Former head of Newhouse school criticizes move
SYRACUSE -- The Jim Reith Show on WSYR has been replaced. Sean Hannity is now listed on the WSYR lineup for 3 p.m. to 5 p.m block.
Reith posted a thank you to his long time listeners on his Facebook wall this afternoon saying: "Thank you for all of your comments. I am touched by your well wishes. Thank you to everyone who took the time to listen to the show and participate. In my almost 30 yrs at WSYR I've been fortunate to work with some amazing people. From Don Dauer, Rick Gary, Bill Baker and Joe Galuski to bosses like Tom Langmyer, Bob Neil, Jason Furst and Joel Delmonico. They say that when one door closes, another opens. I very much look forward to the next challenge. Thank you all very much. See you all down the road, God willing."
"The real issue is where is the local voice," said David Rubin, former Dean of the Syracuse University Newhouse School of Public Communications.
Rubin said, "You get rid of Jim Reith, the local voice gets fainter, fainter and fainter. Pretty soon the station is no longer the Syracuse station. It can be anywhere USA and as far as I can tell that is a ticket to bankrupcty."
Brendan McElligott, one of Jim's Facebook fans, posted, "We did not see eye to eye on many issues, but I felt you stuck to your guns. You have my respect and will be missed. Best of luck to you!"
Another post on Facebook, from Jim Freid, said, "Bad move WSYR. You're officially down one more listener here."
Todd Engle posted this message on Jim Reith's wall: “The Syracuse Newspaper is reporting that Jim Reith's show is cancelled effective today. While I may not have agreed with Jim on everything, I truly valued the ability to have a locally orientated afternoon program to listen to the newsmakers explain in greater detail the decisions affecting our community. This is a sad sign for local media and a sad day for our community.”
From 9 a.m. through 5 p.m., all WSYR programming is now listed as syndicated.
Station management has not returned our phone calls at this time.
