R.I.P. Utica-Rome Personality Frank McBride Dies

Frank McBride (Keeler photo)

Sad news from the Utica-Rome, NY market.  Frank McBride, who most recently worked at WXUR 92.7 The Drive has passed away, according to the cnyradio.com website.

McBride had been ill for quite awhile. He was 51.

Longtime Mohawk Valley resident might remember him as a car salesman who appeared from a high perch in TV ads, or as a radio personality on a number of local stations.

McBride’s first big break on radio was at the former WRCK Rock 107, as a sidekick to Bill Keeler, who broke the news this morning on WIBX 950 AM. 

This morning, Keeler said he remembers McBride for his “infectious laugh, and didn’t take himself too seriously.”

Back in 2002, when Keeler was fired from WRCK, management promoted McBride from sidekick to host of the station’s morning show.  Seven years later, the two men would find themselves on the same station again — Keeler was hosting afternoons at WXUR, when the station added McBride for the evening shift.  About a month later, when Keeler moved to mornings at WXUR, McBride moved to afternoons.

WXUR director Tom Starr:

“But what made Frank special to listeners and friends was the way he engaged us day in and day out. When he signed on ‘from high atop the Jim Brock Building in my home town of Utica, New York’ each weekday, you knew you could count on hearing things unique to that moment in time on each day’s Big Show.”

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