Sunday, December 31, 2023

Notes from around town

 Albany Broadcasting's Sunday public affairs programs are in reruns this week, and it seems to be the case that one or both are in reruns every other week.

News, Views, & Interviews, currently under the aegis of Aaron Mair, replayed last week's episode this morning. The other problem with this series, which dates back to sometime in the 50's under original host Art Mitchell, is that while it's programmed for 30 minutes, commercials included, it airs for no more than about 20+ on WROW (Magic 100.5/AM 590), sans commercials, and Mair hasn't gotten clue one about it, as it appears he's recording the show for one of the other stations (i.e. JAMZ 96.3).

Albany Street, which follows, has caught another case of rerunitis, this time with current host Brian Cady, who took over in October 2022. A 2-part interview was stretched out over 4 weeks with no explanation. Cady is also the morning drive host on Sundays (7-10 am), and apparently may only be taping Street every other week. As a veteran of local radio, Cady knows that's not a good look.

What Mair needs is a moderator to help keep him on track, like Joe Condon did before he retired in 2022. Cady will be fine.
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Disaster was averted in city politics in the last 24 hours.

With Carmella Mantello set to be inaugurated and sworn in as Troy's 1st female mayor tomorrow, the Troy GOP stupidly decided to have former Rensselaer County elections commissioner Jason Schofield join the team as an assistant to city clerk Maria DeBonis, and announced on Friday that Schofield was taking the position, despite pleading guilty a few months back to voter fraud, which got national attention.


On Saturday, however, Schofield withdrew after the GOP caught some major backlash from the Democrats. Noting that he's still to be sentenced in the voter fraud case, local Democrats felt the optics were just terrible, and that DeBonis and incoming GOP majority leader Tom Casey took a page from the national Republican playbook. Speaking of bad optics....!
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Herbie's Burgers has become a big thing in the 518 in this past year alone. 

After starting with a location on Lark Street, the local chain has added locations in Troy (the former Black & White Taxi stand on Fulton Street), Schenectady, and now, the Empire State Plaza, just a short distance from their Lark Street location. Fittingly, Herbie's is replacing McDonald's at the Plaza.
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We talked about this at Tri-City SportsBeat on Friday, but it bears mentioning here, too.

The Troy School District laid out some major cash to upgrade the balcony seats at Zotto Memorial Gym, as well as adding a concession stand, which moves up from the cafeteria, but they're not really doing enough to help their basketball program.

1st year women's coach Will Harris, a former star at UAlbany, has just 1 official assistant, Mia Landor, also in her first season. I'm told that former coach and current assistant principal Ryan Meikle, who was moved up to administration last season, is helping Harris as much as possible, but it wouldn't hurt to add a 2nd assistant to help the women get through game nerves.

1st year men's coach Josh Pelletier could use some extra help, too. The two Troy hoops teams have combined for 3 wins in the 1st month of the season. So not Troy basketball. They may need a psychologist for the women if things don't change. Just sayin'.

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