The nation’s largest owner of radio stations has stripped so much staff from Central New York that it may now have more channels here than full-time DJs.

iHeartMedia, a national entertainment conglomerate, laid off hundreds of staffers nationwide last week, with the heaviest cuts coming in small and medium markets like Syracuse.

The cuts leave popular local radio stations like B104.7, Y94FM and NewsRadio 570 WSYR filled with so much national programming and music on automation that they are barely Syracuse stations anymore.

“This is where they’ve been going for 20 years,” said one competitor, Ed Levine, president and CEO of Galaxy Communications. “They always have very flowery statements, but the reality of the matter is they are no longer a local media company and they really need to stop pretending they are, because it’s embarrassing.”

“You can’t have a dog and tell the world it’s a cat and get upset with people who say that’s a dog, not a cat.”

In Syracuse, disc jockeys who were axed in the recent bloodshed include radio legend Dr. Rick Wright and program director Kenny Dees at Power 620; morning show host Pat McMahon at Y94FM; DJ/program director Cory “Kobe” Fargo at Hot 107.9; “Big Jim Donovan” (aka Jim Dunagan) at NewsRadio 570 WSYR and Y94FM; and Daryl Thomas Ledyard at B104.7 and Y94FM. iHeartMedia Syracuse market manager Rick Yacobush also retired at the end of December, two weeks before the layoffs.

During the cuts, more than 850 iHeartRadio websites removed all DJ schedules and blogs to instead highlight the biggest national personalities and podcasts. Request lines go unanswered and remaining shows are largely syndicated or pre-recorded from other cities.

After the dust settled, just four local on-air voices — total — are broadcasting daily on five Central New York radio stations. The company won’t confirm its staff, but here’s who we were able to identify from sources, social media and station websites:

B104.7 (WBBS-FM) -- One, for now.

The country radio station still lists longtime afternoon host Rich Lauber, but a job opening for the same time slot is posted on Indeed, Glassdoor and LinkedIn. (When longtime morning hosts Tom & Becky retired last month, they were replaced by “The Bobby Bones Show” from Nashville.)

Hot 107.9 (WWHT-FM) -- Zero.

The CHR/Top 40 radio station has no local DJs, instead syndicating personalities such as Elvis Duran and Ryan Seacrest. “Justin the Web Guy” is a local contributor to the website; according to his LinkedIn profile, Justin Miller is an “Executive Producer for iHeartMedia Syracuse," with daily tasks that include blogging and “inserting & editing show parts for daily programming (such as the Elvis Duran Show).”

NewsRadio 570 WSYR (106.9 FM, 570 AM) -- Three-ish.

The news station kept morning drive host Dave Allen in Syracuse, plus morning news anchor Ian Wheatley and producer Dianna Hawryluk, according to sources and social media. (Only Allen hosts a show, however, so some might define him as the station’s sole “DJ.”) The rest of the lineup includes Rochester’s Bob Lonsberry and national talk personalities like Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Michael Savage.

Power 620 (WPHR-AM) -- None on a daily basis.

The urban radio station laid off program director Kenny Dees and “Old School Sundays” host Dr. Rick Wright, plus ended Pastor Daren C. Jaime’s “Power Perspectives” on Saturdays. George Kilpatrick still hosts “Inspiration for the Nation” on Sunday mornings.

Y94FM (WYYY-FM) -- Zero.

The adult contemporary station parted ways with Pat McMahon after six years, but his “Pauly & Pat” co-host Pauly Guglielmo is still on -- but appears to be voice-tracking (pre-recording the show) from iHeartMedia’s Rochester studios. Last Monday, the same 2-minute segment about Martin Luther King Jr. Day aired twice, back-to-back. Update, Tuesday Jan. 28: Y94FM now has “The Mayor” Pete Kennedy and Julie doing mornings from Rochester.

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iHeartMedia has undergone much consolidation since the 1996 Telecommunications Act removed restrictions on how many stations a company could own nationally or in the same market. When the company was known as Clear Channel, it laid off more than 2,000 employees in 2009; and the staff is even smaller after the latest layoffs.

“My big concern here is... the local content for people to come in and talk about local issues,” Dr. Roosevelt “Rick” Wright Jr. told syracuse.com | The Post-Standard. “My phone has been blowing up off the hook with calls from across the country with people wanting to know where my show is.”

Dr. Rick Wright is pictured in the Power 106.9 radio studio at Clear Channel Syracuse in 2010. The urban station is now Power 620 on AM at the company, now known as iHeartMedia. has taught radio at Syracuse University's Newhouse School for 35 years and also hosts a Sunday program on Power 106.9. Michelle Gabel/The Post-Standard

Wright, 77, retired as an associate professor of television, radio and film at Syracuse University’s Newhouse School in 2013. One of his favorite lessons to future broadcasters was playing a clip from the 1984 sci-fi movie “Night of the Comet," where a comet turns people into zombies and survivors run to a local radio station to alert the community -- only to find a pre-recorded show on the air.

“People tried to listen to the radio and there was a computer with a jock saying everything was OK while the whole world was falling to pieces,” Wright said.

Former Newhouse dean David Rubin expressed similar concerns in August 2003 when a large power outage hit Central New York. There was just one news anchor in WSYR studio, so updates were thin and scarce; callers relayed what information they could to then-afternoon host Jim Reith’s show, but afterwards the station switched to a nationally syndicated broadcast with no mentions of Syracuse.

How will iHeartMedia respond to important events nearly two decades later with even fewer DJs? Who will update the public on power outages, severe weather, mass shootings or a terrorist attack?

“During a crisis, radio becomes a critical part of the Homeland Security response; it is instantly transformed into the public’s single most important mass medium,” Rubin wrote in an op-ed column for The Post-Standard at the time. “In such circumstances, radio ceases to be just a business and becomes a part of the national security structure, with clear responsibilities to the public. The power failure gave us a chance to test the readiness of local radio news in a crisis.”

iHeartMedia Syracuse stations still air local traffic, news and weather updates; those are consolidated from the Total Traffic Network and NewsRadio 570 WSYR, respectively. Radio listeners will also still hear advertisements for CNY businesses, but few voices actually talk about life and events in the area.

iHeartMedia did not respond to requests for comment, but did issue a statement:

"We are modernizing our company to take advantage of the significant investments we have made in new technology and aligning our operating structure to match the technology-powered businesses we are now in. This is another step in the company’s successful transformation as a multiple platform 21st century media company, and we believe it is essential to our future – it continues our momentum and adds to our competitiveness, our effectiveness and our efficiency with all our major constituencies.

“During a transition like this it’s reasonable to expect that there will be some shifts in jobs – some by location and some by function – but the number is relatively small given our overall employee base of 12,500. That said, we recognize that the loss of any job is significant; we take that responsibility seriously and have been thoughtful in the process.”

Those changes appear to be shifting focus from traditional AM-FM broadcasts to apps, streaming and podcasts. As a result, live and local programming is being largely eliminated as work gets consolidated into syndicated programming and “Centers of Excellence” that use artificial intelligence (AI) to “provide a better experience for listeners and business partners and a more efficient process for all of its employees.”

This 1987 Post-Standard file photo shows, from left to right, Y94FM (WYYY-FM) producer Jeff Day, Marti Casper, Dick Deline, Big Mike Fiss, and drier Don Keaney (go-patrol) in the studio. The Syracuse radio station, owned by iHeartMedia, today has no local DJs and relies on syndicated, pre-recorded and automated programming from other cities.Syracuse Post-Standard

Media analyst Gordon Borrell told Billboard that he was recently streaming a Philadelphia rock station on an Amazon device while working in Virginia, which is the type of listener habit that iHeart is responding to.

“I’m listening to my favorite station and they didn’t need to put a DJ down here in Williamsburg,” he said. “They’re getting a lot of mileage out of their existing content. Why would they need to produce more?”

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But there’s also a financial basis for the “modernizing” job cuts. iHeartMedia emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy last year after cutting its debt from $16 billion to $6 billion, but more fat needed to be trimmed -- especially as rumors swirl of SiriusXM potentially merging with iHeartRadio under the Liberty Media umbrella.

Such a merger would probably mean more job cuts and even more centralized programming, especially as traditional radio revenue continues to decline.

Levine, whose radio stations include K-Rock, TK99, ESPN Syracuse and Sunny 102, said there’s nothing wrong with iHeartMedia’s business model, which is profitable. It’s just different from his, which focuses on Syracuse and includes local DJs and Galaxy-owned events like Taste of Syracuse, Jamesville Balloonfest, Syracuse Bacon Festival and Lights on the Lake.

He also disagrees with the idea that iHeart’s cuts suggest problems for the radio business at large. Galaxy continues to thrive as a locally-owned company, getting national recognition in the industry as they near their 30th anniversary next month.

“Whether we chose it or not, we’ve kind of become a leader in the anti-iHeart space in the media world,” Levine says. “We are live and local as much as possible... obviously it’s resonating with advertisers and customers."

“The radio business has changed and mutated very much but the most important thing to do is to serve your local community.”

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Despite all the changes and competition, radio itself remains popular, according to Nielsen data. More people listen to AM/FM than any other medium in the U.S. In 2018, 228.5 million people listened to the radio every week compared to 216.5 million watching TV, 203.8 million using the web and apps on smartphones. Streaming audio, like Pandora and Spotify, is still far behind with 68.5 million listeners weekly; satellite radio averages 35.7 million; and podcasts only reach 21.9 million.

But music streaming services and podcasts are growing, and every day more and more Americans are getting content on demand through mobile devices. Does that mean sacrificing local content for apps?

“Radio is the great-great-grandmother of social media,” Wright said.

“With all the technology and ways to connect online, we have an incredible mass communications tool, but we cannot let technology run the process,” Wright continued. “People have gotta be in front of the technology... Radio stations still have to have a [FCC] license to broadcast. And the underlying is to serve in the public interest. What are the problems in the community? Public affairs programming? And look at the problems that a community is facing.”

Editor’s note: The author was previously a Clear Channel employee from 2004 to 2010. The company rebranded as iHeartMedia in 2014.

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