My apologies, Schroedinger! I mis-read your OP and went looking between Syracuse and 'Oneida', not 'Utica'.
I've only been up in those parts once in my life, so my confusion might be understandable.
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Up as recently as the 60's (in the Bronx) and the early 80's (near Yaphank, way out on Long Island) there had been two arrays, five towers each, like the 5-on-a-die. Neither set of towers were very high, yet they were lit at night.
No New York City AM station had its towers at the Bronx end of the Whitestone Bridge. And no Long Island AM station had their towers in the middle of the pine barrens just north of Sunrise Highway, either. Scott Fybush's take suggests that the 5 sticks at the foot of the Whitestone Bridge had something to do with LaGuardia Airport; sort of a flight beacon. LaGuardia is in Queens, just across the river. The proximity makes sense. But five towers?
And there would've been no airport anywhere near Yaphank back when I presume their towers were built. The area was just pine brush, sand, old beer cans and ducks.
Great line from a girl with whom I was keeping company .... I was into radio and DXing, and she got a little caught up in it as well. So she and I were driving along Sunrise Highway one day, with me in search of those towers. Up ahead there appeared this green mileage/direction sign. It read something like 'Riverhead 18, Yaphank 2', with arrows directing you which way to go.
She had me roaring with one impish word. At the sign, she points to the left and says 'Towers'.