Richmond Radio 2001 News

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2001 Richmond Radio News

11-27-01 - The latest ratings for June 28 through September 19, 2001---

Station	Overall	Morning	Afternoon
WCDX	9.0	8.3	8.3
WTVR-FM	8.7	9.2	8.3
WKHK	7.6	7.9	8.2
WRVQ	6.5	7.5	6.9
WBTJ	6.0	4.0	7.6
WRVA	5.7	7.5	4.4
WJMO	5.7	4.6	5.2
WKLR	5.0	6.4	5.1
WKJS	4.9	7.2	3.7
WMXB	4.3	4.9	4.7

Source Richmond Times Dispatch 11-16-2001

106.5 The Beat has picked up considerably since switching from oldies, although not quite enough to take Power 92 out of the #1 slot. WRVA is out of the top 5 for the first time in recent memory.

Also, WTVR-FM 98.1 is now in continuous "Christmas Music Mode" until Christmas.

11-2-01 - WWUZ-FM 96-9 The Rock Fredricksburg/Richmond has hired Rich Creeger as their new Morning Show host. Creeger is a 14 year veteran of radio and most recently was the Program Director/Morning Show host at Classic Rocker KSLX-AM & FM in Phoenix, Arizona. Prior gigs included PD/Mornings at KZOZ-FM in San Luis Obispo, California & KZGL-FM in Flagstaff, Arizona. As WWUZ continues it's growth away from the Classic Hits format towards a more Classic Rock lean, the Morning Show will remain music intensive with traffic 3 times an hour and news updates at the top of each hour.

9-29-01 - Yet another termination courtesy of Clear Channel... Jeff McKee was let go yesterday. McKee had been doing mornings for XL-102 for 12 years, and up until this past January he was partnered with Jeff Beck, they made up the "Jeff and Jeff" morning show. No news yet on what the new morning show will be.

9-9-01 - Not much has been happening lately... but here's some news regarding the former Richmond pirate that ran "Black Liberation Radio" on 91.7 FM over on the Southside. Here's part of the press release:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE NEWS MEDIA CONTACT: September 6, 2001 John Winston (202) 418-7450 FM STATION OPERATOR CONVICTED ON CRIMINAL CHARGES FOR OPERATING WITHOUT FCC AUTHORIZATION Washington, D. C.- Today the Enforcement Bureau of the Federal Communications Commission announced that the United States District Court, Eastern District of Virginia, has convicted Khalid Kubweza for operating an unlicensed FM radio station on 91.7 MHz from his residence in Richmond Virginia. Following a trial, the court convicted Mr. Kubweza on all four criminal counts, finding that Mr. Kubweza “did willfully and knowingly use and operate an apparatus for the transmission of energy and communications and signals by radio from a place in Virginia to another place in Virginia without a license.” Previous Commission and court actions had failed to deter Mr. Kubweza from operating his unauthorized FM radio station from his home. In response, the FCC, in conjunction with the U. S. Marshals service obtained and executed a search warrant on Mr. Kubweza’s residence and seized certain station equipment, which was used in the trial. Sentencing is scheduled for December 12, 2001.

The rest of the press release is just info about the Communications Act of 1934 and the consequences of violating it. The complete release is here.

7-14-01 - WVNZ 1320 is changing their format this coming Monday, July 16. The former All News station is broadcasting construction sounds and announcing that they are building a new station. The new station will be "Unforgettable 1320" and will have the "Music Of Your Life" format and will feature local personality Floyd Henderson. Henderson previously worked at WVBB 1380, which carried the Music Of Your Life format. You can read more about it at the Radio Richmond website.

This presumably means that WVBB AM 1380 will be changing formats on Monday also. Cox sold WVBB to Salem Communications a few months ago. Salem is big into Christian broadcasting, so chances are there will be a new Christian station on the air Monday.

6-30-01 - Here are the latest numbers for the Winter 2001 ratings book covering Jan 4 through March 28.

Station	Overall	Morning	Afternoon
WCDX	12.4	9.6	12.4
WTVR-FM	10.1	9.0	9.7
WRVA	7.8	9.6	5.4
WKHK	7.1	7.8	7.9
WRVQ	5.8	5.8	6.7
WKJS	4.5	6.0	3.9
WKLR	4.5	6.6	4.5
WMXB	4.2	4.2	4.6
WPLZ	3.4	2.5	-
WJZV	3.3		3.6

Source Richmond Times Dispatch 6-19-2001

The following items were also reported in the 6-23-2001 Richmond Times Dispatch:

No more traffic copter reports at WRVA, they are now using Metro Traffic to provide the reports. Whit Baldwin, president of HeloAir and traffic reporter for many years of WRVA, says that the reports have been suspended "while a new sponsor is recruited." Baldwin also says that "HeloAir will be back on the radio" without further elaboration. HeloAir continues to provide reports to WWBT channel 12.
California based Kramer and Twitch have been fired for their (false) report that Britney Spears was killed and Justin Timberlake was in coma foillowing a car accident. Kramer and Twitch was broadcast in the evenings at WRXL.

A new internet radio station recently started broadcasting from Richmond. www.kpraise100.com broadcasts religious programming.

6-11-01 - Oldies are now a thing of the past in Richmond (pun intended). As of sometime today, Cool 106.5 FM is now "106.5 The Beat" "Heatin' Up The Hood". They also claim "#1 for Hip Hop and R&B".

In Radio One news, Magic 105.7 has changed their call letters to WJMO. Also, WPZE (99.3 FM) which has been gospel for a few weeks suddenly switched to a hip-hop format Saturday night. They call themselves "Hot 9-9-3".

Ok, I know I'm late on this one... The day after Memorial Day, 107.3 gave up "Dance Hits" and changed to Star 107.3 "The best variety of the 80's and more". It's a mostly 80's format with some current stuff thrown in.

Rotate!! The new overnight jock at XL-102 is Casey Krukowski, previously the MD and mid-day host at Y-101 ... He fills the slot left vacant by Johnny Young who has now gone to work at Y-101 doing weekends.

5-24-01 - Big news from 4M Communications, they are resurrecting 1480 AM. The FCC approved constructing a new station at 1480 AM and increase the power of 990 AM.
The WLEE construction permit authorizes 4M to increase WLEE's power to 4.4 kW day and 1.5 kW night. The construction permit for the new AM1480, awarded to 4M's RadioRichmond affiliate, authorizes operation with 5 kW day and 1.8 kW night.
Quoting Charles Milkis, co-owner of 4M Communications, "The return of 1480 to the Richmond airwaves will mark the return of one of Richmond's heritage stations. It will also be our fifth station in the market, further strengthening our position as Richmond's largest locally owned broadcaster." 4M plans to have the new frequency operating by the end of the year.
In other 4M news, they have just sold AM 670 WRJR, Rejoice Radio, a station that serves the Hampton Roads area.

XL-102 has hired "B.T." (Brandon Terry) from Allentown, PA to handle the afternoon slot left vacant when Tara Hunter quit the station.

Also, congratulations to Treeda Smith and Tim Timberlake, winners of the Frank Soden Lifetime Achievement Award presented by the Richmond Broadcasters Hall of Fame. Lisa Schaffner of WRIC TV-8 was named Broadcaster of the Year.

5-15-01 - Back on the air... Former WRVQ PD and afternoon host Lisa McKay is now employed at WBBT Dance Hits 107.3.

Also from Basie Road... Tara Hunter former afternoon host at WRXL has gone to work with her former XL co-worker Jeff Beck at WGRX 104.5 FM in Fredericksburg. WGRX is scheduled to launch Thursday May 17, 2001.

WDYL, Y-101 news: Charlie Padgett former night jock at WMXB is now the morning man. Mike Murphy is PD and also handles middays. Keith Dakin, who worked with Murphy is Boston, will handle afternoon drive. (Times Dispatch 5-4-2001)

We also hear that WWUZ 96.9 The Rock has signed a deal to sell the station to the (Fredericksburg) Free Lance Star.

4-14-01 - The last remnant of the "old" WRVA is now gone. John Harding announced his retirement a few days ago. According to a story in the Friday (4-13) Times Dispatch, his last day will be April 27. Harding has been the morning news anchor for many years with Tim Timberlake and was also the voice of Millard The Mallard (Millard was "retired" last fall).

Also leaving WRVA, but not by choice, is Jack Gravely. Gravely hosted a Saturday night call in show and will be replaced by the syndicated "Lionel" show.

Richmond has a new station, 100.5 FM WZEZ signed on yesterday afternoon at 3 PM. The new station plays standards, such as Sinatra, Neil Diamond, and Nat King Cole. WZEZ is a 6 KW station located in Goochland. Their signal is listenable, but not so great here on the north side of town.

Other snippets (also reported in the Times Dispatch yesterday):

Jeff Beck, the fired half of XL-102's Jeff & Jeff, has a new job as PD and jock at a new station in Fredericksburg. WGRX 104.5 FM is scheduled to go on the air in mid May.
Eric Summers is the new morning man at B103. Summers was formerly in NJ.
Katie Prendergast Willis is now Promotions Marketing Manager for Clear Channel Richmond. She comes to Clear Channel from Radio One. She was known for years as "Katie P." and co hosted the morning show at Power 92 with Juan Conde.
Dave Shannon, formerly of The River, is now morning man at WXGI 950 AM. He replaces Don Price, who moves to the 6 - 10 PM slot.

4-3-01 - The new morning guy has been named at WRVA (That didn't take long...). According to AllAccess.com, he is Jimmy Barrett from Detroit. Here's a link to a story about him when he was at WJR in 1995. Barrett replaces Tim Timberlake, who retired from WRVA last month.

Bob Black, formerly of WRNL has been picked up by locally owned 4M and will do sports reports on WLEE and WVNZ.

3-24-01 - Catching up on several items this week. First, the Richmond radio community lost one its pioneers, John Tansey passed away this past Monday. He had a 50 year carrer at WRVA, he was the one that hired Alden Aaroe. Mr Tansey retired from WRVA in 1981. He was 84. You can hear Mr. Tansey signing off WRVA-FM here.

The 105.7 frequency finally came back to life this week with the debut of Magic 105.7, 99.3 is simulcasting 105.7's programming for now.

Also, after playing the same four songs for months and advising listeners to tune to K95, 100.3 FM (WARV) debuted it's new format this week. They are "Cat Country". According to a story in today's Times Dispatch, Jim Tice, the PD at WKHK (K95) is programming the new station. He said that the new station would focus more on new country music.

3-13-01 - Yesterday morning, 105.7 The River went off the air (and that frequency is still off the air this morning). But there was a short article in yesterday's Times Dispatch stating that Magic 99 (99.3 FM) was to have moved to 105.7 and the two would simulcast for a while, with 105.7 taking the WPLZ calls, and 99.3 becoming WPZE. Another short item in today's TD says that the move to 105.7 was delayed due to technical problems, but should happen this week. There are rumors that 99.3 will become a gospel station.

No news yet to report for 100.3, which had been advising listeners to tune to K95 while playing the same four songs over and over for almost a month now. 100.3 WARV used to simulcast 105.7, The River.

Also, 104.7 WKJS (Kiss-FM) was off the air all weekend, apparently there were problems at the transmitter site in Crewe.

If you are a Tim Timberlake fan, this is your last week to hear him, Friday will be his last day at WRVA.

3-7-01 - I heard on the radio the other day that Doug Wilder was leaving WRVA and quitting his Monday night show. In todays Times Dispatch there is a story about it. According to the story, Randall Bloomquist says that wilder was "absolutely, positively" not forced off the air. Wilder said "I fit into what the station was, but the question is, what has the station become?". Wilder's last broadcast was Monday.
Ian Punnet, already airing weeknights, will replace the "Doug Wilder Show".

3-3-01 - Two news items from the Times Dispatch: In todays paper there is a short article about Y-101 changing owners and also changing format slightly. WDYL changed from "Richmond's Rock Revolution" to "Richmond's New Rock". It sounds like the new Y-101 will have a harder edge to it.

And from Thursday's weekender section: Several awards were given out to local stations at last weeks Gavin Awards in Miami. These awards were in the medium market category. Lite 98 (WTVR) won "AC Station of the Year" and Bill Cahill won "AC Operations Manager/Program Director of the Year". B103 (WMXB) won "Hot AC Station of the Year", and former B103er Rebecca Wilde won "Program Director/Music Director of the Year".

And lastly, in case you haven't noticed, I redesigned the web site this week. Comments about the new site are welcomed. It's all 100% hand coded, standards compliant HTML 4 and CSS2. I've tried it on Netscape 4 and 6, Internet Explorer 5 and 5.5, and Opera 5.02 (my preferred browser), and it looks good (or at least the way I meant it to look) on all of them. If you run into any problems or have any comments please email me and let me know.

2-18-01 - Lot's of items today. First, Tim Timberlake has announced that he is retiring. According to an article in yesterday's Richmond Times Dispatch, Timberlake said that he felt uncomfortable as he tried to shift to a harder edged format that included news oriented interviews. Timberlake will retire from WRVA next month. Randall Bloomquist, operations manager at ths station said the new morning show will be "a four hour newscast".

Yet another "dismissal" courtesy of Randall Bloomquist: Bob Black from afternoons at WRNL

"Madman" Pauly Madison is packing up and moving to Charlottesville to become PD at CC's WVSY 101.9 FM.

From the 2-15-01 Times Dispatch: the latest Arbitron ratings for the Richmond area for the period 9-21-2000 through 12-13-2000. Overall ratings from www.rronline.com

Station	Overall	Morning	Afternoon
WCDX	11.2	10.6	10.3
WTVR-FM	9.6	9.0	9.9
WRVA	7.6	8.3	5.7
WKHK	5.9	5.6	7.1
WRVQ	5.8	5.9	6.1
WKJS	5.5	6.2	4.4
WKLR	5.1	6.8	5.4
WMXB	5.0	5.3	5.9
WRXL	4.0	4.5	4.4
WPLZ	3.6

Station	Overall	Station	Overall
WRCL	3.2	WVBB	1.3
WJZV	2.5	WXGI	1.3
WJRV/WARV	2.3	WREJ	1.2
WDYL	2.3	WXEZ	1.0
WBBT	2.2	WLEE	0.9
WRNL	1.8	WAFX	0.6
WFTH	1.7	WCLM	0.4
WGCV	1.6	WHAP	0.3

2-9-01 - From an article in the 2-7-2001 Roanoke Times: The "Chainsaw Circus" is coming to to WKLR (96.5 The Planet). They were the morning team at WROV (96.3 FM) until The Johnboy and Billy Show came to town, then they moved to the 3-7 pm afternoon drive slot. Sam Giles and Mark Nelson are the team that make up the "Chainsaw Circus" and they will doing afternoons at WKLR.

Also, from AllAccess.com: The new program director at WRVQ (Q-94) has been named, and it's one familiar to Richmonders. Billy Surf will be coming back to the Q as the new PD, replacing Lisa McKay. Look for Surf to start in early March.

2-1-01 - Lou Dean was recognized recently for his 44 years in broadcasting. The are some photos of the event posted at http://albums.photopoint.com/j/AlbumIndex?u=30827&a=11321021. This was his retirement party. Thanks to Kirby Carmichael for the photos and the link.

There's also a rumor that 105.7 The River let all their air staff go today. More on that after we hear something official.

1-18-01 - Over at XL-102: Jay Philpott will voice track the midday show from Dallas, replacing Ric Maybee; and the nighttime Mikey Show is history, it has been replaced with the "Kramer and Twitch" show based in San Jose.

Beginning January 29 there will be a new program director over at B103, it is Tim Baldwin from Orlando, he replaces Bender, who left last month.

At the Planet (96.5 FM), Stevie Hart is filling in afternoon drive until a replacement is found for Sheri Blanks. Also at the Planet is the "Dead Air", a Grateful Dead show that was formerly at XL-102.

"Madman" Pauly Madison is taking over Lisa McKay's old duties at Q-94, and no permanent nighttimer has been named yet to fill Madison's slot.

1-12-01 - Lou Dean has officially quit WRVA. There was a story in this mornings Richmond Times Dispatch about it. He made an interesting comment - "Don't forget, I was fired in September and they wanted me to stick around, but that was so part time. I had to get a job. I needed the money". When he says they wanted him to stick around, he is referring to the Sunday morning show and his occasional commentary. He does have a new job now as the voice talent specialist for Henrico County.

1-9-01 - A big shakeup is happening over at the Clear Channel complex. Lisa McKay is gone from Q-94, Jeff Beck is out at XL-102, and Ric Maybee is gone also. I'd be willing to bet that more big changes will be coming soon at those stations. Stay tuned...

1-5-01 - Still more changes at WRVA, this time in the news department. Tom Callan has left the station to go to work for WTVR-TV6, and Veronica Robinson has left for "personal reasons". As a result, there is no longer a news show from 6-7 pm, instead the Allen Price show has been expanded an extra hour.

Also, the FCC has approved sixteen low power FM stations in Virginia, only one in the Richmond area, that is on 93.9 FM and is licensed to the Glen Allen Community Church.