Kathy is the default fill-in when Joe's on vacation. She's probably a very nice person, but the voice is just g-r-a-t-i-n-g. How many packs a day does she go through?
