No more "homogenized playlist", says Cumulus-Syracuse programmer Tom Mitchell. Some in the market are already wondering if this is a short-term stunt, but Cumulus has replaced its "Big Talker" WXTL (105.9). The incumbent classic rocker is Galaxy's WTKW (99.5), but now Cumulus is challenging "TK99" with is own new deep-tracks "Rebel." It will feature Bob & Tom in mornings, seven days a week from 5-10am. Tom Mitchell says “We talked to hundreds of rock music fans throughout Central New York, who kept telling us that they were tired of hearing the same 150 classic tracks over and over." The Rebel promises "deeper album cuts and true variety", for fans of "Aerosmith, The Stones, Led Zeppelin, Van Halen, Def Leppard, Stevie Ray Vaughan, U2, Yes, The Police, ZZ Top, and Talking Heads." Hunter Scott, who programs Cumulus active rocker "95X" WAQX, will also handle the Rebel. There are no publicly-available Arbitron shares for Syracuse, probably because Galaxy dropped the Arbitron ratings service several years ago. Since last September, the Syracuse-Utica Board of Radio-Info.com has been speculating about how long Cumulus would give the talk format at "Big Talker" - and the conversation continues, here.