Good News York by Growth Mode Content - GNY EP.146 | Feat. Frank Donaldson & Steve Becker!

Episode Date: January 27, 2026

Good News York: Tax Tips with Frank Donaldson & Syracuse Winter Fair Preview In this special Tuesday edition of Good News York, host Mike Brindisi welcomes Frank Donaldson from Key Advising to discuss tax and accounting tips for individuals and small businesses. Frank shares insights on common misconceptions about accountants, the importance of choosing the right accountant, and financial advice for Central New Yorkers. Later in the episode, Matt from Click Stream Studios joins Mike to introduce Steve Becker, the organizer of the Syracuse Winter Fair. Steve provides an in-depth preview of the upcoming event, including entertainment, vendors, and exciting community activities. Tune in to discover how Syracuse is bringing summer fun indoors this winter. 00:00 Introduction and Sponsor Shoutout 00:41 Meet the Guest: Frank Donaldson 01:13 Frank's Journey into Accounting 03:02 Misconceptions About Accountants 06:20 Key Advising: Services and Unique Approach 08:42 Common Financial Mistakes and Advice 10:59 Navigating Tax Season and Client Relationships 15:04 Community Focus and Financial Tips 23:16 Conclusion and Final Thoughts 30:19 Greek Cuisine and Ukrainian Delights 30:35 Fireworks and Ice Sculptures 31:01 Reindeer and Community Support 31:46 Entertainment Lineup 32:29 Honoring Van Robinson 33:17 Special Guests and Performances 34:49 Rides and Ticket Information 35:41 Supporting the Boys and Girls Club 39:44 Vendors and Nonprofits 51:20 Hydroponics and Agriculture 52:14 Winter Fair Highlights and Conclusion

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If you've been thinking about starting a podcast, this is your sign. Start your new podcast for free today at RSS.com. Hello and welcome to a Tuesday edition of Good News York. I'm your host, Mike Brindisi. Follow me on all socials at Mike B TV. We did not have a show yesterday because we were under 10 feet of snow. I thought about building an igloo, actually, and Matt and I doing it from there, but that fell through, literally. Listen, it is Tuesday.

We are sponsored by ads on the go. Get ads on the go.com, and you can follow Good News York. Anywhere podcasts can be followed at Good News York on All right. Good News York on all socials, goodnewsYork.com. Today I am joined by a special guest. It is, I would say this season is your Super Bowl, senior tax and accounting specialist from key advising, excuse me, Frank Donaldson.

Frank Donaldson, welcome to the show, my name. Thank you, thank you very much. You are very welcome. No, yeah, I do, yeah. I do that for each guest because we don't have a studio audience, but I feel like you should get a warm welcome. You know, you're here. So much to talk about.

Frank, you bring over 15 years of tax and accounting experience to key advising. And you're very passionate about building long-term relationships, helping clients feel confident and informed. But before we get into the numbers, how does one just kind of start off and go, you know what, accounting? That's my thing, because I'll tell you what. While some people might think, I can never do accounting, it's too many numbers, it's just, is it, it takes a special person to be able to do it.

Not just for the mathematics, but for having to deal with everything that comes along with it. So when did you know, like, you know what, this is what I want to do? Well, I'm a weirdo in that I was always good at taxes, not taxes, but just numbers in general. So, you know, I remember when you'd go around the kids in school and be like, what are you going to be? And they'd be a firefighter, police officer. I literally said accountant. Now I had a family member who was an accountant, so I like I kind of knew them,

and it seemed like they were cool and everything. So that might have been what led to it. But yeah, no, I've always kind of wanted to be an accountant. I don't think it was really until college when I was like, oh, this is actually kind of hard. Yeah, most certainly is. It takes maybe a special type of personality. It most certainly.

is. And you know what? I love that so much because, you know, I always grew up. And as a young kid, I knew I was like, I want to be creative and be on camera and be on stage. And it's something I knew, you know, at an early age. But like the thought of doing something like what you do is completely the opposite of what I do. And I'm just thankful there are people out there that do want to be accountants because what would we do if you all just disappear, right? What do you think one of the biggest misconceptions people have about accountants? I mean, I think there was always a misconception even when I was in college like they would have, especially when it came to the tax end of things, you know, because you either kind of went

into an audit category or a tax category and the audits would meet with clients and go to lunch and the tax people would just sit at their desk and do work 24-7. I mean, I still kind of end up doing that still. But I would say there's more, it's more than just sitting in a cubicle and doing work, like especially with taxes. It's a lot of interfacing. It's a lot of, I mean, almost teaching in a way and babysitting clients to make sure that they're doing things that make sense for taxes or at least they know, oh, if you do this,

it's going to, Uncle Sam's going to be calling. Right, right, right. You know, so, yeah, I mean, it's been a lot more of this and interacting with people than I think that maybe some people picture accountants sitting at a cubicle just running reports do. That's awesome. What was the moment in your career when you were like, you know what? I'm actually good at this. Was this something right away or did it take some time?

It was pretty much year one. Again, I wasn't sure what category I'd fall in in accounting, whether it would be like, you know, bookkeeping and kind of keeping track of books or on the audit side or just doing taxes. But as soon as I was introduced to taxes, it kind of just clicked a thing in my brain of just realizing how much money people can save or how much money people can owe if they do things incorrectly or if they just have so much money, there's not, you know, there's no way around it. You know, I have thought about this question. Every tax season I think about this when I meet with an account. I've had different accountants over the years. And this might be a dumb question,

but I think I speak for most of the public that really don't know the complete ins and outs of this business. Is there really, you know, let's say I go to Frank, Donaldson for my to do my taxes and I don't know you stop practicing so I go to a new person Is there a huge difference between each accountant like is it pretty? I guess Consistent across the board on what our return or what we would owe would be or Does each tax accountant have their own way of Finding more details and you should be a little bit choosy with who your accountant is? I think you should definitely be choosy because you know especially in the accounting business that there are some people who

are rigid in the way that they think. So like if you have a small business and you don't want to use like a home office expense, you know, some will be more forward to doing it. Some will be, you know, a little bit conservative when that goes. Also, again, with just meeting someone who actually is interested in your business or your tax situation because everyone's different and what helps you might not help another person. So you really have to dive in as an accountant to kind of be like all right so what's your what's going on here in your situation what will actually benefit you and some might not be as is forthcoming with that and kind of just stick to their you know corner of sort of rigid so

you so you could there is a possibility you could be leaving some money on the table if you're not with the right accountant correct yeah wow that's my biggest fear great well it sounds like advising is a big part of this which makes sense the name of of the company is key Well, the proper name is key advising. Correct. Okay, it's just key advising. All right.

It was key financial and advising. Key advising. And I wanted to ask, tell us a little bit about how the company started and like, how did you get, how did you become a part of that team? Yeah, well, I'm new to it. I didn't start till literally this past summer in August. But Jeff, who Jeffrey Keeler, where the name Key kind of came from, you know, kind of had a cushy corporate job and decided that he wanted to work out on his own. And he had more of a passion for small businesses. And like his sort of niche is into bookkeeping and fractional CFO services.

So basically a business starts up. Their accounting is overwhelming. He'll come in there and be like, all right, so, you know, how do we get our books accurate? How do we get them accurate? and in a way to where the owner who might not be an accountant can spend more time on the owning stuff and not on the bookkeeping if you know you get certain softwares that integrate with certain things eliminating redundancies and then from there once you have accurate books and everything sort of streamlined how can we be more profitable so that was sort of what he brought and he didn't

have a tax background so he had always we had shared some clients so he had always wanted to add something because there's not too many firms that do the bookkeeping help you with being more profitable and can offer you tax advice and tax preparation as well. So we got together and worked it out and yeah. Would you would you say that is kind of in that world? Is that what makes key advising kind of stand out from the rest is that you offer all of those services? Correct. I'm sure that there might be some small ones out there that that'll do everything but there's yeah especially in Syracuse. Yeah there's not many that you can you know you usually have to have your bookkeeper and then you'd have your own tax account and then you'd try to get everybody

on the same schedule and it's a little bit harder than you know you just have one and you can send one email out to everybody and it gets to me or you know one meeting that we can sort of work out and and really kind of hammer that all down because taxes can get kind of steep if you're not prepared for it right right um with uh with the advising and and and everything that uh kind of comes along with it. What's the most common financial mistake that you see smart, smart people make over and over again? I mean, sometimes it's timing of things and a lot of it will be like with property, especially now because there are certain rules with the Trump tax plan and now is, you know, Trump tax plan 2.0 that is beneficial for property owners. And some people will sell a business or sell

a property, buy a new property, and either not do it properly, you know, as far as with the exchange, or just not really speak with a tax advisor to realize, oh, you know, I'm still stuck with paying 30 grand in taxes on this rental property I sold kind of a thing. So, I mean, it's really the timing with that goes, because I think everybody sort of thinks, oh, I sell this property, I'm just going to buy a new property. And it's, you know, you don't have to pay tax on it. It's not really Oh, I learned that lesson. Correct. My wife and I had a house. We used to buy a new property. We it as a rental property when we bought a new house. We sold it and we got hit with the capital gains. And yeah, it's not fun. But I'm glad you said that. It was almost like you knew I was

going to ask this question. You know, a lot of what you do does work alongside of the federal and state government. I mean, that's the whole deal, right? That's the taxes. How do you and other accountants and your company, how do you stay up to date? Things are changing, especially with this administration, things are changing daily. Can you kind of take us through that and how you navigate that? Well, yes. First off, for anyone who's licensed like me, you have to do, I have to do 72 hours of continuing at every three years, 16 minimum. Obviously, I did a little bit more this year just because there was a lot of new stuff to kind of get in there. But I mean, yeah, it's sort of the job. You got when you have to do the continuing education as licensed by the,

you know, the government, but then also, you know, really trying to keep up on it. because there are a lot of changes. Most of them aren't as beneficial as I think people think they are. Sure. But, yeah, it's just part of the job. It's partially mandated and then part of it is kind of your own. Correct, yeah. Yeah.

Does your company, key advising, do you strictly work with commercial businesses or do you work with individual clients as well? I mean, what we go after, or I'd say what Jeff has more of a passion for, me have more of a passion doing are clients that are small businesses. So that's primarily who our clients are, you know, might just be a single member LLC that just runs a consulting business. That's just them. It could be an HVAC company that has 10, 15 employees.

Like we don't really like going after the corporate culture just because it's not as fun and rewarding, I guess, as working with small businesses. But that's primarily, I mean, there are some personal tax clients that we do and that we'll ad, but as far as for what I would say our niche is more of that small business. And I love that because, you know, it goes back to what you said at the beginning about you're also advising and you're getting personal with these people and getting into the minutia of their everyday lives and business. So I think that's key.

I love that you're, you know, you're dealing with local small businesses, you know, and helping the community. What are some people, what's something that people think they need to worry about financial? but they actually, they don't. That's a good question. I mean, I would say the biggest misconception that I usually get in taxes are people's investment accounts. You know, how much money is in my IRA, how much is my IRA earn, how is my 401k earn?

All those, I mean, are good to know financially. But for taxes, you only have to pay tax when you either sell that stock in a brokerage account or if it's an IRA or 401K until you start taking the money out of it. At that point, you end up having to pay tax on it. But I think there's one, because that's usually where people bring in these and like, oh, the market did really good this year. And it's sitting in their 401K and it's like, I mean, it might be a problem in the future, but for right now, not so much.

Yeah. What do you think separates businesses that survive from the ones that kind of quietly disappear? Because I'm sure you unfortunately see that from time to time. Yep. I mean, a lot of it is accounting related. Either you're not prepared for the sales act that comes out monthly or the income tax bill that comes out at the end of the year. Yeah, because you do have to sort of factor in. Oh, I have this business, but now all of a sudden I have to factor in my taxes.

And then plus, I have this business and I'm doing it myself. I'm running the accounting myself. It's taking 10, 15 hours a week. Is that really the best thing for you? Or is it better to do what you're good at? Right. You know, whatever that is. you know, and leave the accounting, I guess, to more people who are a little bit more

specialized in it. When you're working with these companies, I mean, is it just you, Frank Donaldson, of key advising working alone, or is there a team that kind of helps you? Because I'm sure there's so many details that go into each client. Yep. I mean, at least with key advice. This podcast is sponsored by IQ bar. I've got good news and bad news.

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ingredients, amazing taste, and you'll love how you feel. Refuel smarter, hydrate harder, caffeinate larger with IQBar. Go to eat IQBar.com and enter code Bar 20 to get 20% off all IQBar products plus free shipping. Again, go to eat IQbar.com and enter code bar 20. You're listening to a podcast right now. Driving, working out, walking the dog. If you're into podcasts, chances are you have something to say too. With RSS.com, starting your own is free and easy. Upload an episode and we distribute it to Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and hundreds more. Track your listeners, see where they're from, and start earning from ads like this, even with just 10 listeners a month.

If you've been thinking about starting a podcast, this is your sign. Start free at RSS.com. We have Jeff. We have an assistant controller as well who will go out and help more on the bookkeeping end. end. The taxes is kind of falling on me at this point just because it knew when I just got started hired in August. So kind of a new service that we're adding and maybe looking to hope to grow that in the future. But yeah, so you have that. But then also, you know, if you have a small business that has 10, 15 employees, you probably already have a bookkeeping accounting clerk

that you need there 24-7. You need them all the time. So, you know, you have that and then us that kind of comes in more on the advising end of making sure that the processes that you're doing aren't taking four hours longer than it should. You know, well, you could have just done it in this software and it would have integrated right in. You didn't have to spend one minute, you know, entering everything individually, like how you did then. So, yeah, the accounting is, you know, generally you'll have that person who's always there to do your bills and your accounts receivable and all that stuff. And then us to kind of advise and make sure that it's going well.

and then obviously the planning and making sure that you're running as profitable as you can. You know, you mentioned how you don't really work with corporations and kind of your bread and butter is small businesses in this area. You grew up in Cicero, New York. Is there something unique about advising clients in central New York compared to what it would be like in bigger cities? I mean, I would guess since we have a pretty good mix of people on the, I guess on the spectrum of how they feel. about taxes. I'd say the unique thing about Central New York is, I mean, many people who are here grew up here and decided to live through these winters.

And at least in my time spending with the most small business clients around here in Syracuse, New York that's stuck in Syracuse, I find that they're more, I guess, I don't want to say noble, but, you know, they treat their employees well. I mean, it's actually a pretty good community. There's a lot that the small business community gives to certain charities. Yeah, I mean, I just feel like the class of people in Syracuse, New York, and small businesses are maybe a little bit more family oriented than a big city where it's profit first and don't care about anybody else. What do you think one financial move you wish more people in Syracuse would make sooner? I mean, it's always creating the retirement accounts as early as possible.

I mean, I fell for it. I mean, I didn't really start until I got into my 30s. And now thinking, like, if I just started that 401K earlier, that extra 10 years of growth and money put into it could make my retirement account a couple hundred thousand more at least at time of retirement. So, I mean, it's something that I usually, because when you're young, one, unfortunately, when you're young, you have a lot more expenses than maybe, you know, 15, 20 years ago. Yeah.

With house buying and everything else. So it's a little bit tough for them to start out. But yeah, if you can start a retirement account as early as possible, I mean, you'll, you'd see it better in the future. Again, it's, that's what I tell my kids. Yeah. Oh, they're like, Dad, shut up. I don't want to hear about that. I'm like, I'm telling you.

What do you think is one of the most stressful money conversations people avoid, but they shouldn't? I mean, I think it is retirement, just to go on the same thing. And again, I'm not really a financial advisor. I'm more on the tax end of things. So, you know, maybe someone that's a little bit more in finance would have a better answer for it. But I think there's always a tough discussion of, here's my retirement account. If I throw it in this calculator, this is how much it's going to be at age 65 or whatever age you want to retire. Social Security, if it's still there when it gets to that point, who knows.

Yeah, I mean, I think there really is. There's like this immediate need and there's an immediate need to go buy that new car. but you know you really see it when you get older of once it gets to retirement age and you see these people just living off of social security or small retirement account it's worth it to kind of go through it and try to save as much as possible in my opinion absolutely what's a popular i guess money rule that you completely disagree with is there one um or maybe that's like overrated you know it's a good question um I mean, there's usually the big thing now, now that it feels like there's, again, for retirement stuff, there's pre-tax and post-tax retirement accounts of what's better.

I mean, because most people will just say do the max into a regular 401K to as much income as possible. Right. And there is some advantage of maybe doing something more post-tax. You pay tax on it now, but then when you take it out, it's tax-free kind of a thing. That'd be the only kind of just trying to find that. mix. And again, it's personal to where your income situation is. If you're in a high tax bracket, maybe you want to load up on as much pre-tax stuff now. But if you're not in that high of a tax bracket, maybe you should start planning and doing some more stuff into different accounts.

A few more questions because, again, I know this is like your Super Bowl, right? This is your season, man. You've got to get back to work. I'm not going to mention exact names, but there are chains that do your taxes for you. And I know, again, you work with small businesses. This is more of a selfish question. Do you find that going to a chain like that is okay and it has its benefits? Or would you recommend going with a private person or firm? I'd say, you know, nothing against some of those firms. Again, they're for-profit corporations.

So, you know, the people they have working on them aren't licensed generally in any way. At least most of them aren't. They're just people who kind of went through their program. and then they go through their software and do everything. Oh. You know, if your taxes are simple, it's just a W-2 and maybe, you know, that would kind of make more sense or trying to find an online software that you can do it yourself. Yeah.

But yeah, I mean, personally, I find that, you know, some of those firms kind of overcharge a little bit. That's what I thought. They felt cookie cutter to me, to be honest with you. That's kind of the vibe I got. They plug in your W-2, they ask you a couple questions, and then here's a $400 tax bill. Yeah. That sounds about right.

Yeah. Couple more questions. What do you think is like a respectable time period between when you file your taxes with an accountant, whether it's a small business or whether it's individual? You know, I've had years where it comes back in about a month or maybe even three weeks and then I've had years where it took like four or five months. Do you think there's kind of a window that accountant should hit? I mean, when it comes to refunds,

it's sort of out of our control as soon as we hit that send button and the federal and state government get a hold of it. Sure. Now the IRS will say two to three weeks, 90% will get refunded. Usually when it's after three weeks, there's some sort of issue, whether it got hung up in processing somewhere or just manually it checks a box and now they have to have an employee actually review it, which during certain times, especially around COVID,

would take six, seven months, you know, for it to get your refund. You know, and the state doesn't really have anything published for how long they take, but usually they're more in the three to four week type of a range of how that refund goes. But as soon as we hit the sun button, it's all on them. The whole thing is just making sure that you accurately and timely filed it so that generally there's a better chance that it's going to go through as quickly as possible. Here's the real question. How the hell do you ever reach an actual person at the IRS? Are you able to do that as an accountant? So as a practitioner, there is a line that I can call. You've got the magic note.

number, Frank. That can get a hold of somebody generally easier, but yeah, no, it's, those lines are a little, they're a little bit better now. I will say this, but it was a good time period for three, four years where you'd call, you'd be on hold for two hours, and then they would just either hang up on you, or they'd say, we're not going to get to it today and hang up on you. What do you, tax season ends in April, is. I remember I managed a music venue bar, and every.

Every year in April, these accountants locally would come and have like a party, you know, they would bring, we would cater it, the whole thing. And I mean, it really was them blowing off steam. Do you feel like you need it? Like, do you get a couple days off after the deadline? How does that work? Do you blow off some steam? You crash? Pretty much.

I mean, I'll be honest, it's a little bit better. A lot of the firms now are really pushing the work-life balance. Nice. So it's not as bad as when I'm. I first started when it was like you'd work 80, 90, 100 hours a week. And, and yeah, and it would be tough at that point to stay awake and yet alone, keep some sanity, especially with taxes, especially when you got that last rush of taxes in April where you just wanted to, you know, strangle everybody who was taking a long time.

Of course. Now, before we go, let's talk about, you know, anything you want to plug about the company, Frank Donaldson company is key advising. Anything you want to mention, any events coming up, any calls to action for customers, anything you want people to know. Final thoughts? Yeah, I mean, a little bit. So, I mean, basically, again, I mean, we're a firm that's with you throughout the entire year. We're not looking to just be a tax season client. We want to be someone that you can talk to if you have an idea of, oh, should I do this, should I do that? And again, we also have the business that's more to business clients of doing bookkeeping and, you know, analyzing your books and making sure there's a profitability part to that.

It's a little bit late for any kind of 2025 tax season savings, I guess, at this point, there's not really much you can do. But yeah, if you're looking for a business that can help you with your accounting and then also kind of add this tax side because, I mean, the timing of things, if you buy something in December versus January, where it could cost you $20,000 if you didn't think of the full picture of all that. So, yeah, if you're looking for any kind of help to reach out, look up there was a keyadvising.com. Yeah, please give the plugs. Go ahead. Social media. And yeah, look into us.

We'll do a good job. That sparked one last question. And that is, I think, I mean, it's a broad question. but is there any tip you can give for a regular old Joe like me that maybe, you know, don't, when you're doing your taxes, make sure people always overlook this. Make sure you look into this. Anything like that. Any tips for us?

I mean, the big thing this year is just that we have a few new things that you can do. So whether it's seeing a tax advisor, especially this year, to make sure that you're filing it accurately. Because some of those things, again, depending on your tax bracket, it could help quite a bit. Now, I think when they pass the whole no tax on tips over time, no tax on Social Security, which didn't end up going through, I think some people are thinking that they might be saving more money in taxes than will actually happen, just because there's little nuances with that and, you know, depends on your income and, you know, the overtime, for example, you only get the deduction for that half pay. So if you made 20,000 in overtime wages,

you're going to pay tax on the time that was your 100% full pay. The deductions only for that half pay. So that's like one little thing that I've already kind of seen. Some people have been like, why is it only save $500? I know I did way more in overtime wages on that. That's all that kind of ends up getting deducted. So there's a lot of little nuances that really, you know, look up as much as you can or see a tax advisor.

Make sure you're filing it accurately. Perfect. And then the real question, why am I 43 and still have trouble? filling out a W4. Because when I got hired here or any time I, I stare at that thing like it is in hieroglyphics. I don't understand how I am at this age and not able to. Do you find there's a lot of adults that still struggle with that?

That's the biggest tax issue that comes along if someone doesn't file the W4 correctly. Now it used to be easier. Like you know, you're a single. Oh, I've got one kid. I claim myself, bam, and then somehow worked out to where they took out the right. amount of tax. Now it's single, you have to go through this chart if you have multiple jobs

or if you have a spouse. Yes. And then there's this little tiny box that everyone sort of skips. So like, do I make a, do I have a spouse that makes within one half of my pay? A lot of people don't check it. And then all of a sudden they file their taxes and they owe $4,000. And then look at the W-2 and it's like, they just didn't take out as much taxes they should have. See, I didn't even say the right one. It's the W-2 you fill out. Well, the W-2 is what you get from the- Oh, okay, no, I was right. The W-4 is what you fill out,

so that they hopefully take out the right amount of tax. Yeah, so that happened to me last year. Maybe, you know what, after we get up the year, I think I'm going to have you teach me how to fill up the W-E-4. Anyway, Frank Donaldson, Key Advising, right here in Syracuse, New York, senior tax and accounting specialist, thank you for your time and for everything you do for us knuckleheads

that have no idea what we're doing. We really do appreciate you. It's a wonderful company. Check out Key Advising. And with that, that is another Tuesday, edition, and Frank, thank you for coming, by the way. Oh, thank you. And with that, yes, that's another Tuesday edition of Good News York. Follow us on all social media at Good News York, good news York.com. New episode Monday through Thursday at 5 p.m.

We are sponsored by Ads on the Go, get ads on the go.com, and you can follow me. This podcast is sponsored by IQ Bar. I've got good news and bad news. Here's the bad news. Most protein bars are packed with sugar and unpronounceable ingredients. The good news, there's a better option. I'm Will and I created IQ bar plant protein bars to empower doers like you with clean, delicious low sugar brain and body fuel. IQ bars are packed with 12 grams of protein, brain nutrients like magnesium and lions mane, and zero weird stuff. And right now, you can get 20% off all IQ bar products plus free shipping. Try our delicious IQ bar sampler pack with seven plant protein bars, four hydration mixes, and four enhanced coffee sticks. clean ingredients, amazing taste, and you'll love how you feel.

Refuel smarter, hydrate harder, caffeinate larger with IQ bar. Go to eat IQbar.com and enter code bar 20 to get 20% off all IQ bar products plus free shipping. Again, go to eat IQ bar.com and enter code bar 20. You're listening to a podcast right now, driving, working out, walking the dog. If you're into podcasts, chances are you have something to say too.

With RSS.com, starting your own podcast, is free and easy. Upload an episode and we distribute it to Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and more. Track your listeners, see where they're from, and start earning from ads just like this. If you've been thinking about starting a podcast, this is your sign. Start your new podcast for free today at RSS.com. On all socials at Mike B TV. Hey, everybody.

It's Matt from ClickStream Studios. Welcome to Good News, York. I'm very excited because this is the episode where we get. to tell you about our weekend that's coming up here. And we are joined. You might remember, if you've been a fan of this show, this gentleman's been on. We've talked about him a few times.

And honestly, helped us get our start last year at his event. Everybody, welcome back to the show. Stereo Steve Becker is here. How are you, Steve? Thank you, Matt. Thank you. You got a point. You launched Good News York at our Winter Fair last year, sir.

That's that. Winterfare, 2025. And look what you're doing. My gosh. We've grown by leaps and bounds in just under a year, which is pretty cool and terrifying all at the same time. But yeah, as Steve mentioned, he is the gentleman behind the incredible event known as the Syracuse Winter Fair that takes place this coming weekend, the 30th through February 1st at the Great New York State Fairgrounds. In the Expo Center, it's a fair. Yeah.

It's at the fairgrounds, but it's all indoors. That's right. This is an incredible context. 90% of it is indoors. We're bringing summer fun into winter. That was the concept. And also to bring the community together. Yeah.

You know, because, you know, we have the midway rides. Where do you see midway rides in the middle of winter? Yeah, you can go on rides. There's nothing like this in New York State. Yeah. Because we have to really thank New York State for building that Expo Center. It's over 100,000 square feet. It's the largest open space outside of New York City between Boston and Cleveland.

And it's right here. We're a destination. Wow. And that was my whole concept in the beginning was to give people something. You know, I mean, you'd take a look at the weather that we're having right now. Guess what? It's going to be nice and warm inside. Yeah.

You get to get all those things that you usually experience during the summer. We have so much food. Pizza Freit will be there. We got limp lizard. Even Chick-fil-A is coming again. Really? Yes, Friday and Saturday we'll be there. And then we'll have Kikis with their Greek cuisine. That's good stuff. We have a place coming out of Connecticut called The Taste of Ukraine. And they're going to have stuffed cabbage and beet soup. Oh, wow. It's something for everybody there. And we also want to thank. Onondaga County, they're going to do the fireworks. There are some things outside that we're doing.

The fireworks, Ryan McMahon, supporting this again. We have our ice sculptures. We will have ice sculptures out there from Averdi, Ameriue, and we also have Woodford Brothers. They'll be there. And, of course, we're going to have the reindeer out there. And that's going to be on Saturday from 10 to... four they were young last year and their antlers are even bigger oh wow and we want to

thank Good News York for being the sponsor absolutely and 10 to 4 you come take a selfie with them and then come on in and just enjoy the other ones we want to thank Destiny USA they're a destination we're a destination and we're working together yeah when you go into destiny when you look at their directories or that big you know screen that they have rotating around they're promoting yeah Syracuse WinnerC Fair 2026 yeah and we got great entertainment because we're doing something a little bit different we've got some great groups at night we're going to have Los Blancos at 5 o'clock on Friday then at 7 o'clock it will be brass ink and then on Saturday at 5 o'clock it will be

the barn dogs and then a group that everybody is like 80s music, it's going to be the arcade. And then on Sunday, we wrap everything up with the black lights. But during the day, we're going to be focusing on our kids, students from elementary school, up through college, dancing, singing, performing, because we want to show what our community is all about. Yeah. So people will come out, and we're doing something special. We're dedicating the entire event to Van Robinson. He passed away last May. And Van, Van, Van, was always a visionary here and a community leader and he really did help us in getting this thing off the ground and that was in 2019 and so we want to give thanks to van that's we're doing

a special presentation at 150 on saturday afternoon linda robinson linda brown robinson she will be there that is the wife of van we have the new mayor of the city of Syracuse Sharon if Owens will be there nice I made a very special plaque in honor of then and we expect there will be other you know representatives there and such then afterwards I don't know if you ever heard of Dom Cavarrari I don't know Dom is one of the founders of the field of dreams that they're building in Carrier Park and he's unbelievable he's an attorney and he's a great singer he's a He has sung at the dome.

He is sung at the ballpark. Wow. And he's going to sing the national anthem. And I call him Dom Dio Cambarrari because he styles himself after Ronnie James Deal. That's great. So he'll give a rousing addition. And then right after that, we're going to have the scouts doing a campfire setting. We're going to have a campfire on the video screen.

And they'll be doing sing-alongs with the attendees. I love that. I love that. You always change it up. You always have some different community group that performs, whether it's, you know, dancers or whatever this year. It's the Scouts, which I love as an old boy scout myself here in some of those campfire songs. That's going to be awesome. It's fun because you have, I guess you would call it the traditional live entertainment, right? We've got a lot of these well-known musical acts all throughout.

But we also get this kind of community entertainment. I feel like you don't, even at the fair, I feel like you don't necessarily. see a lot of events like that and the crowd loves it. I mean the people that you pack in for those things well you know it's a great idea Steve I've said it um one of my joys is hearing the kids scream on the rides in the middle of winter sure and you come out I mean we're going to have at least a dozen rides out there uh for for the youngsters uh that are over 30 inches uh we have a good seven eight rides you know merricko round and roller coaster but for the older ones that are 48 inches will twirl you around a lot you know my kids love it

that's that's the best part there and we try to make it reasonable from the standpoint of expense especially these days and so there's different ways that you can get tickets that are inexpensive in a sense we have our online ticket and that's five dollars for adults with a small fee and then for seniors and teens, it would be $3. Children, 10 and under are free. I think that's huge, that part right there. Yeah, but even more so, one of our sponsors of the hoop area,

boy, I have to tell you some of the players coming out that will be doing autograph signing and such, but we raise money for the Boys and Girls Club in the hoop area, and we want to thank Market 32 Price Chopper for helping with that. They donate, they promote,

but they approached me. And said, Steve, we like to sell. Well, tickets. They're in 130 locations in seven states. Wow. We want people to come from all over. And tickets at price shop, you can go, you know, even during the event, $450 for adults and for seniors and teens, two bucks. Wow. Now, at the box office is $8 for adults, $6 for seniors and teens. Always the kids 10 and under are free. So we encourage people to bring the families. And of course, there's lots of shopping there, crafters, and do you need gutters on your roof? I mean, you know, it really is that flavor that you get during the summer.

Yeah, that's the thing that's so neat is there's everything you love, there's the food, there's the, you know, you mentioned all the kind of meal foods, but they're also the favorite fair snack foods, right? You got your cotton candy and your all of those. incredible sweets that I shouldn't eat. Oh, my God. But I am definitely going to dig into. You like pickles? We have all sorts of pickles. All, you know, nuts,

cheeses. I'm thinking that the wine slushy folks will be back, hopefully. Yeah, okay. Wine slushy will be there. We have a place. We actually have a place out of Canada. Oh, wow.

And they're called Super Crunch. They cook up the fruit. Wow. And they put it on like a stick. Wow. Like, you know, and have all different fruits on there. And they're a hit, and they'll be there. You know, bake goods.

You know, we really tried to use variety. We talked about the hoop area, and some of the athletes coming out on Friday, we're going to have James Mongrel there from four to five. James played for Syracuse, and he wound up playing for the Indiana or Colts. Oh, wow. and won the Super Bowl ring. We have another gentleman, even though he didn't go to SU, he's from this area, and his name is Leroy Collins.

Leroy wrote a book where he had a really serious accident. He was in a wheelchair as a child. But he worked his way back, and at his high school he set records. He played for Alfred State, for Louisville, and he played in the NFL. Played for the Redskins. That's incredible. For the Jaguas up in Canada.

Well, he lives in this area. His wife works here. He lives in Fulton, but you're ready for this? He's the running back coach for CBA, Christian Brothers Academy, with our state champ. So he'll be there. And then we got Rob Drummond on Saturday, along with Mookie Jones, remember Mookiee? And then on Sunday, full tilt. We got Roosevelt Bowie. You've met Rosie. Yeah, we know, Rosie.

Great guy. We got Gene Waldron coming out. And then we have the entire LaMoyne. basketball team, men's team coming. So, you know, it's all for a good cause. We've raised over $15,000 for the Boys and Girls Club. And we want to help. And we're doing it in the honor of Lawrence Moten. Lawrence was an amazing person. He was so happy to be back where he grew up and helping kids. And unfortunately, he passed away back in September. So we're honoring Lawrence as well. Wow. Wow. That's incredible. And, you know, we We keep talking about all those things and that just goes back to your original comment of the size of this Expo Center and how neat of a resources is that we have here at the state fairgrounds.

We talk about the food. We talk about the rides. We talk about the entertainment. We should probably get a little love to the vendors because that's a part that I think is pretty neat. You know, whether you're at a fair or festival, anything like that, you know that there's a type of vendor, type of folks, local small business owners usually. that have products and neat things that you can't get anywhere else. And normally you can't find any of those products until the summer. And we have certain nonprofits.

We want to thank Latoya Jones with Lead Safe Coalition, C&Y. That's part of the United Way. They're going to be our sponsor for the Healthcare Village. Wow. And, you know, right now, we care about our kids. We care about the lead in the water and such. So they will be there and they'll be interacting. We have some other healthcare organizations and such.

But like you said, you know, the latest thing is 3D printing. Yeah. What they create in all. The technology is unbelievable. But if you need a new bath or shower, we got back fitter there. They're going to be one of our ice sculptor sponsors and the free parking from AmeriQ, come on. You know, I mean, and we. we have to really let people know.

You're not going to be walking over a bridge to park. You're not going to be taking a bus, all the parking that's right there. It's a five-minute walk, and it's absolutely free. And so there's really no excuse not to be there. That's a great point. See, I didn't even think about that, because when you do think about the state fair in the summer, you think about parking somewhere off in God's country and hoofing it to the event.

This, you literally pull up to the door. And we want to thank the State Fair, the people that we're working with and such, very supportive. This is our seventh year. Yeah. And I, you know, I pinch myself of going, wow, you know. And that's the smile I get is seeing, like, what you're doing for this community and how you just, what, spaghetti warehouse, you took over for that and create. This podcast is sponsored by IQ. I've got good news and bad news. Here's the bad news. Most protein bars are packed with sugar and

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Again, go to eat IQbar.com and enter code bar 20. You're listening to a podcast right now, driving, working out, walking the dog. If you're into podcasts, chances are you have something to say too. With RSS.com, starting your own podcast is free and easy. Upload an episode and we distribute it to Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and more. Track your listeners, see where they're from, and start earning from ads just like this. If you've been thinking about starting a podcast, this is your sign. Start your new podcast for free today at RSS.com.

something cutting edge, but it's not cutting edge anymore. And that's what it really, you started with IT and, you know, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and you said to me, I mean, it's, um, and you know, I, I do some Facebook advertising. And, you know, and the last 28 days, they said there has been over 300,000 views. And you told me, what, what, six and a half, almost seven million views and year yeah yeah GNY we hit and this stat was as of a little over a month ago six and a half million views so in less than a year we were able to generate that kind of buzz and it's been incredible and since we're on that topic let's talk for just a second about what we're going to do there right because we're going to be at winter fair we're not just a sponsor of the reindeer as fun as they are but we'll be inside

Steve has upgraded us to an even bigger space well what we would like to see. Sometimes you see the cooking demonstrations and their seats and everything. Well, why not have some seats there where people can stop and watch you, interview? And there's going to be a whole array of people your interview from the businesses to some of our representatives. I know Senator Chris Ryan will be there. Usually we see a host of people. Yeah. And we're hoping that County Executive Ryan McMahon will be out there. That's, you see a vision here. I understand the detractors.

This has been a difficult situation when some of the manufacturers have left. Sure. And this has always been a manufacturing hub. Now we have Micron. Yep. And yeah, you know, I mean, like anything, you know, you can't do it in a day.

Yeah. But I'm out there, and I'll tell you, what I'm hoping for next year is to show off Micron, the aquarium. I mean, these are visions that if you want to attract people, there's a lot to do here. Can you imagine? I know Destiny at one time was going to have an aquarium. Now it's just across the street. Yep. And I'm very excited about that.

think i would love you know i'm getting up there you know age wise but uh there are certain people that are well in their 80s 90s and the 100 still doing stuff i hope i can still be there to see the fruition of all the efforts and it's very rare in this political climate to see everybody come together yeah no it's it's it's a great thing steve i'll tell you the first time i walked in there and saw that and looked around like this is This is no joke. You know, I'd known Steve for a little while at that point and heard about the event and like, yeah, that sounds neat.

Until you walk in the door and realize the scale of it and all there is to do and everything, it's just, it's truly incredible, Steve. I still haven't figured out how you pull it off. What I've been doing lately on some Zoom calls, you know, that I'm doing and such for interviews, I have the background where they can see all these booths set up and rides and such. because you get the oh wow when you walk in there, you know, because it's so big, number one, but it's filled to the brim. And I'm so glad that, you know, there is a slogan sometimes where people say,

it's going to be bigger and better. Yeah. And to me, well, then what are you doing now? Yeah, right. So I always look to enhance. I look for new ideas. Sure. And that's what can happen is, you know, after last year,

I said, well, why don't we focus on the kids? When you do the ice sculptures, you know, last year we did it a summer theme. Uh-huh. And, you know, you could see somebody swinging a bat or out on the beach, sunshine. This time, you'll see a baby through the course of graduate. Oh, cool. And, you know, we're going to have, I believe, like five of these ice sculptures that will signify. And it's cool.

You know, you take pictures and things like that. we try something, I mean, that term, something for everyone. But I think that's what you feel. And, you know, I added the sun on our billboards and we're doing movie advertising. We got the word out there. And usually it's the week leading into it that most people, oh, let's go, you know. No, that's it. It is the Syracuse Winter Fair.

it is the great at the great new york state fairgrounds starts this friday the 30th at three o'clock doors open yeah what happens is officially we say but if people are standing in line we start letting them in round two 30 same thing saturday it's 11 to 9 and sunday from 11 to 5 and we jam pack it you know with the rides people will ask it's a 25 dollar unlimited ride you can do everything but we also you know you see how many tickets each rides takes And you pick and choose. But what we do say, you know, because we look out for safety, if any of your children are under 30 inches, it's more liability and such to look out.

And so any child 30 inches or more can ride at least about seven rides. That's incredible. And then the bigger ones are at least 48 inches because I think you like Dakota, don't you? that twirls around and i don't my daughter does she did that one a few times last year actually i think so no and we got the avenger coming back and giant slide which i was just going to say you got the giant slats the thing that stands out you see that massive thing may be lighting up oh wow oh yeah no i have to thank um uh kevin and stephen jenkelitz they run main events amusements and they're out of solve it. And they're out during the summer and all over. Sure. And one of the point people...

You must make them interrupt their winter vacation here to come do this event or something, don't you? Well, they're always, you know, they were just down in Pennsylvania. There was a big conference down there. Oh, wow. They won an award for 2025 of being one of the top, you know, event people. And I've known Kevin a long time, but my person who works with them is Alan LaVenture. And I thank Alan because he's taken different roles over the years. And he works with them for these spring, summer, fall events. And it's just, it's great to have good staff, as you know, the people working with you that get it. That, you know, that, you know, and again, I'm appreciative of the fair, um, record. recognizing, you know, what we're doing.

I want to thank Julie Lefeb. Sure. I know they're already working on the fair for the summer. Of course. Announcing, you know, different groups. And, you know, I came here in 1979 and did radio, as you said, my nickname Stereo, Steve. And I started working with all the fair directors. It was Tom Young, Wayne Gallagher, who came from Texas, their big fair.

then Pete Capicelli, then Dan O'Hara, then Troy Woffner, then Sean Hennessy, and now Julie LaFave. Wow. And I thank Julie for the support, because I know I did see her come out with her son last year to enjoy. Yeah, yeah. No, it was great. Julie's the best. We interviewed her at the beginning of the summer fair this year for her first fair. She was wonderful to us. So glad to have her on board. Steve, the website is NYSwinterfair.com, which is a great place to go get your tickets in advance, like we talked about. One of the thing I will toss out if you follow us on Facebook, and if you don't follow us on Facebook, what are you doing with your life? Get it together.

But if you go to our Facebook for Good News, York, you will see the top pin post is a post about Winterfare, and we are giving away some tickets. Wow. We're probably going to choose the winner of that tomorrow. So today's the last chance, but just share that post and tag us. Hundreds of people have already. Make sure you put down our Facebook, you know. It's all there. You know, Sarah, Kids Winterfare.

And I mean, we got some great responses because, you know, we've done tickets, like with family ties. They, I think they had like a thousand people reacting, you know. But yeah, if you go to the Good News, page and share that particular post and help spread the word about winter fair we will choose a couple of folks to get some free tickets for and and there's one thing you know we talk about the fair in agriculture and we have something very special i don't know if you met mike actins i think when you were at the press conference yeah mike has been doing this project at the king school martin luther king school and he is showing students how to grow vegetables.

Wow. Hydrophonics. And he's going to be out there with the students showing seedlings growing with, you know, hydrophonics. They're going to take a piece of parcel across the street, create this hole. Because that's for, you know, no offense to when you go into a supermarket. and if you are looking for collard greens, they're like about this size. His are like this.

Wow. And he's teaching the kids. That's awesome. I love to hear that. And that's going to be right in the front as you come in. Cool. So many cool things at Winterfair. We, the entire Good News York team, will be there.

We'll have a mini set set up where we'll be doing this very show right there at the Fair interviewing all kinds of people. We got people lined up. Steve's got people lined up. We'll grab randoms from the crowd and have great kind of. conversations with them as we always do, especially after a couple of months sessions. And you're going to be right by the stage. We're going to have a special setup for you where you can interview. And we have a great duo that we, I was able to put together. A lot of people are talking about Sydney Irving. She just got a record contract with Warner's. Wow. And she's going to play in New York, Philly, Washington. Actually, she played Winter Fair four years ago when she was 18. She's 20.

and she's going to play with Just Joe. Oh, nice. An acoustic, like, songwriter set, and that's going to be at 3 o'clock. And, I mean, right now, I'm going to do a very bad interpretation. Right here on offstage, it's the Ed Sullivan variety show, you know? I love it. I love it. Winter Fair, that's it.

The name of the game is Family and Value. Free parking, thanks to AmeriQ, free admission for kids under 10. I mean, that's half the crowd. 10 and under. 10 and under. All kinds of incredible value. Food, fireworks, which honestly are some of the favorite part. Which evening is the fireworks?

Friday and Saturday. 8.45. And if it's cold to sit in your car, watch the fireworks. They'll be out there. That's what I did last year as I was getting ready to head out. I sat comfortably in my car and I saw the whole show. It was so cool. Two years ago, it was minus 20.

Yeah. and they still went off. Honestly, there's something about, I don't know, the way they look in the sky and maybe it has something to do with the temperature. It's brighter because of the chill in the air. It's a neat thing. You don't usually see fireworks in the winter.

It's great. And it's a 15-minute demonstration. You get everything, you get a great, you know, everything popping up for the finale and such. And we try to schedule it so everybody, because we wrap up our music around 8.30. Perfect. And then at 8.45, you just go ahead.

out to the car. And that's, and two nights of it is great, because what'll happen on Friday nights is the fireworks will go off and half the people on Facebook will go, did you hear fireworks? Where did those come from? And you can tell all your friends, they came from Winter Fair. And if you go tomorrow on Saturday, you can actually catch the whole show from start to finish. And not only that, on Saturday, if you can't make it to the dome, we're going to run the SU Notre Dame game on the monitors. There you go. There you go. What more could you possibly ask for in a, you know, weekend of entertainment in central New York. I'll tell you what. Steve, thank you for joining us on the show and for everything you do with all these projects. So we really appreciate it.

And catch Steve and I tomorrow on Bridge Street. We'll be talking even more about fairs and rainiers. And you can talk about, you know, click stream and what you're doing there. I got a hard time not talking about it, Steve. Guys, this has been a great episode of Good News, York. Please like, follow, share all of that stuff. And don't forget our sponsor, Ads on the Go, Get Ads on the Go.com. That's our man, Zach, with the Billboard truck. Steve knows Zach.

Yeah, and they'll be advertising. He'll be there on there. He'll be there. So, yeah. Peace out. You're listening to a podcast right now, driving, working out, walking the dog. If you're in a podcast, chances are you have something to say, With RSS.com, starting your own podcast is free and easy.

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