Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, March 14, 1992                   TAG: 9203140319
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: CHUCK MILTEER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

VOICES FROM THE PAST SIGNAL K92 STAFF SHAKE-UP

This week, the station fired operations manager and nighttime disk jockey Eddie Haskell, as part of the station's back-to-the-future restructuring.

Haskell's replacement, Russ Brown, is the programming whiz who introduced much of Western Virginia to FM radio and made Top-40 K92 into an 800-pound ratings gorilla.

Brown left K92 in 1986, returning to Roanoke last month as K92's operations manager. Haskell, who had been at the station since 1987, was demoted to program director upon Brown's return and then fired last week for what the station called "financial reasons," Haskell said.

Brown rejoins David Lee Michaels, the station's first nighttime announcer. The popular Michaels departed K92 in 1983 but was persuaded to return in March 1990 soon after the station's 10th anniversary on-air reunion of former personalities.

"Does Aylett [Coleman, K92's owner] think it's 1984 again?" Haskell said Thursday. "That if you bring everybody back, you'll get a 30 share?"

The mid-'80s were the ratings zenith for K92, a station that set the standard for Roanoke radio throughout the decade.

In December 1979, Coleman brought in Brown to convert easy-listening WLRG into contemporary music K92. The station was unveiled on New Year's Day 1980 and revolutionized Roanoke radio with its irreverent style and powerful stereo signal.

In the first ratings survey of the '80s, K92 zoomed into first place, a postion it has held ever since.

But recently, that dominance has been challenged. Since Brown's departure, two new regional FM stations, WROV-FM and WYYD, have come on the scene, carving up the ratings and advertising pie into ever-smaller pieces.

In the most recent Arbitron audience survey of the Roanoke-Lynchburg market, K92 was still in first place, but had the smallest audience share in its history.

Brown says he thinks K92 can recover some of the lost ground. "Our main objective is to become a mass appeal hit music station," he said Thursday.

"We're not looking back, we're looking forward," Brown said, but added, "my basic theory on radio hasn't changed. Times change, music changes, but the basics of what wins haven't changed."

Haskell's release and Brown's return overshadowed the departure of the only remaining member of K92's on-air staff who had been with the station from its sign-on. Morning-show host Larry Dowdy left Friday to join Irv Sharp and Karla Poston on WDBJ-TV's "Mornin' " program.

"It's scary," Dowdy said of his move to television. "Now I've got to go to work with more than my pajamas on." Dowdy was with WLRG for three years before it became K92.

Bill "Slam" Duncan will replace Dowdy on the morning show, Brown said. Brown imported Duncan from Richmond's WMXB, where they had worked together.

Brown said one of his plans is to reintroduce "high-profile personalities" to the radio station. "We want people to feel like if you don't listen to K92, you're going to miss something."