Stoney Richards departing Y108 morning show to focus on acting

WDSY-FM (Y108) is looking for a new host for its “Y’d Awake” morning show, and whoever is hired will have some big shoes to fill.

After three years, Charles David “Stoney” Richards is leaving his popular morning gig to focus on his acting career.

His last show is Friday.

“It’s just came time. My contract was up,” Richards said. “We’re still the No. 1 country station in town. When I came in three years ago, it was having a little trouble. So, we got it righted, and I thought, ‘This is good.’ There are a lot of things that I need to do with my acting career, and I thought, ‘You know what? I’m just not going to renew the contract. I’m going away from the morning show.’ ”

But Richards is not going away completely.

He still plans to do work for Y108’s parent company, Audacy Inc., recording audio and video interviews with country music personalities in places such as Nashville and elsewhere.

“You just don’t have time to do long-form stuff when you’re doing a morning show. You know, you’re up at four and by the time you get home, you’re just, like, ‘I don’t want to go anywhere,’ ” he said. “That was my decision and they supported it, and I’ll be there in some form or another.”

Richards has a strong connection to Y108, having worked there from 1998 until 2014 before returning as the full-time morning show host in 2019.

“Stoney Richards is country music in Western Pennsylvania,” said Michael Spacciapolli, senior vice president and market manager for Audacy Pittsburgh. “We are certainly grateful for what he has done for Y108 and what he has meant to country music fans for so many years. Although he won’t be on the morning show every day, he will always be a part of our family at Audacy Pittsburgh.”

For now, Richards has plenty of acting opportunities in front of him.

He plays the recurring character of “Provost Peters” in the Netflix show “The Chair,” which is filmed in and around Pittsburgh. It stars Sandra Oh as the first woman of color to become chair of the English department chair at tradition-bound university.

“The cast is great. And if it gets picked up again and they decide to shoot back here in Pittsburgh, I’d have a chance to get back and do that, which would be great,” Richards said.

Richards also played “Uncle Gus” in an episode of Showtime’s “American Rust,” another filmed-in-Pittsburgh series starring Jeff Daniels as Chief of Police Del Harris.

But Richards’ main focus now is a new stage production of “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged),” affiliated with Pittsburgh Shakespeare in the Park.

“It’s about three guys who set out to do the entire works of Shakespeare in an hour and a half. It’s really funny. It’s been done at the (Pittsburgh) Public Theater, and they’ve done it in London and on Broadway,” he said. “We start rehearsals, oddly enough, on Friday, my last day on the air.”

The play opens in March, Richards said.