Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 24, 1990 TAG: 9003242509
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: E-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By Chuch Milteer
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
David Lee Michaels, one of the announcers who helped make WXLK (K92, 92.3 FM) Roanoke's most listened-to station, returned to the station Monday. He's on the air daily from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. Former afternoon announcer Scott Richards has moved to the 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. slot.
To make room for Michaels, the station released Linda Silver. While not an original member of the station's staff, Silver had been with K92 for much of its 10-year history.
She returned from a week's vacation Monday, only to get the news that she was out of a job.
"Am I mad? Am I bitter? Yes," Silver said in a telephone interview Friday. "I don't like the way I was treated. I guess the lesson in all this is not to go on vacation."
Silver said she has begun to look for another job, but will most likely be forced to move away from the region. She left K92 in 1983 for a job at New York top-40 powerhouse WHTZ, but left after six months and rejoined K92 in order to be closer her family in the New River Valley.
K92 General Manager Al Casey was understandably more interested in talking about the addition of Michaels than Silver's situation.
Michaels was K92's original nighttime announcer and, along with Vince "The Prince" Miller, created the "Elite Night Squad" that took Roanoke's airwaves by storm. Michaels left K92 in 1983 for a station in Daytona Beach, Fla., and after a couple of other stops landed at Richmond top-40 station WRVQ, where he held several announcing jobs.
Recently though, Michaels had been in an off-air position as WRVQ's promotions director and wanted to get back on the air, Casey said.
Michaels came to Casey's attention during K92's 10th-anniversary reunion broadcast last month. Michaels was a big hit when he made a guest appearance on nighttime announcer Eddie Haskell's show, and was easily one of the stars of the on-air reunion broadcast.
Not coincidentally, the Arbitron ratings survey of the Roanoke-Lynchburg market begins this week.
Next week will mark a first for the 6 p.m. newscast on WDBJ (Channel 7). The station, which has made numerous personnel shifts in the wake of the departure of 11 p.m. anchor Lyn Jackson earlier this month, is at it again.
Starting April 2, weekend anchor Jane Karlen will join Keith Humphry at the 6 p.m. anchor desk. It marks the first time the station has used two anchors for its 6 p.m. news.
In a news release, Channel 7 news director Jim Shaver said one of the reasons the station will go to the two-anchor format is to give Humphry and Karlen more opportunities to do live reports of top news events.
Steven Tschida has taken over Karlen's weekend anchor duties.
Channel 7 reporter Mark Roberts left the station earlier this month to be the Fayetteville Bureau chief for Raleigh, N.C. station WRAL. He's the latest of quite a few WDBJ staffers who have joined the CBS-affiliated station.
The owners of WTOY (910 AM) are apparently working to help WSAY (1480 AM) in its format shift from gospel to urban contemporary.
Mike Waldvogel, president of Commonwealth Media, which owns WTOY, announced earlier this month that the station would air a business news format beginning April 2. Had Ward not decided to change WSAY's format, the move would have left the Roanoke Valley without a black-oriented contemporary music station for the first time in more than 20 years.
Ward said Waldvogel offered to give WSAY much of WTOY's music library, removing a major hurdle from the process of switching formats.
In addition, both Ward and Waldvogel have given indications that when the dust settles WTOY will still exist - just in a different location on the dial.
It is possible - even likely - that WSAY will pick up the WTOY call letters when Commonwealth Media drops them. When asked, Ward would neither confirm nor deny he plans to make that request saying only "We're not ready to make an announcement." Waldvogel said that the two had talked about the possibility of WSAY becoming WTOY.
by CNB