HEADLINE: AREA RADIOS ARE SINGING THE BLUES
Published: Saturday, August 24, 1991
Section: Lifestyles
Page: D1
By JOSEPH PRYWELLER Staff Writer

Several radio stations have a bad case of the blues. Blues music, at one time almost the exclusive province of nightclubs and recordings, is beginning to make its presence felt over Hampton Roads' radio airwaves. People such as Muddy Waters. B.B. King. John Lee Hooker, and newer artists, including the William Clarke Blues Band.

The blues can be heard on WLPM-AM (1450), a small, 1,000-watt station in downtown Suffolk. The station, which plays oldies music during the day, has switched to a blues groove 7 to 11 p.m. each weeknight. It plays more blues than any other Hampton Roads station. "It's such a hip musical form," said general manager Cindy Webster, who programmed blues music at a Dayton, Ohio, station before coming to Suffolk five months ago. "The artists just bare their souls to the music. Listening to blues has been so educational for me. It's American music."

Webster's passion has become the station's calling card. WLPM had been off the air for more than a year, until Ohio-based Johnson Media bought the station and revived it in late February. Since then, WLPM gradually has expanded its blues programming.

From Monday through Thursday, Norfolk-based blues promoter Mike Rau is announcing WLPM's blues show. On Friday, Joe Rivers, a blues expert who co-owns House of Memories record store in Hampton, does the announcing chores.

Other stations also have found the blues. Public station WHRV-FM (89.5), which went on the air in September, has added two syndicated blues programs: "Portrait in Blue" at midnight Tuesdays and "Bluestage" at 11 p.m. Fridays. Jazz announcer Jae Sinnett also plays blues music on occasional Wednesday evenings.

Hampton University jazz station WHOV-FM (88.3) has a four-year-old blues show, "Nothin' But the Blues," 7 to 10 p.m. Wednesdays. Norfolk State University jazz station WNSB-FM (91.1) has just expanded its blues show an extra hour. WNSB's program, "Blues Alley," runs 7 to 10 p.m. Sundays.

Meanwhile, WLPM is considering putting on the blues seven nights a week, Webster said. The nighttime is the right time for the blues at WLPM, she said; the days will remain devoted to Top 40 oldies music.

"It would be a bit too radical for Suffolk to go blues all the time," Webster said. "We'll give it to them in smaller doses."

Ratings race: The local television ratings, which came out this week, continue to prove one point: There is no dominant local news station in Hampton Roads.

The Arbitron Co. ratings, measured for the period from July 10 to Aug. 7, showed WTKR, Channel 3, - with Ed Hughes and Jane Gardner - and WVEC, Channel 13, - with Jim Kincaid and Barbara Ciara - tied for the 6 p.m. newscast lead. WAVY, Channel 10's Terry Zahn and Alveta Ewell, as usual, took the ratings for their 11 p.m. newscast.

Here are selected ratings results, measured in share points. A share point represents the average percentage of TV viewers tuned to a program.

Urban renewal: Urban station WOWI-FM (102.9) has been the top-rated station in the market for more than a year. So why are they making a bunch of on-air changes now?

"It's good to freshen things up once in a while," said general manager Ernest Jackson Jr. "Our listeners are fairly young. The ones we have now might not even remember the disc jockeys we had here two years ago."

Starting Monday, WOWI will jam it (as the station is fond of saying) with some new jocks. From 5:30-10 a.m., new arrival Scorpio will work with Chase, a jock from a station in Salisbury, Md. Chase does impersonations, while Scorpio is good at evoking listener opinions, said operations manager Steve Crumbley.

They'll be billed as "The Supreme Team." Former morning man K.J. Holiday has moved to the 3-7 p.m. shift, which had been held by the now-departed Eric St. James. His former sidekick, Jeannie, will do celebrity interviews and read the news in the morning. News announcer Sheldon Ingram, a reporter at WVEC, has left the morning show. Judge Knight, an energetic announcer at a Savannah, Ga., station, will work the 7-10 p.m. shift. "He'll serve time at night," Crumbley said. And Tony Brown will handle the mellow "Quiet Storm" show from 10 p.m.-3 a.m. Mike Anthony, who temporarily had worked the 7-10 p.m. shift, will go back to his duties as production director. Former "Quiet Storm" announcer J.J. Carmichael only worked part-time.

Just a rumor: Industry trade magazine Radio & Records had some local news of interest in its latest issue: "Word has it," the magazine reported, that adult rock station WKOC-FM (93.7) in Virginia Beach would be leasing space on the tower site of country station WKEZ-FM (94.1) in York County. That move effectively would spell the end of WKEZ. The station would simulcast the signal of WKOC. The country station has a strong signal throughout the middle Peninsula and almost to Richmond. The lease arrangement would expand WKOC, which has a weaker Peninsula signal, into a regional station.

WKOC co-owner Paul Lucci said Radio & Records jumped the gun. Lucci said he talked recently to WKEZ owner William Eure about a number of issues, since the stations are so near each other in frequency.

"It came up in conversation, as did the subject of us not interfering with their signal," Lucci said. "But nothing has gone beyond that. We're not close to deciding to do anything."

Eure also denied the rumors. "When it comes to rumors, there's never a dull moment in radioland," Lucci said.

Emmy nod: WVEC has become the first station in memory to be nominated for a television Emmy award. The station was contacted about the nomination this week from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, which conducts the award ceremonies.

The station is competing for honors in the category of best community service project, an award that goes to a local station each year, for its "Family Health Project."

The "Family Health Project" included three prime-time specials offering health information and the airing of more than 50 health tips at various times. The series is a project of the station and Sentara Health Systems.

The Emmy Award telecast will air 8 p.m. Sunday on WTVZ, Channel 33. Of course, WVEC's category won't be telecast on the awards show. The news will be broadcast in this column next week.

Copyright 1991, Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

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