Cayuga Radio Group President and General Manager Chet Osadchey tells Radio Ink the reason for the format flip was because of the loss of so much progressive, syndicated programming over the past few years, including Randi Rhodes, Ed Shultz, Ring of Fire, Bill Press and Jon Grayson, and the reduction in hours for Leslie Marshall. He says the station was unable to fill a solid lineup and they were already repeating shows daily.
The Pure Oldies format debuts Wednesday and will focus on the years of 1955-1968, from artists such as Elvis, The Beatles, Aretha Franklin, Frank Sinatra, Jackie Wilson, and The Supremes. The station will broadcast at 1470 AM (which is the same dial position that legendary Ithaca station broadcast Oldies on WTKO had in the 1970s). In addition, the station will air on a metro signal in stereo at 94.1FM and on HD Radio at WQNY 103.7 HD-2.
Thom Hartmann moves to community radio WRFI.
It’s sad to see the only progressive radio station in upstate NY bite the dust. Now there is little in our area to counter all the right wing voices which dominate talk radio here. Thanks. Why not broadcast the liberal voices you have and use the oldies as filler. Now that you are doing oldies, if I plan to listen to that type of music I can choose between 15 other oldie stations in our area. The Ithaca area deserved better.