This is not correct. It should be 87.7 FM.

As for CMZM, I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s been a change there ranging from format/ownership to even ceasing to air, there’s been a trend of Canadian AM stations moving to the FM dial and some have just plain turned off the AM signals. You can check up on it at Scott Fybush’s Northeast Radio Watch site.

I don’t see where it’s profitable for any but the largest stations to have any local content, because it takes a lot of ad dollars to bring in the revenue to support it. When WLTI went to talk they spent some money installing a bunch of new equipment to support Gary Nolan’s local afternoon show, so you have an investment there, plus you have to pay two or three people enough for it to be worth their while to want to take the jobs. And even then, when Glenn Beck became available after WROW flipped, WGY dumped it’s local Al Roney show in the mornings and put Beck on. (if Roney is still on at some other time, I haven’t checked). It’s cheaper for them to run a syndicated show than pay a live body to come in and cover the airtime. Some of these small stations can’t even pay the engineer a few extra bucks to read a local news or weather report into a tape to play for three or four hours on the hour.

But then what it boils down to is a radio station is a business and the purpose of a business is to make a profit for it’s owner. If the ratings don’t change much going from a local guy to a syndicated show, the managers are going to go with the option with the lowest operating cost every time.

Give anyone credit for trying, but it’s almost better for them to turn off the transmitter.

If nothing else, though, there will be an alternative for when WSYR insists on running baseball and pre-empting it’s talkers this summer – which judging by the commercials seeking advertising during Yankees coverage, is going to go on for yet another year. Three sports stations in town and Yankees baseball is on a talk station??? Well, it is Syracuse.