NorthEast Radio Watch 9/7/2026: Remembering WEBO’s Lewis, PA’s Romigh

In this week’s issue… WEBO mourns morning man – PA’s Romigh dies – WESA adds FM signal – LI’s Wolf shuffles schedule – New homes for hockey broadcasts

By SCOTT FYBUSH

*If you’re not in NEW YORK‘s southern tier, you might not ever have heard of Matt Lewis.

But for decades in Binghamton and nearby Owego, Lewis was one of those guys who was, quietly, the heart and soul of the community, promoting local causes and events and providing the kind of friendly morning voice too often missing from local radio.

So it was a huge blow to his listeners at Owego’s WEBO (1330) and Waverly’s WAVR (102.1) a few months ago when Lewis revealed that the leukemia that he’d beaten into remission had returned, this time with no further treatment possible. Given two to three weeks to live, Lewis hung on with the WEBO morning show for six more weeks, all while enjoying time and adventures with his wife, Cobi, and their children and grandchildren.

On Sunday afternoon, at just 57 years old, Lewis died at home, surrounded by his family and mourned by his community.

“He became the sunshine in our studios, the energy in our transmitters, the talent of our towers and the excitement of our airwaves,” said Dave Radigan. “In addition to broadcasting, he had a love of auto racing which combined his passion for announcing. He was a strong but gentle leader in Scouts, a devout man of faith, incredible friend, father and husband.”

Before his ten years at WEBO and WAVR, Lewis had already built a three-decade career that started in Binghamton in 1987, when he worked under his own name at two competitors at once, playing country on WHWK (98.1 the Hawk) and standards on WINR (680).

“Every market should have one of him,” Radigan tells NERW. “He was such a positive and energetic influence on our team, and to me personally.”

On Monday morning, Dave and Irene Radigan hosted an on-air tribute to Lewis. With the recent departure of Pat McDonald from the WAVR morning show (though he’s staying on to do sports), Radigan himself has been doing double duty hosting while looking for replacements.