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The latest news about you and other former Wooviteers. |
What's been happening lately?
Woovit Cap-Tip to Mike Williams:
11/26/06 -- Len Comaratta answers Five Questions for the Roanoke
Times on the state of WUVT in 2006:
http://www.roanoke.com:80/news/nrv/wb/93122
From Mabel Harman:
Brent Lander and Laura Loechler announce the arrival Monday July 24,
2006 of their twin daughters Zoe and Sophia. The girls are beautiful. Brent
and Laura have been waiting a long time for this miracle.
Former WUVT faculty adviser Warren Strother dies at the age of 80. Here is a link to the Virginia Tech news release:
Monday, January 23, 2006
In memoriam:
Warren Strother, long time university director of communications
(Click
link for story)
Mike Williams alerts us to a a story in The Virginian-Pilot about Paul Shugrue:
Monday, January 2, 2006
Mike Williams sends a story from the Roanoke Times: WROV-AM site demolished! (Also check out the links at the end of the article.):
Tuesday, November 9, 2004
Personalities such as the late Fred Frelantz, Jivin' Jackson and Jack Fisher all gained popularity with their shows.
By Lois Caliri, The Roanoke Times
You can demolish a building. But you can never tear down the bedrock of memories.
In its day, creative juices flowed from WROV, the AM radio station that rocked Roanoke from the late 1950s to the '80s.
The early years of ROV featured Jerry Joynes, who played "pop" records of Frank Sinatra, Perry Como and Peggy Lee. Radio personalities routinely claimed 55 percent of the Roanoke listening audience.
During the 1960s and '70s, ROV dominated the teen audience. Hot-rodding teenagers tuned in as they cruised Lendy's, the hot spot for mixing and mingling amid Buddy Boy burgers and onion rings.
Personalities such as the late Fred Frelantz, Jivin' Jackson and Jack Fisher all gained popularity with their shows broadcast from the studio on Cleveland Avenue Southwest. On Monday, the old, double-wide-sized studio building - built around an original Quonset hut - was demolished.
"It's gut-wrenching," said former disc jockey Bucky Stover.
But it also has helped former DJs to spin stacks of memories from their time in the station's AM heyday.
The ROV of the late '50s through the mid-'60s was perhaps best known for its "chimes" format, which featured "Big Ben" chimes on the quarter hour along with voice-overs by Jess DuBoy.
"It was the kind of station you could put on in the background and you always knew what time it was," said Phil Beckman, a Bedford native and former ROVer in the mid-'60s and again in 1971. "The chimes were one of the selling points of the station."
Over the years, personalities came and went. Managers shuffled the on-air lineup. The station won awards. Personalities garnered national attention. Ownership changed. Musical formats changed. Personalities clashed.
In 1981, the king of disc jockeys, Bart Prater, left ROV to join rival K-92, WXLK-FM. He then told The Roanoke Times that philosophical differences between him and station owner Burt Levine led to the parting.
"Whatever that means," Prater says today. "I wanted to get fired. I wanted to go to K-92, but I had a noncompete clause. ... Finally, one day, Burt came up to me and said, 'I love you. Now get out of here.'"
If there ever was a genius behind the fantastic success at ROV, it was Burt Levine, said Prater. "He was something."
Levine, who died in 1995, had the ability to spot talent and bring out the best in people.
In the early '80s, less emphasis was put on the disc jockeys. News and information was hot. WROV launched an FM station in 1989. The AM frequency, 1240, became an oldies station.
Fast forward to 1999. The Cleveland Avenue studios closed down. WROV and its AM sister station, WGMN - now known as ''The Game'' - moved into new studios on Brandon Avenue. "The 1240 Guys," known as the "Old ROVers," have been in touch for almost a year now sharing stories and memories. One of them, Pat Garrett, has been building a Web site of the station's history.
Starr Stevens, an ROV announcer in the mid-'70s, credited Levine for giving his announcers the freedom to be themselves. "Every announcer has his own shtick and delivery style," Stevens said.
Levine wanted ROV to stand out as the most entertaining radio station in Roanoke. And during the days before FM, ROV was a legend in radio circles.
Levine was the exception to the "numerous species of sharks that wear suits and own or otherwise run radio stations," said Rich Randall, another DJ from the '70s at ROV. Levine was "tough but fair, and compassionate as any human could be. He trusted his key people and that made him 'comfortable' and made them lifelong successes."
When Randall left ROV, he did a show and tried to imitate Prater. "If you listened close, I was doing Bart Prater - only earlier in the day and without the whiskey voice," Randall said. "And don't forget my cigarettes," said Prater, who used to work the afternoon shifts at ROV. "I couldn't stand to get up early." The then-lanky disc jockey who sported a mustache was named International Billboard Disc Jockey of the Year in 1975.
In the mid-'70s, Prater hired Bill Jordan. "We played what we wanted to play, Jordan said. "I don't think any of us had any more fun than we had at WROV."
The story wouldn't be complete without mentioning the infamous two-man show of Jack Fisher and Fred Frelantz.
"They were like bacon and eggs on the air," Beckman said. "They were just right for each other."
Fisher fondly remembered his best friend, Frelantz, and all of the whacko things they did.
"Burt encouraged us to have fun. We made things happen," Fisher said.
He recalled the Fisher-Frelantz Freeloaders show, where Frelantz would tell the audience that he and Fisher hadn't eaten in days. They got themselves invited to clubs and organizations so they could have a dinner. "Their expectations were always higher than our delivery," Fisher said. "Fred would usually tell one joke and then we would eat."
The personalities were pranksters. Garrett, who made his debut at WROV in 1980, remembered the summer of 1980 when Prater, Fred Palmer, a promotions guy known as "Quiddly" and Chris Stevens would fish in the Roanoke River. "I remember standing there when the receptionist, Carole Beane, sat down at the front desk and opened her drawer and screamed when she saw a fish laying there. About that time, Fred walked around the corner and asked her if she liked her fish, then said, "Good! Because you still have two more to find!"
Click here for related news item, 1999
Click here
for photos at the WROV-FM site
(Link is broken...will try to post pitcures to our site soon.)
October 2004: Mike
Williams confirms changes in New River Valley Radio --
An October 5th item at VARTV.com:
New Top 40 in Christiansburg; News/Talk moves
Cumulus owned Talk WFNR/100.7 Christiansburg breaks from the simulcast of WFNR/710 Blacksburg to go Top 40 as "Hot 100." VARTV reported back in the end of June, that this would happen. Three and a half months later, it's true. The station will soon have new call letters.
The Country format heard on "Bubba 101.7" WWBU Radford VA is jettisoned for News/Talk. The new station is now known as "SuperTalk 101.7" (10/5/04)
June 2004: Mike Williams
alerts us to changes in New River Valley Radio --
A June 24th item at VARTV.com:
Major changes coming to Blacksburg/Christiansburg?
That's what we hear. Atlanta GA based Cumulus will be officially taking over New River Valley Radio Partners either at the end of this week or early next week. We hear a final check of the stations will be happening today.
Several longtime employees are gone from the cluster in recent months -- Collins in the Morning (former PSK morning show host), Robbie Raggs (former Bear afternoon show host), Kris Fisher (former Bear evening show host) and Courtney Quinn (mid-days/PD for the Bear). She leaves tomorrow leaving the Bear down to one part-time jock until they hire a new PD for the station.
With Cumulus taking full control over the cluster, we hear changes will be coming soon to some of the formats currently heard. At WFNR/100.7, the simulcast of WFNR/710 will be dropped for a CHR/Hot AC format... possibly a mix between "K92" WXLK and "Q99" WSLQ. This station will get new call letters. At WBXW/101.7, currently "Bubba" playing Classic Country music, will become "SuperTalk 101." We hear Tom Leykis will be dropped in favor of a new evening talk show. This frequency has a much better southerly signal than WFNR/100.7. This station is also set for new call letters. WPSK/107.1 has already started integrating some Bubba music, with a new slogan of "Today's Best Country and Your All Time Favorites." WBRW/WBWR (105.3/106.9) "The Bear" will remain a mix of new and old rock. No changes to WFNR/710 or WRAD/1460. Stay tuned to see if this pans out..... (6/24/04)
From WUVT's Official Newsletter Off Air, Spring 2004: AM Station Back On Air
WUVT's Chief Engineer Josh Arritt is at it again making the dreams of many engineers before him come true. After 12 years of silence, WUVT's AM station is coming back to life, putting WUVT one more step ahead of other college radio stations.
In the past, the AM station ran on a carrier current that was fed through the dorms across campus. Arritt said the equipment fell into disrepair sometime in 1992, and station engineers have wanted to bring the AM station back ever since. "It's always been a thing for me," Arritt said. "It's taken a lot of planning, about two years."
The new station, Radio Free Blacksburg, can be found at 1150 AM on campus. Unlike other college radio stations, the AM broadcast will be completely different from the FM programming. "Most college stations run a simulcast for their FM and AM," Arritt stated.
The AM station has been used to train DJs for FM in the past, but listeners can now look forward to broadcasts of Virginia Tech baseball or hockey games on the air in the future. Arritt said WUVT will leave the widely covered football and basketball games up to everyone else. "It's very WUVT to do something that no one else is doing, so don't expect to hear a football game on the air anytime soon."
The new transmitter, which Arritt was forced to build from scratch, will be placed on top of Lee Hall, and will eventually move to a more central location, like Ambler-Johnston Hall. Over the next two years, he plans to place transmitters throughout town so the signal can reach the Virginia Tech community surrounding campus.
This time, the AM station is here to stay. According to Arritt, WUVT could be the first college radio station to go digital, in about two years. "The digital revolution is going to help AM more than FM. Digital could be AM's savior."
For more information on WUVT's new innovation, Radio Free Blacksburg, check out http://www.wuvt.vt.edu/rfb/index.html.
March 2004: Mike Williams reports on changes at Blacksburg's WKEX:
A story from the Roanoke Times: (Direct Link)
WKEX changes to sports format
Sports has taken the place of bluegrass music and talk radio on two BASE Communications Inc. AM stations in the Blacksburg area. Effective this month, WKEX (1430 AM) has dropped its bluegrass format for ESPN Radio, and WPIN (810 AM), which had a talk show format, is now a Fox Sports station. Bluegrass fans can still hear some of their favorite music on sister station JOY (890 AM) on Saturdays, when it plays bluegrass music all day. It features ministry and Southern Gospel programming the rest of the week. Brian Sanders, who became manager of the stations in January, said the changes represent a new market with a new name. "It's the Sports Addict Radio Network," he said Friday. WKEX has had several incarnations over the years. It played adult contemporary in the 1980s, then country, big band and, finally, bluegrass. WKEX's weekend morning gospel show, which had been around for 23 years, has been retired, Sanders said. The emphasis now is sports, he said, and the stations will carry games from Virginia Tech, the Salem Avalanche, Carolina Panthers, Blacksburg High School and elsewhere. "If it's local, we will be on it," Sanders said. Two local live sports shows are part of the new format as well.
- Paul Dellinger
January 2004: Mike Williams reports on a Roanoke AM seeking 10 kilowatts daytime:
Back in the days when we were in the area, Mel Wheeler only owned WSLC &
WSLQ. Over the years the company bought K92 (the old WLRJ) and the WFIR/WPVR
combo along with some Lynchburg stations. About a year ago, they moved the country
format from AM to the WPVR frequency changing the call from WPVR to WSLC and
610 AM became WVBE simulcasting WVBE-FM Lynchburg (urban format). WFIR (Towers
Shopping Center) had become news talk.
January 2004: Mike Williams reports that New River Valley stations are to be sold again:
Found the story
below in the Roanoke Times:
RADFORD - The seven New River Valley Radio Partners stations are being bought
by the nation's second-largest radio company for $7 million.
Cumulus Media Inc., based in Atlanta, will begin operating the stations next week. The $7 million will be payable, at Cumulus' option, in cash or shares of Cumulus stock.
Cumulus is acquiring two country music stations, WPSK-FM (107) and WWBU-FM (101.7), "Bubba Country;" two talk radio stations, WFNR-FM and WFNR-AM; WBRW-FM (710), "The Bear," a rock station that simulcasts its programming over WBWR-FM in Bedford; and WRAD-AM, a light music station.
"We're excited about the new owners and looking forward to working with them," said Scott Stevens, who will continue as the stations' operations manager.
Ron Walton will step down as the New River group's chief executive officer and will be replaced by a manager from Cumulus who had not yet been named Thursday.
Walton said there are about 15 owners who will now go their separate ways, having enjoyed the experience of working in radio for the past 14 years. Walton worked in the broadcast field even longer and said he will work as a consultant in the future. "That had been the plan all along," he said.
Marty Gausvik, chief financial officer for Cumulus in Atlanta, said Thursday that no changes other than the new manager are planned at this point. New River Valley Radio Partners has 35 employees.
"We don't have any plans right now" for changes in personnel or format, he said. "We're really looking forward to operating those properties."
He said Cumulus has been looking at adding the New River stations for "quite a while" because the area represents a growing market.
Lew Dickey, Cumulus chairman and chief executive officer, said the acquisition represents a "very strong and completed cluster with significant upside potential."
These will be Cumulus' first Virginia stations, although it has the second-largest number of stations of any corporation in the country. With the addition of the New River Valley stations and other pending acquisitions, Cumulus will own and operate 294 radio stations in 59 mid-size media markets. It is second in numbers of stations behind Clear Channel Inc., based in San Antonio, Texas, which has about 1,200 stations. Cumulus trades on the Nasdaq market under the symbol CMLS.
I was CE at WUVT in the mid '70s. Was wondering if WUVT is still running carrier current AM on 640 KHz in the dorms anymore?And the reply:What ever became of the AM transmitters? Do you still have the LPB 50 Watt unit that was in Lee Hall? What about that 250 Watt Raytheon AM transmitter that used to sit in Engineering?
John,More from jtml:We no longer broadcast AM 640. Our license expired before my time. We still have what we refer to as AM, but it is only broadcast over VTTV - the on campus cable TV station.
I don't know of any 250 Watt Raytheon transmitter, but about 3 years ago when I became CE I walked around campus and found a few 50-Watt AM transmitters still sitting where they were supposed to be. About a year ago we had to clean out a some storage closet that WUVT was no longer welcome to, and we pulled a couple of those LPB units out which currently sit in Engineering.
Sincerely,
Chris Kreutzer
Few students in the dorms have AM radios anymore, and the computer noise would wipe them out anyhow. With most entertainment on the computer, they don't get much chance. Maybe they should be webcasting only????
I bought all the AM transmitters they had left for about $250 including shipping. The 50 Watt LPB came a few weeks ago, and looked like it had been silent for years. The only 20 watt tube LPB was really sad. The fan was frozen up, and the chassis was partly baked. It was the one from the steam plant, upper quad (is that right?), and had a thick coating of coal dust and muck as well. A WUVT decal that I put on it when it was new was still readable. I almost cried when I saw my handwriting on the side.....
Maybe I should start up a bootleg AM station from the desert of NM?
I've sold my radio station! After five years of hard work and a lot of fun, Ann and I have sold WZXI-FM to Easy Radio, Inc. It's now part of a group of two FM's and an AM that will be co-located in Harrisonburg, VA.
Now here's an intersting twist on the deal...the President of Easy Radio is Jason Cave, another Hokie! I belive Jason put some time in at WUVT during the early 90's. Gotta be a first here of some sort...one WUVT/Hokie person selling another his radio station?
Why the sale? Medical needs within our families had increasingly been pulling Ann and I away from the station. Mom and Pop radio stations work best when Mom and Pop consistently put in "the time". We realized that was no longer possible.
Jason will be doing some exciting things with his new combo.
More later!
It is with sad note that I report the loss of yet another one of the radio industries' most noted persons. William B. "Bill" Meeks, Jr., a pioneer in the radio jingle industry, lost his battle with cancer in his Dallas, Texas home on September 8th, 1999.
Meeks was a salesman for KLIF-AM 1190 when he created the syndicated jingle industry, founding PAMS, Inc. in 1951. One of his most recognizeable jingles for many longtime Dallas residents was for "K-L-I-F, eleven-ninety". Because of his success, Dallas become known to many as the capital of the jingle business.
Meeks is survived by his wife Marjorie, his son Dennis Meeks and daughter Anita Chambers, as well as six grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. A tribute to his work can be found on the PAMS website at www.pams.com.
Bob Ashcraft also reports the above tribute and a mention, with the WABC/PAMS Story on the WABC Musicradio 77 page.
Bill's company created the PAMS Series 31 jingles for WUVT in the late 1960's, the first PAMS package produced for a college station. PAMS also produced a Custom Grid package for WUVT in 1970, a series of acapella signatures.
Bob Ketcham sends a link to an NPR "All Things Considered" segment of September 3, 1999 featuring Jon Wolfert of JAM Creative Productions talking about Meeks' career. Click here for the Web page where you can hear the segment with RealAudio.
Wednesday, August 11, 1999
By RALPH BERRIER JR.
THE ROANOKE TIMES
The "rock and roll double-wide'' sits silent on Cleveland Avenue.
That's the nickname WROV-FM deejays Sam Giles and Mark Nelson bestowed upon the old ROV broadcast studios, which had been an epicenter of rock 'n' roll in the Roanoke Valley for four decades. Now, it's empty, its occupants having moved to posher digs.
ROV moved to new, modern, fully digital studio on Brandon Avenue at the end of June. The new facility -- which contains four broadcast studios and four production studios -- will eventually be home to all the Roanoke stations owned by Atlantic Star Inc.
The Cleveland Avenue studios closed down last week, when ROV sister station WGMN-AM (known as "The Game,'' formerly WROV-AM) moved into the new studios. No more double-wide.
"We still serve the Moonshine Capital of the United States," said programming director Buzz Casey, invoking another WROV catchphrase.
For years, WROV-AM was the kingpin of rock 'n' roll radio in the valley. Personalities like Fred Frelantz, Jivin' Jackson and Jack Fisher all gained popularity with their broadcasts from the Cleveland Avenue location.
The Brandon Avenue location is now home to WROV, WGMN and country station WJLM-FM. Eventually, WJJS-FM will broadcast from the new building.
Aside from a few technical problems, the moves have been relatively trouble-free, Casey said.
"Everybody's enjoying working together,'' he said. "We feel we're going to be able to do a lot of things with these stations that have never been done before. We'll be able to do a lot of cross-promotion.''
Beckman comments:
Damn, what an end of an era!! Wish I had pictures of the inside of the place. I do have a few pix of the outside. Jeez, the first time I went there was 1962 just about this time of year. Met Jerry Joynes and Fred Frelantz. I came down there in a cab from downtown which really impressed the pre-Foutz GM, Bernie Mann.They had those old huge Western Union clocks in the c.r. and the production room (which was the newsroom after 1970 or so), When I worked there as a part-timer in '67 and '68 (sounds like a Chicago song!) it was really kind of cramped to have the whole station in just the two Quonset huts. Bernie and Burt [Levine] shared an office.
The music room was where it remained, opposite the studio down a couple of steps. The only bathroom was the one behind the transmitter. That part of the building always had a certain smell to it that was uniquely 'ROV (no, it wasn't backed-up plumbing!) We kept the oldies on shelves just as stacked-up 45's... no sleeves on 'em. I will miss that old place. Sometimes progress sucks...
