People tend to forget one thing...The Lake SOUNDED automated even when it was theoretically programmed live, except in afternoons when Loren Hunter was working and from time to time would have more to say about the music he was playing. You often could go a LOOONG time listening to that station without hearing a human voice.
That was its problem.
97 Rock, its main competition, has always had a brand identity largely because it had identifiable personalities, people who didn't talk excessively but had something interesting to say and a personality to project whenever they did crack the mike. Same with WCMF, the station's main target in the Rochester portion of its contour. Lake needed more of that kind of personality. They needed a Larry Norton or Brother Wease, with a Dave Kane or Carl Russo to follow up.
It's always sad to see people let go in this business and replaced by a machine. It's sadder still, when you see them let go because they were never really given the chance to establish a brand for the station and succeed, but confined them in a format that sounded far more mechanical than it should have if it wanted to crack the audience that stations like 97 Rock and WCMF built with a mix of music and human voices.
Although, come to think of it, since WCMF will soon be officially under the Entercom umbrella, might this be a prelude to a simulcast of some WCMF daytime shows (like Wease and Kane) into the Buffalo market on 107.7?