In this week’s issue… Mayor’s term ends at iHeart – “Team” reforms in RI – New U in Boston? – Studios, people move in Montreal
By SCOTT FYBUSH
Jump to: ME – NH – VT – MA – RI – CT – NY – NJ – PA – Canada
*There’s a lot that iHeart doesn’t really want us to know about its latest ongoing round of job cuts. How many veteran employees are losing their jobs? The company isn’t saying – and in fact, it doesn’t even want to be described as cutting jobs at all.
But when one of the longest-running voices in a market disappears from the airwaves, it’s hard to keep it a secret. That’s what happened here in Rochester to “Mayor” Pete Kennedy, who’d been a fixture on the dial since the early 1990s and is now out of work.
Kennedy (who derived his nickname from his father’s real-life job as mayor of Cananandaigua) spent most of his career at what’s now Audacy, working first at WPXY and then WBZA (98.9 the Buzz) before falling victim to job cuts there. In 2012, he joined iHeart as morning man at WDVI (then “100.5 the Drive”) and has since filled a number of roles, hosting a three-market afternoon show on WYYY (Y94) in Syracuse, WMXW (Mix 103.3) in Binghamton and WVOR (Sunny 102.3) in Canandaigua. For the last few months, since WDVI’s flip to country, Kennedy had moved to talk, co-hosting “Newman and the Mayor” on WAIO (Radio 95.1) with WDVI afternoon jock Jeremy Newman.
With Kennedy’s ouster, WAIO adds more syndication, putting Cleveland-based Rover in the 9-11 AM slot (as well as its existing delayed evening run), while Dallas-based Rick O’Bryan is now tracking the AC stations in the afternoon.
SPRING IS HERE…
And if you don’t have your Tower Site Calendar, now’s the time!
If you’ve been waiting for the price to come down, it’s now 30 percent off!
This year’s cover is a beauty — the 100,000-watt transmitter of the Voice Of America in Marathon, right in the heart of the Florida Keys. Both the towers and the landscape are gorgeous.
And did you see? Tower Site of the Week is back, featuring this VOA site as it faces an uncertain future.
Other months feature some of our favorite images from years past, including some Canadian stations and several stations celebrating their centennials (buy the calendar to find out which ones!).
We still have a few of our own calendars left – as well as a handful of Radio Historian Calendars – and we are still shipping regularly.
The proceeds from the calendar help sustain the reporting that we do on the broadcast industry here at Fybush Media, so your purchases matter a lot to us here – and if that matters to you, now’s the time to show that support with an order of the Tower Site Calendar. (And we have the Broadcast Historian’s Calendar for 2025, too. Why not order both?)
Visit the Fybush Media Store and place your order now for the new calendar, get a great discount on previous calendars, and check out our selection of books and videos, too!