Notes from around town

 Like a lot of other employers, WGY-AM had to furlough or outright release some of their on-air talent in the early stages of the COVID pandemic 2 years ago.

A few months back, sister station WRVE brought back morning host Randy McCarten after a COVID-mandated layoff. On Monday, WGY made the subtle announcement marking the return of weekend host Joe Gallagher, who will now do a hour-long talk show, debuting Saturday at 9 am (ET).

Photo courtesy WGY via Albany Times-Union.

Gallagher began his career as a morning host at WOKO in the late 70's, doing comedy bits like most of his contemporaries. He moved to WGY years later and reinvented himself as a weekend host, doing a standard four hour shift, but with no music to play (WGY had flipped to talk radio some time prior to Gallagher's arrival). In an interview with WGY morning host Doug Gouldie on Monday, Gallagher said that the one hour format works best for him at the present time.

I wonder if WGY has Bob Cudmore's number. Cudmore was cut loose by WROW in 2020......

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Governor Hochul solved the problem of having a Lieutenant Governor running with her as she runs for election this fall.

After signing a law that allowed for former Lt. Governor Brian Benjamin to be removed from the ballot after his arrest last month, Hochul chose NY Rep. Antonio Delgado to replace Benjamin. Delgado was to run for re-election, likely against Western NY businessman Marc Molinaro, but now the Democrats will have to draft someone to replace Delgado in that race. Molinaro, you may recall, made a couple of failed bids for the governor's mansion in recent years vs. Andrew Cuomo.

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After a failed mayoral bid last year, businessman and comedian Greg Aidala has landed a weekend talk show on WROW. On My Time premiered last month, expanding the station's Saturday mid-day talk block, along with another new series, The Cruise Ship, behind a local law firm's long running advice & chat show. After Cruise Ship signs off at 11 am, the station then switches to automated programming for the rest of the day. Seems they believe in saving money by cutting back on hiring DJ's and using automated playlists from 11 am Saturday to 5:30 am Sunday, 6 pm-5:30 am. Monday-Friday, and Noon-7 and 10 pm-5:30 am on Sundays.

Personally, I'm more interested if they can acquire some old time radio (Jack Benny, Dragnet, Lone Ranger, etc.) to fill some of the hours.