I've been away for a while...someone fill me in..

[foxygrl]

So I've heard news here and there...hoping someone can give me the low down...Kiss Fm in Utica is no longer or switched Frequency? Anything ever come of CC Utica's attempt at Country...I believe it was Bob? The old timers still around, Linda Rae, Jerry Kraus, Kook? Whats going on with the Bone...Scorch still around? Mimi still doin the Blue Moon? The Big Guy in the AM still at Sunny 102? Yes I did say I've been away for a WHILE... Thanks in advance ;D

 

[BobRoss]

This is where I wish cnyradio.com was still around -- even if not updated, at least for the news archives to be there as a reference... Scott, come back!OK... my memory's kinda fuzzy, so I may not have every item correct -- or in the correct order... but since nobody else has replied, I'll try to do my best to get you from "whenever" to today.102.5 FMBob 102.5/WRBY competed against Big Frog 104 for roughly 2-3 years. The station had a few very good strong points... it's "20 song Bob-a-thons" literally killed Big Frog's long-time "10 songs in a row" trademark. It also mixed in a reasonable proportion of classic country to counter Frog's "CHR, but with Country music" approach. Bob was not doing bad, considering it was up against a 15-year-old heritage station with a 100,000-watt stick. Given more time, it could have built considerable inroads against the Frog, but CC apparently expected more dramatic results, and pulled the plug when that didn't happen.Today, it's Mix 102.5/WUMX, a Hot-AC format to go up against the market's other perennial leader, Lite 98.7. Much like Like, it aggressively markets at-work listening. Some of the songs might be a little too "hard" for workplace listening, but it's great for younger adults who until now, had no "middle ground" between Lite's mainstream AC sound and the way-too-urban sound Kiss has evolved into over the past few years. Much like Bob's 20-song sets forced the Frog to make some changes, Mix's "8AM All Music Hour" forced Lite to extend it's $100 No Repeat Workday to begin at 8AM, and to start its own commercial-free hour at 9AM.93.5 FMThe least-popular of the ClearChannel FM's has been going through quite a bit of change over the past few years... it's endured more format changes than the 102.5 stick. If you were last in the area for Bob, you probably remember the days of Warm 93.5 WRFM... the really slow, drippy AC station with Morning Mayor Jack Moran, voicetracking that got cut-off mid-sentence to hit the live Paul Harvey satellite feed at noon, Delilah at night, and wall to wall holiday music beginning the day after Thanksgiving.Leading into the fall of 2002, Warm began playing more and more older songs... not an "oldies" station like Oldiez 96 or WXUR, but think of the "oldies category" from an AC playlist... being the entire clock, rather than just one position here and there. When the Christmas music came, the changes were in motion behind the scenes... after Christmas, the station was rebranded as Kool 93.5, with "the superhits" of the 60s and 70s, and new call letters: WUCL. Utica-Rome radio veteran Greg McShea was brought on board to host the mornings and Jack Moran was shifted to middays. Voicetracking for the rest of the dayparts. Delilah was taken off the air (picked up by Lite 98.7) but Paul Harvey stayed.That lasted about a year, year and a half? Maybe 2 years... before the station was flipped again -- this time to "93-5 The River." This latest format change is what's still there now. It's kind of a "classic rock AC" format, I suppose would be the best way to describe it. The slogan "it's all about the music" seems to gear it more towards 30+ men. Air staff includes a morning show voicetracked from out of town, WOUR alum Tom Starr back in the market for middays, Jack Moran still hanging around with the afternoon drive shift, and WOUR's Alison continues double-duty on 93.5 by voicetracking nights.Somewhere late in the "Kool" days or early in the "River" days, the station finally addressed one big weakness -- the Remsen stick's inability to penetrate office buildings in downtown Utica. They added a repeater downtown on 94.1 FM. And you might call it a "flanker" partner in Mix's battle against Lite 98.7 ... as WLZW has been subtly increased its rotation of older songs, including the revival of some titles it hasn't played in several years. On a side note, flipping to The River brought another change in call letters... it's now WOKR, the former calls of WHAM-TV 13 in Rochester. CC recently rebranded its TV stations in Rochester and Syracuse to match the call-letters of its news/talk radio stations in both markets. (When CC flipped WIXT 9 in Syracuse over to WSYR-TV, the WIXT calls replaced WLFH, the SportsStars station in Little Falls.)Kiss FMThe market's only CHR station is still simulcasting on 97.9/Whitesboro and 105.5/Little Falls. There have been a handful of staffing changes, which I'll get to momentarily. In addition to that, over time, the station seems to have been leaning more and more urban... strange, considering the market's ethnic population is negligible in Arbitron's eyes. And it shows in the way Kiss' ratings have been in decline lately... from a 6.8 Spring 2004 down to 5.0 for Spring 2005. (Looks like the Fall '05 numbers were embargoed, they're not on R&R's website.)Staffing ShakeupThis may not be exactly in the right order, but here's where everyone wound up.1) When Bob was axed, so was afternooner Mike Walsh.2) When the Kiss midday chick was fired (Gina Jones?) Stew Schantz moved to middays.3) Roadie & Kenny moved to afternoons.4) Shaun Andrews moved to nights.5) Mike Walsh re-hired, to do afternoons on Mix.The big shakeup:6) Stew was fired shortly after Tom Starr was hired for The River.7) Tom became OM (a move apparently everyone but Stew saw coming).8 ) With the River format flip, Starr got middays, bumping Jack Moran to afternoons.9) Linda & Kook were removed from Kiss morning show.10) Linda moved to Mix middays.11) Kook moved to Kiss middays.12) Shaun Andrews became "The Kiss Morning Zoo"Not long after...13) Kook gives up middays to board op Bob & Tom on WOUR??14) Kenny & Roadie swap with Shaun AndrewsI don't remember who's on middays now for Kiss, and their website doesn't even have a listing of hosts -- just says Shaun's on right now, and has a morning zoo page promoting Kenny & Roadrunner. In my opinion, the saddest part is that this is now a CHR station without a live talent on what's traditionally the hottest shift for teen listening/requests/contests -- nights. Last time I had a chance to listen, they had "Carson Daly's Most Requested" on for an hour, and then it's voicetracked after that. No nighttime requests, no dedications or Good Night Kisses, and (I believe) no more top 8 at 8 or whatever it used to be.Over at WOUR, Alison's still on middays, The Doctor's on afternoons... probably the only air staff in the market that hasn't seen any changes in the past year -- or several years, for that matter.In Syracuse... the Bone and Scorch have both left their respective buildings for other jobs in other markets. (If you didn't know, I say buildings because Scorch made a pit stop at ClearChannel before leaving town.) Mimi's still hanging out at Galaxy, as is Big Mike at Sunny 102. The folks who replaced Big Mike at Y94 -- Pete and Brenda -- were eventually fired and followed Big Mike over to Galaxy... Brenda had a short stint with middays at Sunny, husband Pete was on TK, I believe... and they were gone just as quickly as they came. The current Y morning show has longtime PD Kathy Rowe teaming up with former Channel 9 anchor Rick Gary... Rick's still on TV, but hosting a live 10AM local talk show -- he wanted out of news. When Kathy moved to mornings, she orchestrated a "swap" of sorts -- perhaps not intentionally but nonetheless: she chose former Sunny middayer Marne Mason to fill the empty midday shift on Y... which is what opened the job for the soon-to-be-fired Brenda.Over on TK, half of the Dave & Gomez show took off for a job out west (Denver?), creating some turmoil because listeners had a hard time accepting any substitutes. But the pair was reunited eventually.On 95X, big rumble when Citadel's corporate brass made the decision to yank Howard Stern off the air several months prior to his departure from terrestrial radio. Their ratings haven't been quite the same since then. Before this board was overhauled, there were many mentions of 95X flipping formats -- whether they were real or just people taunting Citadel is anyone's guess.And last but not least, WMCR in Oneida is still stuck in the 1960's... well, OK, they do have a mono FM signal, so we'll give 'em credit for keeping up into the late 70's.

 

[probuttonpusher]

Who did Lite get to do middays? I saw the post a few months ago looking for a midday chick. Im surprised Linda didnt try for it.

 

[BobRoss]

Who did Lite get to do middays? I saw the post a few months ago looking for a midday chick. Im surprised Linda didnt try for it.

Some chick named "Robin Blair." According to AllAccess.com's news page, she's been in radio before and even worked for QVC, but you wouldn't know it listening to her. Terrible on the air. Regent must have snapped her up as "Today's Special Value" on Easy Pay. Considering how Lite is the highest-billing station in the market, it's amazing how they try to lowball people as much as possible. Sure, you need to keep costs down, but this is a perfect example of being so cheap, you're shooting yourself in the foot.Earlier on, when Mix's numbers went DOWN after the addition of Linda and Mike, you'd think "why bother have jocks if the numbers are just going to drop?" But now, if there were ever a time for Mix to overtake Lite, at least on middays, this is it. Lite has part-timers that are better than this woman. Greg McShea was awesome as a fill-in for awhile, but he probably got snubbed for (a) being too good / read: would have to be paid too much and (b) because he's got the wrong letter next to "sex" on his driver's license, and God forbid there's an AC station anywhere in America where the air talent lineup isn't boy/girl/boy/girl (*cough*EOEsayswhat?).I'm also surprised Linda didn't go for it... even though Regent might not offer her as much as she's making at ClearChannel... look at how she's killed the ratings on Kiss, and she hasn't (yet) exactly worked any miracles for Mix either. How much longer can Brian justify that salary to his higher-ups? Linda may have taken a pay cut go to Lite (or maybe not, who knows), but it's still better than not having a job at all. I'll bet sooner or later she goes over anyway... Regent would be stupid not to fire this Robin person if Linda ever came a-knockin at the door.

 

[probuttonpusher]

Im just surprised because Linda has wanted that midday job since Jeanne Ashley was there. Maybe Linda should take a page from the Kook book and leave the market for a few years and then come back. I think her numbers would be better if people "missed" her for a while, I beleive it worked for thier morning show about 8 years ago.

 

[scottpetibone]

This is where I wish cnyradio.com was still around -- even if not updated, at least for the news archives to be there as a reference... Scott, come back!In Syracuse... the Bone and Scorch have both left their respective buildings for other jobs in other markets.

bob, what are you talking about? Because I don't post, means I'm gone? Jeesh dude. Read a trade or something.