Roanoke Media News
News gathered from various sources and assembled on this page, including
VAR.com Virginia Media News & Information
:// WSLS 10 announces anchor promotion; John Carlin joins AccessPR
| Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Today, WSLS Vice President and General Manager Warren Fiihr announces John Carlin’s plan to retire from broadcast television to join AccessPR, a division of Access Advertising+Design, as senior vice president.
Longtime anchor/reporter Jay Warren will join Karen McNew as the WSLS featured anchor team. (read more - WSLS)
:// Star Country MD steps down
| Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Mel Wheeler "Star Country 94.9" WSLC Roanoke Music Director Robynn Jaymes relinquishes her duties. But she remains as station's morning co-host. Her side kick and station PD Brett Sharp picks up the MD stripes.
Jaymes says she'll now have more time to volunteer for the American Cancer Society where she's the president of the Leadership Committee for the Central and Southwest regions.
Former WPVR Announcer Passes away
| Saturday, August 30, 2008
Lloyd Wayne Shockley, 66, of Richmond, passed away Saturday, August 30, 2008 at MCV. Read complete Obituary.
:// Clear Channel finalizes stations to spin-off
| Tuesday, August 5, 2008
The final list of stations that Clear Channel can't keep because they put their local clusters over the current FCC local-market limits has been released by the newly gone private company. Three stations are in the Roanoke/Lynchburg market: Country "106-1 The Bull" WZBL Vinton, and the Sunny FM simulcast on WSNZ/101.7 Lynchburg and WSNV/93.5 Salem.
Clear Channel moved it's stronger format, CHR "Jammin'" WJJS//WJJX, to the stronger signals in the market last December to 104.9/Roanoke and 102.7/Appomattox. Rock WROV/96.3 Martinsville and Country WYYD/107.9 Amherst remained untouched.
Roanoke Radio Loses a Legend - Cousin Zeke Leonard Passes away. Read more about Zeke's Career
Cox Communications Roanoke announced that they will be adding 5 new HD channels to their line-up on Tuesday, July 1 -- CNBC HD, Lifetime HD, Sci-Fi HD, Travel HD and USA HD...
A second TV station in the Roanoke market started doing its newscasts in HD (behind WSLS/10). Schurz Communications' WDBJ (7CBS) flipped on the HD switch for its 5 p.m. newscast... For those of you keeping score, Richmond - 0 and Hampton Roads - 0 for stations doing HD news... (4/22/2008)
:// FOX21/27's new 10 p.m. news anchor
| Friday, April 18, 2008
WFXR FOX 21/27 is proud to announce that Becky Freemal is the new anchor for the FOX 21/27 Ten O'Clock News! Becky comes to FOX 21/27 with a wide and extensive list of accomplishments, including thirteen years working as a reporter and anchor, most recently at WCPO... (read more - FOX21/27)
:// WSLS wins Peabody for Tech coverage
| Thursday, April 3, 2008Roanoke's NBC affiliate, WSLS (Channel 10), has won a Peabody Award for its coverage of the Virginia Tech shootings. The winning segment collected the station's first response to the shooting and aired April 16 and 17, 2007. (read more - The Roanoke Times)
:// Congrats to Kat Simons!
| Monday, March 31, 2008
Today is Kat Simons' 10th anniversary as midday host at Clear Channel Soft AC "Lite 98" WTVR/98.1 Richmond. She is also heard via similarcast (at the same time LIVE) on sister stations Soft AC "Sunny FM" WSNV/93.5 Salem/Roanoke//WSNZ/101.7 Lynchburg and Soft AC "98.7 The River" WYKZ Beaufort SC/Savannah GA. Simons takes calls and emails from listeners in all three markets every weekday.
On an additional note, Simons was also recently named Program Director of Clear Channel Format Lab's Love Songs Channel> She's also the channel's voice.
:// WDBJ7 honored
| Friday, March 14, 2008
Schurz Communications' WDBJ (7/CBS) Roanoke has been honored with a 2008 National Headliner Award for its coverage of the Virginia Tech Shootings last April. WDBJ was first on the scene, first on the air and provided the most in-depth local coverage on the day of the shootings.
Founded in 1934 by the Press Club of Atlantic City, the National Headliner Awards program is one of the oldest and largest annual contests recognizing journalistic merit in the communications industry. More information can be found at NationalHeadlinersAwards.com.
:// WSLS bids farewell to familiar faces
| Monday, March 3, 2008
At WSLS (Channel 10), a list of changes to the station's on-air staff is bringing different faces to many newscasts.
Two familiar names have already said goodbye, and viewers can expect two new reporters soon. Meanwhile, the Storm Team has shuffled its staff again. (read more - The Roanoke Times)
:// C-ville reporters exit for other VA markets
| Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Gray Television Charlottesville Newsplex (WCAV/19 CBS, WVAW-LP/16 ABC, WAHU/27 FOX) reporter Jummy Olabanji is leaving the cluster this week. She has taken a reporter position at Local TV LLC's "Newschannel 3" WTKR (CBS) Norfolk. Olabanji starts next month at Channel 3...
Lindsey Ward, a general assignment reporter at Charlottesville Newsplex, has accepted a reporting position at Media General's WSLS (10/NBC) Roanoke. She starts there in March. Ward started her news career at "NBC12" WWBT Richmond.
:// WDBJ reporter goes to 12
| Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Rachel DePompa, the New River Valley Bureau Chief for Schurz Communications WDBJ (7/CBS) Roanoke, has exited the station for reporting position at Lincoln Financial's "NBC12" WWBT Richmond. She was with Channel 7 since November 2003.
DePompa has reported at WCYB (5/NBC) Bristol was also a news anchor at Benedek (now Gray Television) WHSV (3/ABC) Harrisonburg.
Sinu Abraham has joined Channel 7 this week as a general assignment reporter. She was most recently with Bonneville News WTOP/103.5 Washington DC.
:// WSLS pipeline to WTKR continues
| Thursday, February 21, 2008
Local TV LLC "NewsChannel 3" WTKR (CBS) Norfolk ND Shane Moreland taps Media General WSLS (10/WSLS) Roanoke morning anchor Juliet Bickford for Channel 3's new morning anchor. Jeremy Crider, a former reporter at WSLS, started reporting for Channel 3 in January. With Bickford coming to do mornings at WTKR, Domonique Benn will move to co-anchor the station's 5:30 p.m. newscast.
Bickford, a Hampton Roads native from Hampton, was with WSLS for 5½ years. She replaces Matt Keller who's now reporting for ABC O&O "ABC7" KGO San Francisco.
Perception Media Group (PMG) has agreed to sell Religious/Talk WCQV/880 Moneta/Roanoke to Smile Broadcasting for $125K. Perception Media used WCQV to simulcast sister WWWR/910 Roanoke.
PMG still owns Bluegrass WNRV/990 Narrows-Pearisburg and silent WOWZ/1280 Roanoke (formerly on 1290/Appomatox)... (2/13/2008)
:// Kent joins WFIR's news department
| Saturday, January 12, 2008
Jim Kent has joined WFIR-AM 960 as news director and co-anchor for its weekday morning news, the radio station announced Friday.
He's expected to be on the air by late next week. (read more - The Roanoke Times)
FCC issues Construction Permits for Roanoke Radio Stations
Construction Permits have been issued by the Federal Communications Commission to two existing local stations and one out of town station to relocate in the Roanoke Valley.
WFIR AM 960 has been granted permission to vacate its transmitter location at Towers Shopping Center and move to its sister station WVBE site in a diplex operation. Both WFIR AM 960 and WVBE AM 610 have also been granted a power increase to 10,000 watts.
Appomattox station WOWZ has been issued a construction permit to move to Roanoke. WOWZ will operate on 1280 KHZ with a daytime power of 10,000 watts. The transmitter will be located on the WWWR tower in a diplex operation.
:// WYYD to get morning co-host
| Thursday, December 20, 2007
Clear Channel Roanoke has announced that Helen Powers will join Barry Michaels in the morning on Country WYYD/107.9 Amherst.
Powers was most recently doing mid days at Citadel rocker KBER/101.1 Ogden/Salt Lake City UT when she quit after 10+ years with the station. KBER's PD told the local newspaper that "Powers and her husband have decided to travel the country." And they ended up in Roanoke.
Powers starts at WYYD Wednesday, January 2, 2008.
:// Clear Channel Roanoke doing the shuffle
| Friday, December 14, 2007
Clear Channel Roanoke/Lynchburg shuffles formats and frequencies within its cluster. I was announced this morning that:
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AC "Sunny 93.5 and 102.7" becomes "Sunny 93.5 and 101.7."
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Country "104.9 The Bull" becomes "106.1 The Bull."
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CHR "Jammin JJS" on heard 106.1 and 101.7 will shift to 104.9 102.7.
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Country WYYD/107.9 and Rock WROV/96.3 remain unchanged.
Editor's note: The three Clear Channel sticks in Roanoke will probably have to go into trust early next year with the Clear Channel merger. It's public record that the Roanoke/Lynchburg frequencies slated to go into trust are 93.5, 101.7 and 106.1. Clear Channel is obviously making sure that they get to keep the bigger signals. If formats do need to be sold off, it appears that it will be the Sunny and Bull formats.
New Book on WDBJ Radio
:// Radio's Roberts moves on
|
Former Roanoker, James E. Dalmas has written a book about the history of WDBJ. Jim listened to WDBJ when it was the only station in town and remembers when each of the competitors came on the air. He attended Roanoke public schools and is a graduate of Jefferson Senior high school. He was licensed as an amateur and commercial radio operator in 1953 and began working as a transmitter operator for WRIS in 1954. Jim worked for the engineering department of WDBJ AM, FM and TV in 1956 and 1957. A 1960 electrical engineering graduate of Virginia Tech, he is a retired engineering manager for Allied Signal (formerly Bendix Radio) in Baltimore, MD where he spent most of his career in development of radar systems for the military, both domestic and foreign. He is a co-founder of the Bendix Radio Foundation, a repository of the archives of Bendix Radio at the Museum of Industry in Baltimore. He and his wife Linda, are forty year residents of Jarrettsville, MD, and the parents of three children. This will be the second book that Dalmas has written to be published by the Historical Society of Western Virginia. His first was