Talk host Jim Reith thinks a parody drinking game that pokes fun of him is hilarious, although a petition asking WSYR-AM to dump him is "just foolish."
The war with Iraq, which Reith has vehemently opposed for months, is all but over. However, Reith and some of his afternoon listeners continue to battle it out.
Some post daily criticisms of him on WSYR's interactive Internet forum; in return, Reith ticks them off by deleting ones that attack him or the station.
"The Jim Reith Drinking Game" has been around since winter, encouraging listeners in tongue-in-cheek style to take a sip every time Reith says "outstanding," cuts off a caller or does something else familiar. Reith laughed as he read the game's rules on the air in February after Central New York writer Phil Elmore posted them at philelmore.com.
But the petition didn't pop up until last week after Reith bad-mouthed Syracuse University men's basketball coach Jim Boeheim the day after the Orangemen won the national basketball championship. Reith told listeners that his own dealings with the coach make him believe Boeheim is a great coach but a "miserable man."
That was the final straw for Jon Alvarez, of Baldwinsville, who had been upset for weeks over Reith's antiwar views.
Alvarez launched a letter-writing campaign and a petition that urges WSYR (570 AM) and its owner, Clear Channel Communications, to replace Reith with "a more suitable host." As of Wednesday, www.petitiononline.com reports 26 signatures on the petition.
