A Brief History
CNYRadio.com was founded in 2001 by Scott Jameson, a computer programmer and Syracuse radio personality. The original site — built with the ColdFusion platform — featured news, station listings, schedules, a “Picture of the Week” and even a weekly comic strip drawn by Scott himself. At first, CNYRadio.com only covered happenings in the Syracuse radio market, but later grew to include the surrounding markets: Utica-Rome, Watertown and Ithaca/Cortland. In 2005, Scott decided to put the site “on hiatus.”
At least one reader of the original site wanted to see it come back. In late 2007, Peter Naughton, a local broadcaster with some web design experience of his own, contacted Scott about reviving the site. Scott graciously “transfered the license,” so to speak, and Peter got to work on building the new site — this time using WordPress (which costs about $1299 less than ColdFusion).
The current CNYRadio.com signed on in February 2008. The “new” site has focused mostly on news within the local broadcasting industry. While Peter lacks the ability to draw weekly comic strips, we still have a “Picture of the Week” on Fridays. Readers can also sign up for a free subscriber login, which grants access to post comments below any news article.
Since the new site came on board, we’ve added new ways for you to keep up-to-date with the latest CNYRadio.com headlines. In 2009, we launched our Twitter feed (@cnyradio) and in 2010, we launched a Facebook page. Whenever new stories are posted to this site, headlines and links are automatically posted to both Twitter and Facebook.
On occasion, we’ll post tidbits about developing stories on Twitter and/or Facebook before the “full story” is published on the site — or sometimes we’ll have “bonus coverage” of things that don’t make it onto the site at all — so be sure to “like” or “follow” us to make sure you don’t miss anything!
In late 2010, CNYRadio.com acquired the CNYTVNews.com domain name. When original CNYTVNews.com owner Mike Szweil said he didn’t have time for his site anymore, he originally planned to just let the domain name registration expire. We shuddered to think of what might happen to the domain if it expired, so with Mike’s permission, we decided to take over the CNYTVNews.com domain and add coverage of local TV happenings. Seeing as how this website is basically a “one man band,” adding TV meant giving up something else — coverage of the Watertown radio market (we never heard from anyone up there very often anyway).
Submitting News Stories
We’re always looking for the latest news from radio and TV stations throughout Central New York — specifically, radio stations that fall within the Syracuse, Utica/Rome and Ithaca/Cortland markets, and TV stations in the Syracuse and Utica/Rome markets.
Please see our “Site Policies” page for further details.
About Your Editor
Peter Naughton has been involved with the local broadcasting industry in some way, shape or form since 1999, when he was hired as a part-time DJ for Lite 98.7 (WLZW) and Big Frog 104 (WFRG) in the Utica/Rome market. After a brief stint in TV at WUTR-TV and graduating from the broadcasting program at SUNY Oswego, Naughton accepted a position to work full-time at WLZW as the station’s afternoon drive host, eventually picking up webmaster duties, and later, PD stripes.
In 2005, Naughton moved back to TV: as producer of The Morning News at NewsChannel 9 (WSYR-TV) in Syracuse. The overnight work schedule made it possible to pick up some Saturday morning anchoring shifts at Newsradio 570 WSYR, but Naughton would give up radio again when NewsChannel 9 promoted him to producer of Eleven @ 11:00.
Early in 2009, Naughton moved to a new job — still in Central New York, but outside of broadcasting. That fall, he rejoined WLZW on a part-time basis. He also owns a DJ and voiceover service.