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The Biggest News to Hit Utica Since...

Ahh Utica, the Mohawk Valley Comets. Dem wuz sa days! Sit just about anywhere you want, enjoy the game, enjoy the die hard fans. It's been a long time, but I recall seeing one of the greatest hockey comebacks ever as the Comets were down by about 7 goals, I left at the beginning of the third period only to find my car sandwiched-in in the parking lot. It was about 5 degrees and I was going nowhere, so I went back into the auditorium. Imagine that. You could leave and come back in. Those days are over. Try that at a Bills or Sabres game. Won't happen. I found a seat and witnessed the Comets score 8 goals in the span of about ten minutes and win the game. As it was unfolding, you could feel the energy and sense that a comeback was possible. I was at the Bills-Oilers playoff comeback (January 3, 1993) and felt that momentum shift and comeback energy. Don't know who the Comets' opponent was, might have been the Binghamton Dusters. Good times. To paraphrase Casablanca, (admittedly a stretch) "We'll always have Utica."
 
I guess I gotta step in here and be the cheer leader for Utica. I grew up in New Hartford and guess I, like most people from New Hartford do have a different attitude about the area than most other people. I was there on Memorial Weekend and have to say, it is a beautiful area. Yes, there are some really crappy neighborhoods, but what upstate city doesn't have that? Overall, the city looked clean and the surrounding hills and mountains looked beautiful.

I am a boomer and moved from the area in the 70's after working several years at local radio and TV stations. Like every other market, now days, the radio is pretty much boring and homogenized like every other market. Mostly voice tracked and satellite fed. What I did hear on a local basis is pretty good and professional. As far as TV goes WKTV is pretty good and remains one of the most successful small market TV stations in the country. Too bad Clear Channel raped WUTR. WKTV could use the news competition and I am sure a 10:00 news on FOX would work. Too bad an eccentric millioniare doesn't come to town and buy the stations and invest in local news. Where is Roy Park of the 21st century?

Getting back to radio, for those of you that weren't around, in the old days, some top notch talent came out of Utica- Rome & the Valley radio. In the late 50's and 60's WTLB was the station to work at. When Top 40 first came about there was WTLB in the beginning. The jocks that worked there, went directly to much bigger markets, NYC, Chicago, L. A. not much in between. They were that good. WTLB was owned by R. Peter Straus in the mid and late 60's. It was a clone of WMCA in N. Y. WTLB, the Home of the Good Guys, was an incredible sounding station. A major market top 40 sound and a full service news dept. I had the honor of doing weekends there at the end of the Straus era.

In the 1970's there was a huge battle when WRUN switched to top 40 (CHR). The battle between WRUN and WTLB made for some really great radio. Then you throw in the the up and coming WOUR and WBVM (I shudder to think what Jim Pastrick would have done with a strong 24 hour signal) and you have some of the most competitive and professional sounds of any radio, anywhere.

In the 80's there was the battle between Z-98 and WRCK 107. Man, that was HOT!

I don't know really what's going on in the area now. But back in the day the people who came to Utica to work in the biz seemed to enjoy it. There was Mondays' Cavallo's Spaghetti night, and later five Matts splits at the Leather Bottle. The Ale House, The Barber Shop Saloon, Four Acres, Spika's. There seemed like a place to go to party every night for a young media person. So I guess life is what you make of it. You can try to enjoy what you are doing or sit around and complain and bitch where ever you are.
 
A national sports writer once called Buffalo the armpit of America. Johnny Carson took a few swings and the play "A Chorus Line" offers the line "commiting suicide in Buffalo would be redundant." The play, BTW was written in part by Michael DiFiglia. Yup, he was from Buffalo. Years ago, I worked with his cousin.

Buffalo, Utica, Binghamton and Syracuse have served as the punchlines for many a joke. Being anear lifelong resident of Buffalo who lived in Utica many years ago, I disagree with the armpit assessment. Yes, it's been a while, but on my way to visit family in Albany, I drive through town and stop over from time to time. Every city has its soft, tawdry underbelly, just as it has its charm and dignity.

The two and a half years spent in Utica were enriching, entertaining and taught me some well-learned lessons about life and the business. I met and worked with some genuinely good, decent, hard-working people in Utica-Rome (Paul deLaubelle, Peter Eilenberg {his father Carl and mother Norma were legends}, Gary Briggs, Bob Dimock, just to name a few) and I respect them to this day. Many were solid citizens and good radio folks who lived, ate and breathed the business and the community. I met and worked with others were involved in business, politics, medicine, education; cops, firemen and bankers.

Communities from Albany to Buffalo, much of Upstate New York, have been hard hit over the years, but the communities and the people in them survive by grit, hard work and faith. Yes, many have left and I would not chastise them for their decisions; I've thought about it a few times myself, but Buffalo is my home. To say Utica is the armpit of NY dismisses the hard work and dedication of many people who love the communities in which they live and the work hard they do to make those communities better places to live.

BTW, JM, thanks for the kind words. It was a fun time.
 
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